Ellis Island

Predictions/Inquiries:

• I predict that I’ll learn about the immigrant experience on Ellis Island.
• I’m interested to see if there is any addressing of current immigration issues at the museum. 

At the Museum:  

As a historian and educator, this museum did everything that I would have wanted it to do.  Opening in 1990 as an immigration museum, after significant restoration, it is a gem within the National Park System.  I spent 2.5 hours there but could have easily spent the day.  The museum covers every aspect of immigration from 1492 to the present in an informative, sometimes interactive way, utilizing primary sources throughout, and it is experiential as visitors are the entire time standing in the most iconic location in American immigration history.  Perhaps the greatest success of the museum is that it does not hold back on any aspect of the topic thus revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly of the United States' immigration story.

Arriving to the island on the first ferry of the day, wet from the morning downpour, I was fortunate in that all but three others got off at the statue of liberty, making the Ellis Island Complex virtually mine until the next ferry arrived twenty minutes later.  Even though my arrival was the complete opposite of the Wilburys before me and the millions of others who came through EI between 1892 and 1954, in that they came on packed ships and the building would have been filled with a multitude of people speaking different languages all anxious about getting through the various levels of inspection, about making the connections to get to their final destination, and overall about their new life in America.  Underlying all that anxiety of course was a certain level of excitement about what the future might hold.

I have been intending to visit Ellis Island for years and built my entire NYC itinerary around my visit there.  Though the stakes were much different, I too felt a sense of excitement as I approached the island and as I entered the hall.  Though the museum was largely empty there was still an overwhelming sense to it.  It is massive--where do I go?  There were many exhibits on three floors--where do I start?  And, there weren't people stationed to help or answer questions at every turn--how do I find my way?  Once I got my bearings, I decided to hit the second floor to experientially follow the path of the immigrant through the stages of the Ellis Island experience.

The first thing that struck me was a story I heard on my audio tour.  It was a piece of oral history from a former immigrant who came as a child with her entire family.  She wept as she recalled her grandmother being sent back to Europe after not passing inspection, and the family never seeing her again.  I can only imagine that scene and the family discussions, actions, and emotions that must have transpired at the time.  The most intriguing discovery amongst the second-floor exhibits was the section dedicated to Immigrant Aid Societies.  I was somewhat under the impression that immigrants came to the U.S. with the intent to figure it out as they went.  However, a display listed more than thirty agencies dedicated to helping immigrants find their way from getting off the boat to settling them in their new life.  The agencies helped with language, jobs, Americanization, education, hosted parties, dinners, cultural, and religious events, and helped to build community and integrate into the greater American community.   

The primary sources selected for the various exhibits were impressive.  Posters, cartoons, clothes, passports, etc., were all utilized to help tell the story while also leaving room for viewer interpretation.  One particular source that caught my attention was a Teddy Roosevelt ad appealing to Italians for their vote.  I’ve been using the following 1907 Roosevelt quote in my class for years, where he outlined what it meant to be an American: 

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.  But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

So, I found it surprising that using another language was O.K. for Roosevelt, perhaps as a concession, perhaps to be inclusive, but definitely in the name of getting votes.  (see additional primary sources below)

A particularly interesting exhibit on the third floor was called “The New Americans,” by an immigrant photographer, Jill Enfield, employing a 150 year old photo technique and taking portraits of new immigrants.  Her project sought to address the following questions:  Are there similar threads in all immigrant stories?  Do families and siblings tell the same story?  Are Recent immigrants viewed by outsiders as “Americans?”  Do recent immigrants view themselves as “Americans?”  The study evokes tones of photographer Robert Frank’s study “The Americans” that he carried out in the fifties.  Through her images and a passages on each of her subjects, Enfield successfully sheds light on the varieties of the modern immigrant experience.   This exhibit, along with the first-floor exhibit titled “Journeys: New Eras of Immigration, 1945-Present,” does a fantastic job highlighting new and persisting challenges that immigrants face in America. 

The “Journeys” exhibition held one of the most meaningful exhibits in the museum. It was an interactive section that offers varied perspective on the immigrant experience from people of similar backgrounds speaking on video. For example, one pairing was of Muslim-American men, one testifying to the fact that his religion led to discrimination in the U.S. while the other testified that he had no such experience of discrimination.  There were two additional pairings of immigrants again offering contrasting opinions experience related questions.  Also, in “Journeys” were displays on the persistent theme of Nativism in American history and immigrant responses to it.     

A key message of the museum came through in the honoring and appreciation of the many cultures that immigrants brought with them.  There was an entire exhibit devoted to traditional dress and customs that were carried to America and in many cases left behind.  Another appreciated line of information was the emphasis on cross-cultural transmission.  One example was a display on music that gave a nod to the African influence on blues and jazz, Scots-Irish Influence on Appalachian Mountain music, and French influence on Cajun music.  

Throughout the museum there was a persistent consideration of who is an American and the history surrounding that question.  Implied in the many exhibits, it seemed that the museum’s answer to the question is that to be an American is to contribute to the growth and development of the Nation.  Another of the museum’s underlying positions is its pro-immigration stance. Though it certainly acknowledges those opposing immigration and their reasons why, the overwhelming message is that the U.S. is a nation of immigrants and those immigrants make the country better in a myriad of ways. 

An anti-immigration appeal to the workingman.

A 1915 Americanization poster.

A 1919 appeal to immigrants.