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During the period between 1982 and 1985 Magnaghi interviewed over 150 individuals with a variety of backgrounds as part of a project of the Center for Oral History at Northern Michigan University dealing with Italian immigration into Upper Michigan, also known as the Upper Peninsula. These interviews offer insight into the immigrant experience. The project visited every Italian-American community in Upper Michigan, neighboring Wisconsin, and Ontario.

Magnaghi donated the original tapes to the Northern Michigan University Archives. Two additional copies are available at the Bentley Historical Library and at the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Magnaghi published a book entitled Miners, Merchants, and Midwives: Michigan's Upper Peninsula Italians (1987) based on the interviews on tape in this collection and on summaries of interviews not on tape.

The collection as held by the Bentley Library includes cassette taped interviews, a catalog of the interviews, and indexes to many of the interviews.

The series contains eighteen interviews conducted in 2008 with residents of Presque Isle County, Mich., particularly relating to local history and ethnicity. The collection includes cassette tapes, transcripts, and Microsoft Word files (doc and docx) for the transcripts.

Magnaghi's book Ethnic Heritage of Presque Isle County (2010), is based on this oral history project.