The Closing of Ellis Island

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island
Tenement Museum (c)1890-1920

As part of our 400 Years of Immigration History campaign on Twitter, we're sharing a timeline of American immigration. Yesterday’s tweet was about the closing of Ellis Island, the famous immigrant station.

Ellis Island opened in 1892 and closed in 1954, with an estimated 12 million immigrants passing through this center during the 62 years it was in service. The peak year of immigration was 1907, with an astounding 1.25 million arrivals. Immigrants disembarking at Ellis Island were subject to health examinations that often determined whether they would be allowed into the country. If an immigrant was considered too ill, there was a hospital complex on the island for treatment. Ellis Island also temporarily housed immigrants because they had to have their identification papers before they could depart.

Former medical building, now abandoned
Tenement.Museum (c) 2009

Ellis Island was not only utilized as an immigration processing center. During World War I, the rate of immigration fell and Ellis Island served as a detainment arena for enemy ships and suspected enemy aliens (the same purpose it served during World War II). Later on, returning injured or sick American soldiers received treatment there. After World War I ended, immigration briefly picked up again, but after 1924 Ellis Island was no longer used for processing immigrants. According to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, the island was converted into the “center of the assembly, detention, and deportation of aliens who had entered the U.S. illegally or had violated the terms of admittance.” Immigration rates to the United States continued to drop, especially after the Internal Security Act of 1952, which did not allow members of Communist or Fascist groups to enter the United States, and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952. Ellis Island was closed two years later. [Read more.]

Interior of unrestored medical building,
Tenement.Museum (c) 2009

When most people think of Ellis Island, they imagine the Ellis Island Immigration Museum (you should go if you have never been, it’s excellent!). But Save Ellis Island, a National Park Service partner, is also working to rehabilitate and maintain all of the 29 buildings on the island, including the hospital complex that has fallen into ruins. For more information about Save Ellis Island, read our blog post.

Intrigued? Click here for more blog posts about Ellis Island.

-posted by Devin

Visitor of the Week: Debbie Keller

Over the summer, look out for this new feature - Visitor of the Week! Each week we'll profile a different person who's been to the Tenement Museum. If you're coming to visit and would like to be profiled on the blog, send us as email.

Meet Debbie Keller, a writer and teacher from Sacramento, California who recently visited the Museum with her husband, Jim Muldavin and son, Noah. Like many of our guests, Debbie was in town visiting the city because she loves it here and still has many friends to visit.

Besides being born in Greenwich Village, Debbie has interesting Lower East Side ties. Her grandparents on both sides of the family, as well as her husband’s grandparents, all at one point lived on here in tenements and were involved in the garment industry. They emigrated at the turn of the century, sometime between 1908 and 1913. Her grandfather reupholstered furniture, and later in life he got his own company started. Debbie speculated that he started as a tailor and stayed in the sewing realm for the rest of his life. His family eventually moved to Washington Heights.

Her maternal grandparents (last name Schertz) came from Austria and her paternal grandparents emigrated from Poland (which at the time was part of Russia). What I thought was really cool was Debbie’s story of how the name Keller came to be. When her grandparents came to Ellis Island, their name was changed from  “Kalles” to Keller, which is the name she goes by today. Her husband’s family came from Moldova (northeast of Romania). Their original last name became Muldavin when they passed through Ellis Island. [Editor's note: no names were actually changed at Ellis Island. It's likely the family name change came later, either through transcription errors or by the family's choice. The Rogarshevsky family, whose story the Museum tells on the Piecing it Together tour, changed their name to Rosenthal by the 1930s.]

Debbie and her family had seen the Piecing it Together tour when I talked with them, but this was not Debbie’s first visit. She first came with her uncle shortly after the Museum opened. She was amazed by 97 Orchard itself.

“The condition of the building, actually, and the stairwells was what struck me the most," she commented. "But I was looking for more details about the living conditions, specifically. For example, the lack of sanitation, and there’s no sunlight or ventilation, and how crowded the rooms were. Also, my husband and son had never seen it before, so I’m glad they came with me!” [For more information about sanitation, check out the Moore Tour or read the blog.]

After leaving the Museum the family was planning to eat lunch Katz’s or Second Avenue Deli (at 33rd Street). Debbie was very impressed by the Lower East Side neighborhood.

“It’s changed even since I’ve been here before, I like it. It’s very cool and artsy.”

Debbie left me with something she wanted to share with everyone. “This Museum is fantastic. I just want everybody to come see it! It’s so rich with history and so amazing and so many Americans came through this gateway, it’s just the coolest thing!”

-posted by Devin

Another Poem of New York

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is another poem from the collection I Speak of the City: Poems of New York. This classic, written by Emma Lazarus in 1883, was inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty in 1903. The poem was written in support of a fund-raising campaign to build a pedestal for the now-famous statue.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her milk eyes command
The air-bridged barbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Weekly Immigration News

Visit to Ellis, Liberty islands brings immigration experience to life
(Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, 12/3/09)
More than a decade ago, I began tracing my family roots, a pastime that has grown so popular in the United States that the country now has more than 250,000 genealogical societies. After years of poring over vital records, collecting family photos and documenting relatives’ stories, I knew it wasn’t enough. I still felt disconnected.
That’s what makes the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island so invaluable as historical monuments. They stand not only as testaments to the country’s past but also as a piece of family history for millions of Americans. They offer us a chance to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors.


Immigrant Detention Doubles Since 1999
(The Washington Independent, 12/2/09)

The number of immigrants in detention in the United States has more than doubled since 1999, according to a new report from a government data research organization released Wednesday. The report, based primarily on information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also finds that ICE has increasingly transferred detainees more often and to facilities farther from where they were apprehended, disrupting contact with family members and attorneys attempting to represent them in their deportation cases.

Editorial: The boon of immigration: Newcomers to America more than pull their economic weight
(New York Daily News, 11/30/09)
The need for combining secure borders with a rational policy for admitting newcomers is as pressing today as it was when the last attempted remake went down in flames under President George W. Bush, victim largely of the myth that immigration is a drain on the economy and a threat to native-born workers.

The Ruins of Ellis Island

On the south side of Ellis Island, a non-profit organization called Save Ellis Island is working to recover a little-known part of immigration history.

Most people know that between 1892 and 1954, the Ellis Island Immigration Station was the primary immigration center for the United States. Over twelve million people arrived here after arduous journeys, seeking better lives and more opportunities in America.

Many people also know that before new arrivals (primarily those traveling in steerage) could disembark, they had to submit to a health and legal inspection. Approximately 90 percent of immigrants passed the "six second" health inspections, but those who did not were held for further inspections, treatments, and sometimes quarantine on the island’s south side.

Many people are unaware that an entire hospital ward exists here, taking up about half of the island's total land space. Twenty-nine structures, including a 750-bed hospital complex, measles ward, hospital director's house, and mortuary were once in active use.

An amazing number of medical conditions were seen by Ellis Island's doctors. According to the historic site's home page, "by 1916, it was said that a doctor could identify numerous medical conditions (ranging from anemia to goiters to varicose veins) just by glancing at an immigrant." Most of those quaranteened for contageous diseases like scarlet fever, thyphoid, or pink eye were eventually allowed into the country if cured of their afflictions. Only about 2% of immigrants were denied entry during the station's history.

Most of the buildings on the south side have been left to ruin. Although a fundraising campaign successfully renovated the entry hall and other buildings on the north side, which now house the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, the island's medical center sits abandoned.

Abandoned, but not neglected. For the past decade, Save Ellis Island has led the charge to stabalize and rehabilitate these structures.

In 2007, the south side’s Ferry Building, an Art Deco structure built by the Works Progress Administration in 1934, reopened. Here visitors can see an exhibit on the island's medical history or take a guided tour with one of Save Ellis's volunteer educators. Future plans include renovating the laundry, hospital outbuilding, and hospital lawn, among other spaces. The goal is to provide visitors with a full understanding of how Ellis Island operated.

Recently, some of our education staff were lucky enough to take a guided tour of the island's south side (one of the perks of working for a history museum). Here are their photos from the trip:

Building on the south side

Interior of an admin building

Laundry Facilities

- Posted by Penny King

Today in History: Statue of Liberty Arrives in NY Harbor

The Statue of Liberty arrived at its permanent home at Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor on June 19, 1885, aboard the French frigate Isere. A gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, the 151-foot-tall statue was created to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence. Designed by sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi and officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World, the Statue of Liberty has symbolized freedom and democracy to the nation and to the world for over 120 years.

Continue reading Library of Congress' "Today in History": http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html

Permalink: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jun19.html

-Posted by Kate Stober

Early Edison Films

Few things capture turn-of-the-century life on the Lower East Side better than art, which we'll explore in this week's series.


Thomas Edison shot some of the world's first movies in his West Orange, NJ studio (pictured above). When he decided to branch out to other locations in the mid 1890s, it's no surprise he often chose the big, bustling city only 20 miles away - and that some of his short, soundless films feature Ellis Island and the Lower East Side. The Library of Congress has a great selection of these early experiments in motion picture technology. So, of course, does YouTube.




The market in the following film was located on the Lower East Side, probably somewhere near Hester Street, where thousands of pushcart owners were licensed to sell fish.

Other Museums - German Emigration Museum

This week, we're taking a look at immigration museums off the beaten path.



Bremerhaven, a small port city in northern Germany, is the exact inverse of New York: it's where millions (7.2 to be exact) set sail for Ellis Island over a century ago, when a population boom and rocky transition from agriculture to industry rendered jobs and land scarce. So rather than documenting immigrant life, the Emigration Musem recreates conditions on a departing steamship and in the waiting areas where family members said their goodbyes. The museum has some quirky touches: lifesize mannequins dressed in 19th century garb are stationed in the main building, which fittingly evokes a boat, and in addition to learning about the lives of millions of emigrants and their descendants (chances are, some of them wound up near 97 Orchard), visitors can trace their own family history using an extensive database. Click here for a more detailed overview.



Few historic buildings remain in one of Germany's most important port cities

Other Museums - Angel Island Immigration Station

This week, we're taking a look at immigration museums off the beaten path.

Recently re-opened to the public after three years of renovation, San Francisco's Angel Island Immigration Station was once known as the "Ellis Island of the West" by locals, and the somewhat grander "Guardian of the Western Gate" by Immigration Services. Unlike the Ellis Island of the East, Angel Island was used to enforce the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and detain hundreds of thousands of Asian immigrants, who were held on the island for anywhere from two weeks to two years. Also unlike its cousin in New York, the Angel Island museum doesn't doesn't give access to immigration records. Instead, it recreates the experience of living in the complex's barracks, and preserves fascinating details like poems carved on the walls by Chinese detainees. If you happen to be going to San Francisco soon, the museum can be visited by guided tour.

Angel Island barracks, then and now

Ellis Island Dining Room

Many immigrants ate their first meal in New York at the Ellis Island dining room, which had the capacity to seat 1,000 people. According to a book on Ellis Island by the Museum of the City of New York, men and women sat separately, with young children accompanying their mothers. In 1911, a Kosher kitchen was built to accomodate Jewish families.

Here's what was served Thursday, December 28, 1922 (click on the photo to read the menu):

Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook

Tom Bernardin, a former tour guide at Ellis Island, compiled hundreds of recipes from the children and grandchildren of immigrants who settled in New York. The cuisines featured in The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook span the globe, from Norway to Lebanon to Jamaica. The recipes are organized by country of origin and come with family stories. Bernardin considers the recipes "historical documents," so he tweaked them as little as possible. Here are some samples (you can buy the book at the museum shop):

Germany

Mrs. Semder's Very Own German String Bean Soup (A Complete Meal)

1/2 lb bones
2 3/4 cups water
1 lb beef (neck, shin, tail)
2 lbs stringbeans
4 medium potatoes
salt, to taste
1 onion
1 leek
2 small carrots 1 piece celery
oregano, hearty pinch

Wash the bones, cover with cold water and bring quickly to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 1 hours. Put in the meat and a little salt, bring to a boil again, turn down the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Clean carrot, celery, leek and onion (leave whole). Add to stock last hour of cooking. When broth is done, strain through a fine sieve.

Cut meat into bit-size pieces. Add to broth. Add stringbeans that have been cleaned and cut into 1" pieces. Add potatoes that have been peeled and cut into quarters. Add a pinch of oregano. Simmer till potatoes and string beans are tender. Salt to taste.

Hungary

Grandma's Chocolate Cookies

1/2 lb semi-sweet chocolate, grated
1/2 lb walnuts, ground
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
a little bread crumbs or wheat germ
red cinnamon candy (hearts or dots)

Combine first five ingredients. Add enough bread crumbs or wheat germ to make mixture firm enough to handle. Roll into small balls. Flatten them on a greased cookie sheet. Press red cinnamon candy in center. Bake in slow oven (about 300 degrees) for 20 minutes or until tops look baked. Let cool before removing.

Jamaica

Yam and Cornmeal Pone

2 large yams
1 cup turbinado sugar
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground alspice
3 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, beatn
2 cups medium coarse cornmeal
4 cups coconut milk
2 cups milk
1 cup raisins

Peel and grate the yams on the medium side of a grater (or use a food processor). The texture should be fine. When using the blender add the concount milk as you process the yams.

Place yam mixture in a large mixing bowl, add any cocunut milk you haven't used, mix with wooden spoon. Add sugar, mix and add spices, vanilla and salt to mixture and stir again.

Mix cornmeal with two cups of milk in a separate bowl, make sure there are no lumps. Add this to the yam mixture. Add beaten eggs and mix. Add raisins and mix thoroughly.

Pour mixture into a baking pan, about 9" x 15 "which has a bit of canola oil applied on the inside. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for one hour or until an inserted knife blade comes out clean. Cool. Cut into 3" by 3" squares.