Ellis Island - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Overview When Ellis Island opened, a great change was taking place in immigration to the United States. As arrivals from northern and western Europe–Germany, Ireland, Britain and the Scandinavian countries–slowed, more and more immigrants poured in from southern and eastern Europe. Among this new generation were Jews escaping from political and economic oppression in czarist Russia and eastern Europe (some 484,000 arrived in 1910 alone) and Italians escaping poverty in their country. There were also Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Slovaks and Greeks, along with non-Europeans from Syria, Turkey and Armenia. The reasons they left their homes in the Old World included war, drought, famine and religious persecution, and all had hopes for greater opportunity in the New World. Did You Know? It has been estimated that close to 40 percent of all current U.S. citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island. After an arduous sea voyage, many passengers described their first glimpse of New Jersey , while third-class or steerage passengers lugged their possessions onto barges that would take them to Ellis Island.

Immigrants were tagged with information from the ship’s registry and passed through long lines for medical and legal inspections to determine if they were fit for entry into the United States. From 1900 to 1914–the peak years of Ellis Island’s operation–some 5,000 to 10,000 people passed through the immigration station every day. Approximately 80 percent successfully passed through in a matter of hours, but others could be detained for days or weeks. Many immigrants remained in New York , while others traveled by barge to railroad stations in Hoboken or Jersey City, New Jersey, on their way to destinations across the country. Passage of the Immigrant Quota Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924, which limited the number and nationality of immigrants allowed into the United States, effectively ended the era of mass immigration into New York. From 1925 to its closing in 1954, only 2.3 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island–which was still more than half of all those entering the United States. Ellis Island opened to the public in 1976.

Today, visitors can tour the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in the restored Main Arrivals Hall and trace their ancestors through millions of immigrant arrival records made available to the public in 2001. In this way, Ellis Island remains a central destination for millions of Americans seeking a glimpse into the history of their country, and in many cases, into their own family’s story. Timeline 1630-1770 Ellis Island is no more than a lot of sand in the Hudson River, located just south of Manhattan. The Mohegan Indians who lived on the nearby shores call the island Kioshk, or Gull Island. In the 1630s, a Dutch man, Michael Paauw, acquires the island and renames it Oyster Island for the plentiful amounts of shellfish on its beaches. During the 1700s, it is known as Gibbet Island, for its gibbet, or gallows tree, used to hang men convicted of piracy. 1775-1865 Around the time of the Revolutionary War, the New York merchant Samuel Ellis purchases the island, and builds a tavern on it that caters to local fisherman.

Ellis dies in 1794, and in 1808 New York State buys the island from his family for $10,000. The U.S. War Department pays the state for the right to use Ellis Island to build military fortifications and store ammunition, beginning during the War of 1812 . Half a decade later, Ellis Island is used as a munitions arsenal for the Union army during the Civil War. Meanwhile, the first federal immigration law, the Naturalization Act, is passed in 1790; it allows all white males living in the U.S. for two years to become citizens. There is little regulation of immigration when the first great wave begins in 1814. Nearly 5 million people will arrive from northern and western Europe over the next 45 years. Castle Garden, one of the first state-run immigration depots, opens at the Battery in lower Manhattan in 1855. The potato blight that strikes Ireland and the ensuing famine (1846-50) leads to the immigration of over 1 million Irish alone in the next decade. Concurrently, large numbers of Germans flee political and economic unrest.

Rapid settlement of the West begins with the passing of the Homestead Act in 1862. Attracted by the opportunity to own land, more Europeans begin to immigrate. 1865-1892 After the Civil War, Ellis Island stands vacant, until the government decides to replace the New York immigration station at Castle Garden, which closes in 1890. Control of immigration is turned over to the federal government, and $75,000 is appropriated for construction of the first federal immigration station on Ellis Island. Artesian wells are dug and the island’s size is doubled to over six acres, with landfill created from incoming ships’ ballast and the excavation of subway tunnels in New York. Beginning in 1875, the United States forbids prostitutes and criminals from entering the country. The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed in 1882. Restricted as well are “lunatics” and “idiots.” 1892 The first Ellis Island Immigration Station officially opens on January 1, 1892, as three large ships wait to land.

Seven hundred immigrants passed through Ellis Island that day, and nearly 450,000 followed over the course of that first year. Over the next five decades, more than 12 million people will pass through the island on their way into the United States. 1893-1902 On June 15, 1897, with 200 immigrants on the island, a fire breaks out in one of the towers in the main building and the roof collapses. Though no one is killed, all immigration records dating back to 1840 and the Castle Garden era are destroyed. The immigration station is relocated to the barge office in Manhattan’s Battery Park. The new fireproof facility is officially opened in December, and 2,251 people pass through on opening day. To prevent a similar situation from occurring again, President Theodore Roosevelt appoints a new commissioner of immigration, William Williams, who cleans house on Ellis Island in 1902. To eliminate corruption, he awards contracts based on merit and announces contracts will be revoked if any dishonesty is suspected. He imposes penalties for any violation of this rule and posts “Kindness and Consideration” signs as reminders to workers.

1903-1910 To create additional space at Ellis Island, two new islands are created using landfill. Island Two houses the hospital administration and contagious diseases ward, while Island Three holds the psychiatric ward. By 1906, Ellis Island has grown to more than 27 acres, from an original size of only three acres. Anarchists are denied admittance into the U.S. as of 1903. On April 17, 1907, an all-time daily high of 11,747 immigrants received is reached; that year, Ellis Island experiences its highest number of immigrants received in a single year, with 1,004,756 arrivals. A federal law is passed excluding persons with physical and mental disabilities, as well as children arriving without adults. 1911-1919 World War I begins in 1914, and immigration to the U.S. slows dramatically. Ellis Island experiences a sharp decline in receiving immigrants: From 178,416 in 1915, the total drops to 28,867 in 1918.

Anti-immigrant sentiment increases after the U.S. enters the war in 1917; approximately 1,800 German citizens are seized on ships in East Coast ports and interned at Ellis Island before being deported. Starting in 1917, Ellis Island operates as a hospital for the U.S. Army, a way station for Navy personnel and a detention center for enemy aliens. The literacy test is introduced at this time, and stays on the books until 1952. Those over the age of 16 who cannot read 30 to 40 test words in their native language are no longer admitted through Ellis Island. Nearly all Asian immigrants are banned. By 1918, the Army takes over most of Ellis Island and creates a makeshift way station to treat sick and wounded American servicemen. At war’s end, a “Red Scare” grips America, in reaction to the triumph of the Russian Revolution . Ellis Island is used to intern immigrant radicals accused of subversive activity; many of them are deported. 1920-1935 President Warren G.

Harding signs the Immigration Quota Act into law in 1921, after booming post-war immigration results in 590,971 people passing through Ellis Island. According to the new law, annual immigration from any country cannot exceed 3 percent of the total number of immigrants from a country living in the U.S. in 1910. The National Origins Act of 1924 goes even further, limiting total annual immigration to 165,000 and fixing quotas of immigrants from specific countries. The buildings on Ellis Island begin to fall into neglect and abandonment. America is experiencing the end of mass immigration. By 1932, the Great Depression has taken hold in the U.S., and for the first time more immigrants leave the country than arrive. 1950-1954 By 1949, the U.S. Coast Guard has taken over most of Ellis Island, using it for office and storage space. The passage of the Internal Security Act of 1950 excludes arriving immigrants with previous links to communist and fascist organizations. With this, Ellis Island experiences a brief resurgence in activity.

Renovations and repairs are made in an effort to accommodate detainees, who sometimes number 1,500 at a time. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, combined with a liberalized detention policy, causes the number of detainees on the island to plummet to less than 30. All 33 structures on Ellis Island are officially closed in November 1954. In March 1955, the federal government declares the island surplus property; it is subsequently placed under the jurisdiction of the General Services Administration. 1965-1976 In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issues Proclamation 3656, according to which Ellis Island falls under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Ellis Island opens to the public in 1976, featuring hour-long guided tours of the Main Arrivals Building. During this year, more than 50,000 people visit the island.

Also in 1965, President Johnson signs a new immigration and naturalization bill, the Hart-Cellar Act, which abolishes the earlier quota system based on national origin and establishes the foundations for modern U.S. immigration law. The act allows more individuals from third-world countries to enter the U.S. (including Asians, who have in the past been barred from entry) and establishes a separate quota for refugees. 1982-1990 In 1982, at the request of President Ronald Reagan , Lee Iacocca of the Chrysler Corporation heads the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation to raise funds from private investors for the restoration and preservation of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. By 1984, when the restoration begins, the annual number of visitors to Ellis Island has reached 70,000. The $156 million dollar restoration of Ellis Island’s Main Arrivals Building is completed and re-opened to the public in 1990, two years ahead of schedule. The Main Building houses the new Ellis Island Immigration Museum, in which many of the rooms have been restored to the way they appeared during the island’s peak years.

Since 1990, some 30 million visitors have visited Ellis Island to trace the steps of their ancestors. Meanwhile, immigration into the U.S. continues, mostly by land routes through Canada and Mexico . Illegal immigration becomes a constant source of political debate throughout the 1980s and 1990s. More than 3 million aliens receive amnesty through the Immigration Reform Act in 1986, but an economic recession in the early 1990s is accompanied by a resurgence of anti-immigrant feeling. 1998 In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that New Jersey has authority over the south side of Ellis Island, or the section composed of the landfill added after 1834. New York retains authority over the island’s original 3.5 acres, which includes the bulk of the Main Arrivals Building. The policies put into effect by the Immigration Act of 1965 have greatly changed the face of the American population by the end of the 20th century.

Whereas in the 1950s, more than half of all immigrants were Europeans and just 6 percent were Asians, by the 1990s only 16 percent are Europeans and 31 percent are Asians, and the percentages of Latino and African immigrants also jump significantly. Between 1965 and 2000, the highest number of immigrants (4.3 million) to the U.S. comes from Mexico; 1.4 million are from the Philippines. Korea, the Dominican Republic, India, Cuba and Vietnam are also leading sources of immigrants, each sending between 700,000 and 800,000 over this period. 2001 The American Family Immigration History Center opens on Ellis Island in 2001. The center allows visitors to search through millions of immigrant arrival records for information on individual people who passed through Ellis Island on their way into the United States. The records include the original manifests, given to passengers onboard ships and showing names and other information, as well as information about the history and background of the ships that arrived in New York Harbor bearing hopeful immigrants to the New World.

Debates continue over how America should confront the effects of soaring immigration rates throughout the 1990s. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Homeland Security Act of 2002 creates the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which takes over many immigration service and enforcement functions formerly performed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). 2008 Plans are announced for an expansion of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum called “The Peopling of America,” which is scheduled to be completed in 2011. The museum’s exploration of the Ellis Island era (1892-1954) will be expanded to include the entire American immigration experience up to the present day. Eighty-five percent white in 1965, the nation is currently one-third minority and on track for a non-white majority by 2 Trivia The First Arrival On January 1, 1892–her 15th birthday–Annie Moore from County Cork, Ireland, became the first person admitted to the new immigration station on Ellis Island. On that opening day, she received a greeting from officials and a $10.00 gold piece.

Annie traveled to New York with her two younger brothers on steerage aboard the S.S. Nevada , which left Queenstown (now Cobh) on December 20, 1891 and arrived in New York on the evening of December 31. After being processed, the children were reunited with their parents, who were already living in New York. Beware the Buttonhook Men Doctors checked those passing through Ellis Island for more than 60 diseases and disabilities that might disqualify them from entry into the United States. Those suspected of being afflicted with a having a disease or disability were marked with chalk and detained for closer examination. All immigrants were checked closely for trachoma, a contagious eye condition that caused more detainments and deportations than any other ailment. To check for trachoma, the examiner used a buttonhook to turn each immigrant’s eyelids inside out, a procedure remembered by many Ellis Island arrivals as particularly painful and terrifying. Dining at Ellis Island Food was plentiful at Ellis Island, despite various opinions as to its quality. A typical meal served in the dining hall might include beef stew, potatoes, bread and herring (a very cheap fish); or baked beans and stewed prunes.

Immigrants were introduced to new foods, such as bananas, sandwiches and ice cream, as well as unfamiliar preparations. To meet the special dietary requirements of Jewish immigrants, a kosher kitchen was built in 1911. In addition to the free meals served, independent concessions sold packaged food that immigrants often bought to eat while they waited or take with them when they left the island. Famous Names Many famous figures passed through Ellis Island, many leaving their original names behind on their entry into the U.S. Israel Beilin–better known as composer Irving Berlin–arrived in 1893; Angelo Siciliano, who arrived in 1903, later achieved fame as the bodybuilder Charles Atlas. Lily Chaucoin arrived from France to New York in 1911 and found Hollywood stardom as Claudette Colbert. Some were already famous when they arrived, such as Carl Jung or Sigmund Freud (both 1909), while some, like Charles Chaplin (1912) would make their name in the New World.

A Future Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, the future mayor of New York City , worked as an interpreter for the Immigration Service at Ellis Island from 1907 to 1910, while he was completing law school at New York University. Born in New York in 1882 to immigrants of Italian and Jewish ancestry, La Guardia lived for a time in Hungary and worked at the American consulates in Budapest and other cities. From his experience at Ellis Island, La Guardia came to believe that many of the deportations for so-called mental illness were unjustified, often due to communication problems or to the ignorance of doctors doing the inspections. “I’m Coming to New Jersey” After a lengthy court battle, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that the state of New Jersey, not New York, had authority over the majority of the 27.5 acres that make up Ellis Island. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the island’s southern portion, or the section composed of landfill added after 1834, is part of Jersey City. New York retained ownership over the original three acres, including the Main Arrivals Hall and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

One of the most vocal New York boosters, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, famously remarked of the court’s decision: “They’re still not going to convince me that my grandfather, when he was sitting in Italy, thinking of coming to the United States, and on the shores getting ready to get on that ship in Genoa, was saying to himself, ‘I’m coming to New Jersey.’ He knew where he was coming to. He was coming to the streets of New Yo Tags Ellis Island History - The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Ellis Island History Ellis Island History Ellis Island History On this page you will find a detailed history of Ellis Island. The below text details the actual origin of the island as a location for an immigration hub, all the way to its current status as a national monument. Feel free to jump forward to specific sections, by clicking on a section title in the table of contents below: 1965: Ellis Island Dedicated as a National Monument The Origin of the Island From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor.

Ellis Island is located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Through the years, this gateway to the new world was enlarged from its original 3.3 acres to 27.5 acres mostly by landfill obtained from ship ballast and possibly excess earth from the construction of the New York City subway system. Before being designated as the site of the first Federal immigration station by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, Ellis Island had a varied history. The local Indian tribes had called it "Kioshk" or Gull Island. Due to its rich and abundant oyster beds and plentiful and profitable shad runs, it was known as Oyster Island for many generations during the Dutch and English colonial periods. By the time Samuel Ellis became the island's private owner in the 1770s, the island had been called Kioshk, Oyster, Dyre, Bucking and Anderson's Island. In this way, Ellis Island developed from a sandy island that barely rose above the high tide mark, into a hanging site for pirates, a harbor fort, ammunition and ordinance depot named Fort Gibson, and finally into an immigration station.

From Military Fort to National Gateway From 1794 to 1890 (pre-immigration station period), Ellis Island played a mostly uneventful but still important military role in United States history. When the British occupied New York City during the duration of the Revolutionary War, its large and powerful naval fleet was able to sail unimpeded directly into New York Harbor. Therefore, it was deemed critical by the United States Government that a series of coastal fortifications in New York Harbor be constructed just prior to the War of 1812. After much legal haggling over ownership of the island, the Federal government purchased Ellis Island from New York State in 1808. Ellis Island was approved as a site for fortifications and on it was constructed a parapet for three tiers of circular guns, making the island part of the new harbor defense system that included Castle Clinton at the Battery, Castle Williams on Governor's Island, Fort Wood on Bedloe's Island and two earthworks forts at the entrance to New York Harbor at the Verrazano Narrows. The fort at Ellis Island was named Fort Gibson in honor of a brave officer killed during the War of 1812.

Immigration Policy Embraces the Masses Prior to 1890, the individual states (rather than the Federal government) regulated immigration into the United States. Castle Garden in the Battery (originally known as Castle Clinton) served as the New York State immigration station from 1855 to 1890 and approximately eight million immigrants, mostly from Northern and Western Europe, passed through its doors. These early immigrants came from nations such as England, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries and constituted the first large wave of immigrants that settled and populated the United States. Throughout the 1800s and intensifying in the latter half of the 19th century, ensuing political instability, restrictive religious laws and deteriorating economic conditions in Europe began to fuel the largest mass human migration in the history of the world. It soon became apparent that Castle Garden was ill-equipped and unprepared to handle the growing numbers of immigrants arriving yearly. Unfortunately, compounding the problems of the small facility were the corruption and incompetence found to be commonplace at Castle Garden. The Federal government intervened and constructed a new Federally-operated immigration station on Ellis Island.

While the new immigration station on Ellis Island was under construction, the Barge Office at the Battery was used for the processing of immigrants. The new structure on Ellis Island, built of "Georgia pine" opened on January 1, 1892. Annie Moore, a teenaged Irish girl, accompanied by her two brothers, entered history and a new country as she was the very first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. Over the next 62 years, more than 12 million were to follow through this port of entry. Ellis Island Burns and Years of Records Lost While there were many reasons to immigrate to America, no reason could be found for what would occur only five years after the Ellis Island Immigration Station opened. During the early morning hours of June 15, 1897, a fire on Ellis Island burned the immigration station completely to the ground. Although no lives were lost, many years of Federal and State immigration records dating back to 1855 burned along with the pine buildings that failed to protect them. The United States Treasury quickly ordered the immigration facility be replaced under one very important condition: all future structures built on Ellis Island had to be fireproof.

On December 17, 1900, the new Main Building was opened and 2,251 immigrants were received that day. Journeying By Ship to the Land of Liberty While most immigrants entered the United States through New York Harbor (the most popular destination of steamship companies), others sailed into many ports such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Savannah, Miami, and New Orleans. The great steamship companies like White Star, Red Star, Cunard and Hamburg-America played a significant role in the history of Ellis Island and immigration in general. First and second class passengers who arrived in New York Harbor were not required to undergo the inspection process at Ellis Island. Instead, these passengers underwent a cursory inspection aboard ship, the theory being that if a person could afford to purchase a first or second class ticket, they were less likely to become a public charge in America due to medical or legal reasons. The Federal government felt that these more affluent passengers would not end up in institutions, hospitals or become a burden to the state. However, first and second class passengers were sent to Ellis Island for further inspection if they were sick or had legal problems. This scenario was far different for "steerage" or third class passengers.

These immigrants traveled in crowded and often unsanitary conditions near the bottom of steamships with few amenities, often spending up to two weeks seasick in their bunks during rough Atlantic Ocean crossings. Upon arrival in New York City, ships would dock at the Hudson or East River piers. First and second class passengers would disembark, pass through Customs at the piers and were free to enter the United States. The steerage and third class passengers were transported from the pier by ferry or barge to Ellis Island where everyone would undergo a medical and legal inspection. A Record Year for New Americans During the early 1900s, immigration officials mistakenly thought that the peak wave of immigration had already passed. Actually, immigration was on the rise, and in 1907 more people immigrated to the United States than any other year, a record that would hold for the next 80 years. Approximately 1.25 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island in that one year. Consequently, masons and carpenters were constantly struggling to enlarge and build new facilities to accommodate this greater than anticipated influx of new immigrants.

Hospital buildings, dormitories, contagious disease wards and kitchens all were feverishly constructed between 1900 and 1915. As the United States entered World War I, immigration to the United States decreased. Numerous suspected enemy aliens throughout the United States were brought to Ellis Island under custody. Between 1918 and 1919, detained suspected enemy aliens were transferred from Ellis Island to other locations in order for the United States Navy with the Army Medical Department to take over the island complex for the duration of the war. During this time, regular inspection of arriving immigrants was conducted onboard ship or at the docks. At the end of World War I, a big "Red Scare" spread across America and thousands of suspected alien radicals were interned at Ellis Island. Hundreds were later deported based upon the principal of guilt by association with any organizations advocating revolution against the Federal government. In 1920, Ellis Island reopened as an immigration receiving station and 225,206 immigrants were processed that year. Arrival at the Island and Initial Inspection If the immigrant's papers were in order and they were in reasonably good health, the Ellis Island inspection process would last approximately three to five hours.

The inspections took place in the Registry Room (or Great Hall), where doctors would briefly scan every immigrant for obvious physical ailments. Doctors at Ellis Island soon became very adept at conducting these "six second physicals." 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. The ship's manifest log, that had been filled out back at the port of embarkation, contained the immigrant's name and his/her answers to twenty-nine questions. This document was used by the legal inspectors at Ellis Island to cross-examine the immigrant during the legal (or primary) inspection. The two agencies responsible for processing immigrants at Ellis Island were the United States Public Health Service and the Bureau of Immigration (later known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service - INS). On March 1, 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was restructured and included into three separate bureaus as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

For more information on these three bureaus and their mission, visit their websites at the following: Bureau of Customs & Border Protection Despite the island's reputation as an "Island of Tears", the vast majority of immigrants were treated courteously and respectfully, and were free to begin their new lives in America after only a few short hours on Ellis Island. Only two percent of the arriving immigrants were excluded from entry. The two main reasons why an immigrant would be excluded were if a doctor diagnosed that the immigrant had a contagious disease that would endanger the public health or if a legal inspector thought the immigrant was likely to become a public charge or an illegal contract laborer. Immigration Laws and Regulations Evolve From the very beginning of the mass migration that spanned the years 1880 to 1924, an increasingly vociferous group of politicians and nativists demanded increased restrictions on immigration. Laws and regulations such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Alien Contract Labor Law and the institution of a literacy test barely stemmed this flood tide of new immigrants. Actually, the death knell for Ellis Island, as a major entry point for new immigrants, began to toll in 1921.

It reached a crescendo between 1921 with the passage of the Quota Laws and 1924 with the passage of the National Origins Act. These restrictions were based upon a percentage system according to the number of ethnic groups already living in the United States as per the 1890 and 1910 Census. It was an attempt to preserve the ethnic flavor of the "old immigrants", those earlier settlers primarily from Northern and Western Europe. The perception existed that the newly arriving immigrants mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe were somehow inferior to those who arrived earlier. After World War I, the United States began to emerge as a potential world power. United States embassies were established in countries all over the world, and prospective immigrants now applied for their visas at American consulates in their countries of origin. The necessary paperwork was completed at the consulate and a medical inspection was also conducted there. After 1924, the only people who were detained at Ellis Island were those who had problems with their paperwork, as well as war refugees and displaced persons. Ellis Island still remained open for many years and served a multitude of purposes. During World War II, enemy merchant seamen were detained in the baggage and dormitory building.

The United States Coast Guard also trained about 60,000 servicemen there. In November of 1954, the last detainee, a Norwegian merchant seaman named Arne Peterssen, was released, and Ellis Island officially closed. Ellis Island Dedicated as a National Monument In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson declared Ellis Island part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Ellis Island was opened to the public on a limited basis between 1976 and 1984. Starting in 1984, Ellis Island underwent a major restoration, the largest historic restoration in U.S. history. The $160 million dollar project was funded by donations made to The Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. in partnership with the National Park Service. The Main Building was reopened to the public on September 10, 1990, as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. With the completion of the Peopling of America Center® on May 20, 2015, and the entire story of American immigration being told, the museum was renamed the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. Today, the museum receives almost 2 million visitors annually.

Donate Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty need your support. Donate now to help preserve the islands for future generations. $ have an account? Create a free account to search for family arrival records and learn more about Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. Be a part of history! Ellis Island Knowledge Base > History > History Ellis Island Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor and was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Geordi Taylor Business Economics Major, Computer Science Minor at Pace University-NYC. As an economics major, I thoroughly enjoy doing research and finding facts; which makes being a knowledge expert that much more fun. I also have a passion for researching the ins and outs of alternative energy , specifically biofuels. Curated Facts The main building was restored after 30 years of abandonment and opened as a museum on September 10, 1990. Article: National Parks of New Yor...

Immigration IMMIGRATION 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 mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor 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-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883 Below are modifed excerpts from the Ellis Island American Immigration Family History Center website. Personal Note: Even though my grandmother, Pauline SAFER, arrived in New York in 1903 and should have been processed at Ellis Island, she always spoke with wonder of arriving at Castle Gardens.

(She pronounced it "Kessel Gadens" in her wonderful Yiddish accent.) I suspect she arrived at Ellis Island but was processed at Castle Gardens. Between 1880 and 1930 over twenty-seven million people entered the United States, about twenty million of whom entered through Ellis Island. By the 1880's, steam power had shortened the journey to America dramatically. Immigrants poured in from around the world: from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and down from Canada. In the United States they hoped to begin life anew--a life filled with opportunities to better themselves within a society that would allow them to enjoy greater religious, economic and political freedoms than they had ever experienced before. Castle Gardens Castle Gardens (now called Castle Clinton, after Mayor DeWitt Clinton) was an old fort built to protect the harbor of New York. It was renovated and reopened as a New York State Immigration Reception Center on August 1, 1855.

Ships anchored at a quarantine station six miles below New York City, where an emigration boarding officer boarded to count passengers, ascertain the number of deaths during the voyage, the degree and kinds of illnesses suffered during the voyage, and the overall cleanliness of the vessel. After sending a report to the general agent and superintendent at Castle Garden, the boarding officer remained on the ship as it steamed up to anchor near the Castle Garden depot. Passengers then were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Landing Department. Following a customs inspection of luggage, immigrants and their belongings were taken by tugs and barges to the Castle Garden depot. They then underwent medical examinations to determine if there were any sick people overlooked by the boarding officer's examination and to select others subject to "'special bonds under the law," such as "blind persons, cripples, lunatics, or any others who are likely to become a future charge." After examination, the immigrants were directed to a rotunda in the center of the depot for registration of their names, nationalities, former residences, and intended destinations. If an immigrant was denied entry, the shipping line that brought them had to transport them back to where they came from at the shipping line's expense.

To avoid being sent back, immigrants were coached on giving answers. If they were coming to join a family member or relative, their chances of being allowed to enter the USA were much better than if they were not related to anyone in the USA. Consequently, the name and address of who they were going to join is not always confirmation of a relationship. Before 1890, individual states rather than the Federal government, regulated immigration into the United States. Castle Gardens in the Battery served as New York State's immigration station from 1855 to 1890. About eight million immigrants, mostly from Northern and Western Europe, passed through its doors. The early immigrants were mostly from England, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Throughout the 1800's and intensifying in the latter half of the 19th century, ensuing political instability, restrictive religious laws and deteriorating economic conditions in Europe fueedl the largest mass human migration in the history of the world. It soon became apparent that Castle Gardens was ill-equipped and unprepared to handle the growing numbers of immigrants arriving every year. Unfortunately, compounding the problems of the small facility, corruption and incompetence were commonplace at Castle Gardens.

or continue below The Federal government intervened and constructed its own immigration station on Ellis Island in New York harbor. Over the years, Ellis Island has grown from 3.3 acres to 27.5 acres, most of the landfill coming from ship ballast and earth carted away from the construction of the New York City subway. The new structure on Ellis Island, built of "Georgia pine" opened on January 1, 1892. Annie Moore, a 15 year-old Irish girl, accompanied by her two brothers, entered history and a new country as she was the very first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island on January 2nd. Over the next sixty-two years, more than twelve million were to follow her through this port of entry. From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. Ellis Island is located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

Through the years, this gateway to the new world was enlarged from its original 3.3 acres to 27.5 acres mostly by landfill obtained from ship ballast and possibly excess earth from the construction of the New York City subway system. During the evening of June 14, 1897, a fire on Ellis Island burned the immigration station completely to the ground. Although no lives were lost, many years of Federal and State immigration records dating back to 1855 burned along with the pine buildings that failed to protect them. The United States Treasury quickly ordered the immigration facility be replaced under one very important condition. All future structures built on Ellis Island had to be fireproof. On December 17, 1900, the new Main Building was opened and 2,251 immigrants were received that day. or continue below THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE While most immigrants entered the United States through New York Harbor, the most popular destination of steamship companies, many sailed into other ports such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco and Savannah, Miami, and New Orleans.

The great steamship companies, such as White Star, Red Star, Cunard and Hamburg-America, played a significant role in the history of Ellis Island and immigration in general. First and second class passengers who arrived in New York Harbor were not required to undergo the inspection process at Ellis Island. Instead, they underwent a cursory inspection aboard ship because it was thought that those who could afford to purchase a first or second class ticket, were less likely to become a public charge in America for medical or legal reasons. The federal government believed these more affluent passengers would not end up in institutions or hospitals or become a burden to the state. However, first and second class passengers were sent to Ellis Island for further inspection if they were sick or had legal problems. This scenario was far different for steerage, or third class passengers. They traveled in crowded and often unsanitary conditions near the bottom of steamships. There were few amenities. They could spend up to two weeks seasick in their bunks during rough Atlantic Ocean crossings. Upon arrival in New York City, ships would dock at the Hudson or East River piers. First and second class passengers would disembark, pass through Customs at the piers and enter the United States.

The steerage and third class passengers were transported from the pier by ferry or barge to Ellis Island, where everyone would undergo a medical and legal inspection. If the immigrant's papers were in order and the person was in reasonably good health, the Ellis Island inspection process would last approximately three to five hours. The inspections took place in the Registry Room. or Great Hall, where doctors would briefly scan every immigrant for obvious physical ailments. Doctors at Ellis Island soon became very adept at conducting these "six second physicals." 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. The ship's manifest log, filled out back at the port of embarkation, contained the immigrant's name and the answers to twenty-nine questions. This document was used by the legal inspectors at Ellis Island to cross-examine the immigrant during the legal, or primary, inspection. The two agencies responsible for processing immigrants at Ellis Island were the United States Public Health Service and the Bureau of Immigration, later known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

On March 1, 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was re-structured so that it became one of three bureaus under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Despite the island's reputation as an "Island of Tears", the vast majority of immigrants were treated courteously and respectfully, allowed to begin their new lives in America after only a few short hours on Ellis Island. Only two percent of the arriving immigrants were excluded from entry mostly because they were diagnosed with a contagious disease that would endanger the public health or because a legal inspector thought the immigrant was likely to become a public charge or an illegal contract laborer. The American experience for millions of Jews was one fraught with great hardships. Many came to countries such as the United States with little money in hand and were forced to find what work they could in order to survive, even if it meant working long hours in unsafe conditions for low wages. Many tried to save what money they could in order to pay for the passage of other family members still living in Europe who also wished to emigrate.

At the same time, the new immigrants were forced to acclimate themselves to a culture that was very foreign to them, while at the same time trying to maintain their Jewish identity and their value system. or continue below History of Ellis Island Before it was designated as the site of the first federal immigration station by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, Ellis Island had a varied history. The local Indian tribes had called it "Kioshk" or Gull Island. Due to its rich and abundant oyster beds and plentiful and profitable shad runs, it was known as Oyster Island for many generations during the Dutch and English colonial periods. By the time Samuel Ellis became the island's private owner in the 1770's, the island had been called Kioshk, Oyster, Dyre, Bucking and Anderson 's Island. In this way, Ellis Island developed from a sandy island that barely rose above the high tide mark, into a hanging site for pirates, a harbor fort, ammunition and ordinance depot named Fort Gibson, and finally into an immigration station. From 1794 to 1890 (pre-immigration station period), Ellis Island played a mostly uneventful but still important military role in United States history.

When the British occupied New York City during the duration of the Revolutionary War, its large and powerful naval fleet was able to sail unimpeded directly into New York Harbor. Therefore, it was deemed critical by the United States Government that a series of coastal fortifications in New York Harbor be constructed just prior to the War of 1812. After much legal haggling over ownership of the island, the Federal government purchased Ellis Island from New York State in 1808. Ellis Island was approved as a site for fortifications and on it was constructed a parapet for three tiers of circular guns, making the island part of the new harbor defense system that included Castle Clinton at the Battery, Castle Williams on Governor's Island, Fort Wood on Bedloe's Island and two earthworks forts at the entrance to New York Harbor at the Verrazano Narrows. The fort at Ellis Island was named Fort Gibson in honor of a brave officer killed during the War of 1812. During the early 1900's, immigration officials mistakenly thought that the peak wave of immigration had already passed.

Actually, immigration was on the rise and in 1907, more people immigrated to the United States than any other year; approximately 1.25 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island in that one year. Consequently, masons and carpenters were constantly struggling to enlarge and build new facilities to accommodate this greater than anticipated influx of new immigrants. Hospital buildings, dormitories, contagious disease wards and kitchens were all were feverishly constructed between 1900 and 1915. As the United States entered World War I, immigration to the United States decreased. Numerous suspected enemy aliens throughout the United States were brought to Ellis Island under custody. Between 1918 and 1919, detained suspected enemy aliens were transferred from Ellis Island to other locations in order for the United States Navy with the Army Medical Department to take over the island complex for the duration of the war. During this time, regular inspection of arriving immigrants was conducted on board ship or at the docks. At the end of World War I, a big "Red Scare" spread across America and thousands of suspected alien radicals were interred at Ellis Island.

Hundreds were later deported based upon the principal of guilt by association with any organizations advocating revolution against the Federal government. In 1920, Ellis Island reopened as an immigration receiving station and 225,206 immigrants were processed that year. From the very beginning of the mass migration that spanned the years (roughly) 1880 to 1924, an increasingly vociferous group of politicians and nativists demanded increased restrictions on immigration. Laws and regulations such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Alien Contract Labor Law and the institution of a literacy test barely stemmed this flood tide of new immigrants. Actually, the death knell for Ellis Island, as a major entry point for new immigrants, began to toll in 1921. It reached a crescendo between 1921 with the passage of the Quota Laws and 1924 with the passage of the National Origins Act. These restrictions were based upon a percentage system according to the number of ethnic groups already living in the United States as per the 1890 and 1910 Census.

It was an attempt to preserve the ethnic flavor of the "old immigrants", those earlier settlers primarily from Northern and Western Europe. The perception existed that the newly arriving immigrants mostly from southern and eastern Europe were somehow inferior to those who arrived earlier. At the same time, the British Admiralty changed their rules about steerage passage and fares. This change made steerage passage MUCH more expensive and the cost of travel to the US became prohibitive for most. After World War I, the United States began to emerge as a potential world power. United States embassies were established in countries all over the world, and prospective immigrants now applied for their visas at American consulates in their countries of origin. The necessary paperwork was completed at the consulate and a medical inspection was also conducted there. After 1924, the only people who were detained at Ellis Island were those who had problems with their paperwork, as well as war refugees and displaced persons. Ellis Island still remained open for many years and served a multitude of purposes. During World War II, enemy merchant seamen were detained in the baggage and dormitory building. The United States Coast Guard also trained about 60,000 servicemen there.

In November of 1954 the last detainee, a Norwegian merchant seaman named Arne Peterssen was released, and Ellis Island officially closed. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson declared Ellis Island part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Ellis Island was opened to the public on a limited basis between 1976 and 1984. Starting in 1984, Ellis Island underwent a major restoration, the largest historic restoration in U.S. history. The $160 million dollar project was funded by donations made to The Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. in partnership with the National Park Service. The Main Building was reopened to the public on September 10, 1990 as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Today, the museum receives almost two million visitors annually. DISCLAIMER: THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS. WE ARE NOT SURE THIS INFORMATION IS ENTIRELY CORRECT, AND WE KNOW IT IS INCOMPLETE.

9 Things You May Not Know About Ellis Island - History in the Headlines 9 Things You May Not Know About Ellis Island November 12, 2014 By Evan Andrews Share For over 60 years, Ellis Island was the gateway for millions of Americans to the United States. Explore the legacy of this symbol of American immigration. Share this: 9 Things You May Not Know About Ellis Island Author 9 Things You May Not Know About Ellis Island URL Google On November 12, 1954, the once bustling immigration inspection port at Ellis Island was shut down after more than 62 years in operation. Opened in 1892, the small island in New York Harbor served as the processing center and point of entry for more than 12 million new arrivals to the United States. The island has since become a storied and often controversial symbol of the plight of the immigrant, and it is estimated that more than one-third of all Americans can trace their lineage to someone who passed through its doors. On the 60th anniversary of the closing of Ellis Island, learn nine surprising facts about the port that once served as the main entryway to America. 1.

It was used for pirate hangings in the early 1800s. Long before it became a weigh station for people looking for a new beginning, Ellis Island—named for its last private owner, Samuel Ellis—was known as a place where condemned prisoners met their end. For most of the early 19th century, the island was used to hang convicted pirates, criminals and mutinous sailors, and New Yorkers eventually took to calling it “Gibbet Island” after the wooden post, or gibbet, where the bodies of the deceased were displayed. It reverted to the name “Ellis Island” in the years after the last hanging in 1839, and later served as a Navy munitions depot before being repurposed as a federal immigration station. 2. The first immigrants to arrive at Ellis Island were three unaccompanied minors. Ellis Island accepted its first new arrivals on New Year’s Day 1892, when the steamship Nevada arrived with 124 passengers from Europe.

The first would-be immigrant to set foot on the island was Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork, Ireland who had crossed the Atlantic with her 11 and 7-year-old brothers en route to reuniting with family in New York. A U.S. Treasury Department official and a Catholic chaplain were on hand to welcome Moore, and Ellis Island’s commissioner awarded her a $10 gold piece to mark the occasion. Today, a statue of Moore and her brothers is kept on display at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. 3. The island wasn’t the first place immigrants landed when they arrived in New York. While Ellis Island was the official entry point for immigrants to the United States, it wasn’t the first piece of American soil they encountered. The waters surrounding the island were too shallow for transatlantic ships to navigate, so most docked and unloaded their passengers in Manhattan. During the detour, American citizens and first and second-class passengers were allowed to enter the country after only a brief inspection, but steerage passengers were herded onto ferries and shuttled to Ellis Island for further processing. The stopover was occasionally clouded by corruption.

Around the turn of the century, crooked immigration officials were known to take $1 or $2 bribes in exchange for letting immigrants get off in Manhattan without first going through inspection at Ellis Island. Ellis Island arrivals, 1902 4. Immigrants were subject to physical and mental exams to ensure they were fit for admittance to the United States. Upon arrival at Ellis Island, immigrants were ushered into a room called the Great Hall and paraded before a series of medical officers for physical inspection. Most were allowed to pass by in a matter of seconds, but those whom the doctors deemed physically or mentally deficient were marked with chalk and taken away for additional screening. Questionable candidates were forced to submit to more detailed questioning and medical exams, and any signs of contagious disease, poor physique, feeblemindedness or insanity could see an immigrant denied admittance on the grounds that they were likely to become a ward of the state. In later years, doctors at Ellis Island even devised puzzles and memory tests to ensure that certain immigrants were intelligent enough to find work. New arrivals could also face rejection if they were anarchists, had a criminal record or showed signs of low moral character.

Despite the litany of guidelines for new immigrants, the number of people denied entry at Ellis Island was quite low. Of the 12 million people who passed through its doors between 1892 and 1954, only around 2 percent were deemed unfit to become citizens of the United States. 5. Immigrants didn’t have their names changed at the island. American cultural lore is rich with tales of immigrants’ ethnic sounding names being Anglicized or shortened during their passage through Ellis Island, yet there is no evidence that such a practice ever took place. Immigration officials merely checked the person’s identity against the manifests of the ships that brought them to America, and there was no policy advising them to forcibly alter names. Some immigrants voluntarily chose to change their names to help assimilate into American culture, but they did so before they left their home country or after they had gained admission to the United States. A notable exception to the name changing policy came in 1908, when a traveler named Frank Woodhull admitted that he had been born a woman named Mary Johnson and had spent the previous 15 years living as a man.

After briefly detaining Woodhull, officials allowed him to enter the country—but not before changing his name back to Mary Johnson. 6. Famed New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia worked at Ellis Island. Before he became the first man to win three consecutive terms as mayor of New York, the fiery and reform-minded politician Fiorello LaGuardia spent three years on staff at Ellis Island between 1907 and 1910. The son of Italian immigrants, LaGuardia was fluent in Italian, Croatian and Yiddish, and he served as one of the island’s many translators while attending NYU law school at night. LaGuardia would go on to represent many Ellis Island immigrants in deportation cases during his early years as an attorney. Ellis Island's Great Hall (Credit: Fotosearch/Getty Images) 7. It was used as a detention facility during WWI and WWII. Shortly after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, the government turned a suspicious eye toward all German-born, non-naturalized citizens residing within its borders. Potential “alien enemies” were placed under harsh restrictions, and those suspected of harboring pro-German sentiment were rounded up and detained.

Since immigration had tapered off World War I, officials designated Ellis Island as one of the main holding centers for would-be enemies of the state, and some 1,500 people were eventually detained there. The island’s double life as a prison later continued during World War II, when it was used to house suspected Nazi sympathizers. 8. It eventually became more famous for deportations than immigration. Ellis Island’s role as a gateway for immigrants began to change in the early 1920s, when a series of federal laws ended the open door immigration policy and established quotas for the number of new arrivals to the United States. By 1925, the government had also shifted the inspection process from American ports to the U.S. consulates abroad, leaving Ellis Island to operate primarily as a detention center and deportation point for undesirable immigrants. The island was used to imprison and evict suspected communists and political radicals during the Red Scare (anarchist Emma Goldman was a notable deportee), and later served as a detention center for communists during the Cold War. The government’s legally ambiguous detainment policies eventually spawned a series of high profile lawsuits that stained Ellis Island’s reputation with the American public.

In November 1954, the port was closed for good as part of a federal cost-saving measure. Credit: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images 9. It wasn’t opened to the public until 1976. When the U.S. government tried to sell Ellis Island in the 1950s, would-be developers proposed everything from a drug rehab facility to a resort marina and even an experimental “city of the future” designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. None of the schemes for private development got off the ground, however, and the “gateway to America” spent the next 20 years in political limbo. The island was finally opened for tours in 1976, but plans for a historical museum or renovation didn’t come together until the 1980s, when automotive pioneer Lee Iacocca helped spearhead a fundraising project for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The restored island was opened to the public in September 1990, and it now receives around 3 million visitors each year.

Tags Ellis Island facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Ellis Island BIBLIOGRAPHY When people today refer to Ellis Island, they generally invoke its legacy in the national saga of immigration to America, standing with the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor as a beacon of opportunity for the world’s dispossessed. However, the building of a federal facility at the site of an old naval arsenal on Ellis Island in 1892 grew out of the newly established federal authority to regulate and restrict immigration. Before federal processing was institutionalized at Ellis Island, states had the right to set the criteria for the suitability of immigrants, with an interest in recruiting labor and excluding potential wards of the state. Two-thirds of the migrants to the United States between 1786 and 1892 came through New York City, and after 1855 immigration processing, including medical exams, customs inspection, and name registration, took place at Castle Garden in lower Manhattan , where social reformers set up voluntary services to help immigrants find work and housing. Similar immigration stations were located in Boston, Baltimore , and Galveston.

With the emergence of a national economy and a national transportation system in the years following the Civil War (1861–1865), immigration fell increasingly under federal scrutiny, and the federal government passed laws to restrict the entry of immigrants thought to be undesirable. Early efforts restricted the entry of prostitutes, convicts, incapacitated people, and contract labor. The most important exception to general practices of open immigration was Chinese exclusion, codified in federal law as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, establishing the prerogative of the federal government to raise restrictive barriers against specific national groups and to mark them as permanently foreign, aliens without rights. Between 1880 and 1900, the pace of immigration to the United States increased dramatically, with nine million immigrants arriving in these years. Laborers from England , Ireland , Germany , and the Scandinavian countries were now joined by new arrivals from Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia , Canada , Greece , Syria , the West Indies , Mexico, and Japan . Nativist concerns about the new immigrants led to escalating pressures for a federal immigration policy.

The new federal immigration station that opened in 1892 on Ellis Island was a key component of the new federal immigration policy, which set standards for minimum health and competency, regulated the process of inspection and deportation for overseas immigration, and delegated enforcement to a superintendent of immigration and an Office of Immigration, located within the Department of the Treasury, later Commerce, and then Labor, until 1940, when the Immigration Service was transferred to the Department of Justice. Ellis Island was the entry point for twelve million people, about three-fourths of the migrants who entered the United States between 1892 and 1924. On its busiest day, April 17, 1907, Ellis Island officials processed 11,747 immigrants. Other federal immigrant processing stations were established at Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Many European immigrant accounts of their experience at Ellis Island emphasized the hopefulness of arrival and the often confusing and sometimes frightening aspects of inspection. Steerage passengers entering New York Harbor boarded ferries for Ellis Island (American-born passengers and those travelling first and second class were examined on board ship).

After being tagged with their number from the ship’s official listing, immigrants walked into the baggage room where they were encouraged to check their belongings. Then they moved up the steps to the second-floor registry room in the Great Hall, where they were evaluated by medical inspectors looking for contagious diseases and physical disabilities, and by legal inspectors checking that names, birthplaces, ages, and occupations matched ship registries and ascertaining that immigrants were not likely to become wards of the state. Stories from prior travelers helped immigrants rehearse answers for the inspectors, and provided strategies for passing through successfully, for example, discretely passing the same twenty-five dollars from immigrant to immigrant to preempt the requirement for proving self-support. A literacy test for immigrants over fourteen was administered after 1917. The shipping lines had to bear the cost of returning “excluded aliens” to their point of departure. Most newcomers, 80 percent or more, passed through the process successfully; detention for the remaining 20 percent, for legal or medical reasons, lasted in most cases less than two weeks.

Although most of the patients held in medical detention recovered and were able to complete the immigration process, between 1900 and 1954, over 3,500 people, including 1,400 children, died on Ellis Island. Historians have calculated that despite a growing number of excludable categories, only about 2 percent of Ellis Island migrants failed to gain entry. In comparison, Chinese immigrants trying to gain entry through Angel Island by making use of the very few exceptions provided by the Chinese exclusion laws faced much more rigorous interrogation and isolation, and much lengthier detentions. Ellis Island’s functions changed dramatically with the passage of immigration restriction in the 1920s, ending the era of open European immigration. Combined pressures for exclusion proposed by white Anglo-Saxon Protestant restrictionist groups, reinforced by theories of scientific racism spurred by World War I (1914–1918) rhetoric of “100 percent Americanism,” the Red Scare’s linking of foreigners with radicalism, and the labor movement’s fears of rising unemployment, resulted in the passage of the Quota Act in 1921 and the Johnson-Reed Act in 1924.

The Quota Act limited the total number of immigrants who could enter the United States and required that immigrants bring passports. The Johnson-Reed Act did not limit immigration from the Western Hemisphere, but it reduced the total number of entering immigrants, and most significantly, established national-origins quotas to favor northern and western European immigrants, who received 82 percent of the annual total quota allotted. The Johnson-Reed Act also expanded the category of illegal aliens, reaffirming the principle of Chinese exclusion and barring Japanese and other immigrants from the “Asiatic Zone,” defined in 1917 as stretching from Afghanistan to the Pacific, on the legal grounds of their exclusion from citizenship. By the 1920s, Ellis Island officials were processing far fewer arrivals and were no longer providing medical or mental exams or housing immigrants who were ill, since the passport and visa requirements relocated many aspects of verification and inspection from Ellis Island back to the country of origin. During the 1930s, nearly as many people left as entered the United States, and Ellis Island officials processed some immigrants returning to Europe .

During World War I, Ellis Island became a temporary detention center for “enemy aliens,” and in 1919 radicals rounded up by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer (1872–1936) and housed incommunicado prior to deportation included the Russian anarchist activists Emma Goldman (1869–1940) and Alexander Berkman (1870–1936). Ellis Island was increasingly used for detention and deportation of “aliens.” By the 1930s, the people detained on the island were undocumented immigrants without passports or visas, foreign-born criminals awaiting deportation, and sick merchant mariners receiving treatment at the hospital. During World War II (1939–1945), “enemy aliens” were again held on the island. After 1950, immigrants suspected of being communists were denied entry or detained awaiting deportation, including the West Indian Marxist writer C. L. R. James (1901–1989) in 1952. Despite the needs of the many refugees created during World War II, the restrictive immigration laws kept the numbers of European immigrants very small.

Ellis Island was finally abandoned by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1954 and classified as surplus property. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s (1890–1969) General Services Administration tried unsuccessfully to sell Ellis Island and its buildings to the highest bidder in 1956. President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973), who traveled to the Statue of Liberty to sign immigration reform in 1965, granted landmark status to Ellis Island as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument within the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. New interest in historic preservation and in European-heritage ethnicity generated popular and public support for the restoration and reopening of Ellis Island as an immigration museum in 1990. SEE ALSO Immigrants, European; Immigrants, New York City Chermayeff, Ivan, Fred Wasserman, and Mary J. Shapiro. 1991. Ellis Island: An Illustrated History of the Immigrant Experience. New York: Macmillan. Moreno, Barry. Encyclopedia of Ellis Island. 2004. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Ngai, Mai M. 2004.

Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Smith, Judith E. 1992. Celebrating Immigration History at Ellis Island. American Quarterly 44: 82–100. Yans-McLaughlin, Virginia, and Marjorie Lightman. 1997. Ellis Island and the Peopling of America: The Official Guide. New York: New Press. Judith E. Smith Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration - New York City Museums New York City Museums Website: Description Ellis Island, located in the Port of New York and New Jersey, was from 1892 until 1954 the entry point for millions of immigrants to the United States. After closing in 1954, it fell into disrepair and only after it was made a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965 did redevelopment begin. Ellis Island opened to the public in 1976 and in 1990, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum opened.

In 2001, millions of arrival records were made available. In addition to the three theaters that are used for film and live performances, some of the exhibits you can see are Restoring a Landmark, Ellis Island Chronicles, Peak Immigration Years and The Peopling of America. Approximately 40% of today’s U.S. citizens can trace at least one ancestor to Ellis Island. Those ancestors passed through the site mainly from southern and eastern Europe, many fleeing conflict and poverty. Journeys would typically begin on horseback or trains to the seaport. The ships they boarded were crowded, with up to 3,000 passengers and the trip across the Atlantic lasted two weeks. The first immigrant to arrive on Ellis Island, on January 1, 1892, was Annie Moore of Ireland. New York’s future mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, worked as an interpreter for the Immigration Service on the island. A visit here is a fantastic way to gain insight into how the United States grew to what it is today and perhaps even trace your own family history.

There are incredible views of the harbor and skyline and the audio tour takes you back in time to the early 20th century, setting the stage for imagining what the millions of hopeful immigrants experienced.

Question: Between 1892 and 1954, which part of New York was the point of entry for millions of immigrants?
Answer: Ellis Island