Ellis Island, the gate to New World

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This source’s content is one of the twenty-six pages of the report that contains the list of the immigrants who arrived in Ellis Island and were indexed from December 1, 1899, to March 31, 1900. This document was created to leave a trail of all the people who entered the US during this period. This report sheds light on the huge number of immigrants that arrived at this period and the diversity of countries they were coming from. This item is a good example to show and especially explain the diversity of origins of people who lived and still live in the US nowadays. Some phenomena such as Urbanization or Americanization are the consequences and results of the immigration. Having access to such a source may allow people to search for their family background or else find people thanks to the information which are in the report. The most common information is the nationality, the age, and the cause. There is some surprising information like « cause of detention » or even the variety of ages. Certain causes are gripping such as « one child in hospital » (p11) just as the last four pages, the case of the sixty-eight years old Italian man who wants to meet his son in N-Y. This report is interesting in many ways and well illustrate the theme of immigration during this period of history.

 

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This video published in 1906 by American Mutoscope and Biograph Company depicts scenes of the arrival of emigrants at the dock on Ellis Island, as the title indicates it. First, they lined up but then the dock began to be very crowded. Then, another group is going on a boat. The quality is not enough good to notice if there is a difference between the two groups. This item permits to see for real what was and the journey of immigration at this period and how Ellis Island looked like. Many of the sources on the topic immigration are about Ellis Island. This source is important because it is related to the topic of immigration but also because a video gives reality to this museum exhibition, instead of texts which give details. The images of the video can help the people to identify themselves to all those immigrants. It is hard to imagine how people were dressed, how they behaved facing such a situation, this item gives some answers. It also supports the idea of massive immigration.

 

 

 

This document is an excerpt of a 95 pages report published by the Alliance of German societies of the State of Indiana. This report contained several pieces of information concerning the relationship between the two countries. This source shows the link between Germany and the US in 1911 and the complaints about Ellis Island’s administration. The practices of a commissioner are seen as an enemy to the immigration system. Ellis Island was an important place during the immigration period and was also a complex place where Europeans were arriving after their crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. For some, Ellis Island was a place of hope, the beginning of a new life but for some others, it was a place of abuses, violation of the law or more than that. Thanks to those type of documents, it is possible to see that people in charge often tried to solve problems related to immigration.

 

 

 

This document is an image published by The Maltine Company in a 30 images pamphlet in 1902. It was created to show the world in which conditions immigrants came in the US. This source depicts immigrants coming up the boardwalk from the barge, which is taking them off the steamship and transporting them to Ellis Island. In the background, there is the hospital, and in the middle, a ferry-boat is arriving. This item allows to understand that there were a lot of immigrants that arrived at Ellis Island, most of them had a very long travel where the hope of a better life made them go through. This image shows immigrants who look exhausted, it also reveals how travel is hard for those people who are men, women, elderly people but also children. Immigration was a very hard period for millions of immigrants who completely changed their environment as well as their lives.