Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts Ellis Island Immigration Museum 20240712

Between 1892 and 1954, about 12 Million Immigrants seeking a new life in america were taken to ellis island for processing, questioning and health screening. Today, millions of americans take ferry boats each year to visit ellis island and the statue of liberty. Up next on American History tv american artifacts, we visit Ellis Island Immigration Museum to learn about the immigrant experience. Good morning, my name is peter urban and im a park ranger for the National Park service here at ellis island. This island for Many Americans is the place where their american story began. 12 to 13 million americans came to this island and to this building in order to be given the ok to go out and start their lives in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A lot of people dont know about alice island before that time, so let me talk briefly about ellis island itself. Today, we are 27 acres in size. But in the original form this island was, it was three acres. A small island in the middle of the harbor, barely above sea level and high tide. For most of its life, it was a military installation. First as afford during the war of 1812, and eventually during the 1800s as a storage depot. But somewhere around 1890, it was decided by the federal government that this would be the place that they would institute the first building specifically constructed or the processing of immigrants. And so they did construct that building between 1890 and 1892. The building you see here was not the first Processing Center, it is actually the second. The first was a large wooden structure that lasted for five years and burned to the ground in about three hours due to a furnace fire in 1897. The federal government decided at that point that they needed to build something more permanent. Something that would also reflect the grandeur of a government building and so the structure you see here is made of brick and limestone. It was built between 1898 and 1900 and it opened in december of 1900. The beautiful building and from the moment it opened, it was already too small for what it was about to face. Constructed to handle about half 1 Million People a year, it ended up handling in 1907 alone 8,000,200 1,200,000 people. If you look at the building, there was no floor on third floor in the original structure. It was two storeys with the four towers that we have here. But as we had more and more people come through and they realized they were really too small to handle the flow, they began to add structures. The building we see straight out here, the three story structure, it is called the dormitory building. That was added on because the overflow of people either being detained here or waiting for detained members of their family was so enormous that the dormitories on the balconies in the great hall were too small. We also found out that two thirds of the people coming through here were going to end up going to other parts of america. Only about a third of them would go to new york city. So this building we have right here was constructed and added on as a place for immigrants to buy their tickets in order to go and start their lives in other parts of the country. A large polish population heading out to chicago. A large czech population heading down to nebraska. A large group of germans and slovaks heading to texas for instance. So the railroad ticket tournament terminal housed ticket windows for 12 railroads that would eventually sell the ticket that the immigrant needed and they would eventually go across the harbor to the Central Railroad of new jersey terminal. There, they would eventually find a train to take them out to most likely friends and relatives who had already settled in those areas. The other third will be heading to new york and those people find many ethnic neighborhoods that, oftentimes, will welcome them with open arms. We are now standing at the seawall of ellis island facing out into new york harbor. This is a Perfect Place for us to begin the story of the immigrants that came here. 12 to 13 Million People would make their way through the building we have here, but their journey started back in europe when they made that very brave and sometimes ambitious decision to leave, sometimes everybody they knew behind, and to make a journey here to this country. For most of those immigrants who came to ellis island, this is going to be a place that they had to say for quite a long time the money just to be able to buy a ticket and to make their way through this building. An immigrant had to pay 30 dollars of the money of the time period, which could equal several hundred dollars in todays money, just for a ticket for a spot on an ocean liner that was never meant for any human being. Ocean liners had always taken care of people with money. First class passengers had paid thousands of dollars in todays money to be able to be wined and dined in treated like royalty. And even if you had just a little bit less money, you could get a second class ticket that would give you a modest but private room. But the shipping Companies Began to realize that so many people who were poor wanted to come here in the late 1800s and early 1900s, that they had to accommodate that demand. So they looked at their ships and figured they could sacrifice cargo holds below deck. Cramped, dirty, usually places for traits and things of that nature. They now housed bunk beds, sometimes three or four high, packed in tightly and the immigrant who is coming to ellis island would be a passenger in those lower decks. Those lower decks were not pleasant. There was very little light, very little ventilation, there was about 1000 or 1500 of you packed down there and your ship ride could take anywhere from a week to a month. So coming to america was a great challenge. They would be leaving port cities like hamburg or liverpool or konstantin opal. They had to answer 35 questions about themselves to a shipping clerk to the company of the boat that they are about to board. Those answers are going to be very important part of the immigrant story because that is the information that will be used in the great hall to interrogate the immigrants and determine if they have the legal right to land here. We will return to that story a little bit later, but i just wanted to bring that story in right now. Now we are at the harbor for a reason. We are going to assume that the immigrant ship it has made it across safely. The first place they will enter new york harbor is where you see the narrows bridge. That is an area we called the narrows in this area. There is the first place where inspectors will board ships to check and see if this ship has a raging epidemic of a disease. They dont want to let immigrants bringing diseases into this country, which was one of the things we were checking inside in the great hall. Now inspectors arent likely to find anybody with tremendous amounts of illness or even a ship full, because shipping companies had already done some preprocessing. They knew pretty quickly that american law stated that if a shipping Company Brought somebody here who is to be deported, they had to bring them back at the shipping companies cost. So Many Companies had their own small processing before you got here. It did not mean people might not get sick on the ship. So they would get taken off the ship there and your ocean liners are going to move into this harbor. If you are looking at the harbor today, it is about the most peaceful site youre ever going to want to see. But if we use our imagination, think about the fact that basically you International Travel is all on ship at this time. So this harbor would be full with commercial vessels, private vessels, ocean liners, especially at peak time here in the mid 19 hundreds and 1910 time period. You would have ocean liners here anchored waiting for a dock to open. There would be noise. There would be a dingy atmosphere. There were no environmental laws back then. And a poor little immigrant farmer and many of them are going to be from rural areas, they are going to be absolutely amazed by the site. They will look at the skyline of new york and even some of the smaller buildings that are brick might have been here, not the beautiful modern structures. They do not look very big compared to one world trade, but for an immigrant whos never seen anything more than a couple of stories for a building, it will be like something from outer space. So they are so theyre welcome to america is twofold. The, threefold actually. This beautiful sight, this harbor, and they are absolutely amazed by lady liberty. This is the first thing that welcomes them which is this beautiful sight. Up the harbor comes the ship comes. A lot of people here but the ship docked here and let people out and that is not true. Our inlet is too shallow for things like that. So the ships are going to make their way up the how burr harbor and go to docs up the river where the uss intrepid is today as a museum. There is where the immigrant learns their first lesson in america. In america, money talks. Because our first and second class passengers are going to be given a very quick take inspection as the boat moves its way up the harbor. Unless they have a glaring problem that needs attention, they will be laid out to go start their lives. The thinking was this, if you have a slight illness, you have the money to pay for a doctor. You will be able to go and get the care you need. You will also be able to afford a place to live. Now the storage class passengers, they have that 30 dollar ticket, several hundred dollars, and hopefully in their pocket another couple hundred dollars that they will have to prove they have before getting inside. Its still not enough to prove that they are not going to be a problem for society. They are afraid of people bringing in diseases. They are afraid of people getting involved in crime. They are afraid of being overwhelmed by the population. So that is what elise island does. It serves as a way to clear the rich passengers to come into this country to start their lives. There is a clear delineation for the immigrants. If you have the money, you are in. If you dont have the money, you are going to get checked. And so when we head inside in just a couple of minutes, we are going to start the story of those immigrants whove come off the ship and have been brought down here by a ferry and going to enter the front door and come into the first floor of ellis island. It really looked dramatically different than it does today. Okay, we are about to enter the main entrance of ellis island. However, across the way here there might be a point of note. These beautiful buildings that are now abandoned where the hospital complexes that were run by the United States Public Health service. It was just a fantastic crew of doctors who cared for immigrants who were detained for medical reasons. About 10 of the people who came from here were detained for medical reasons. The string of buildings we see right here were ferdinand contagious diseases. Behind it about 30 yards parallel is a string of buildings for contagious diseases. So there was a measles ward, a tuberculosis ward, there was an insane asylum. There is a morgue that is one of the scariest places i have ever been in my life. And this was a real operating island. The Public Health service was so good at their job that occasionally hospitals from new york would send cases out here to be taken care of. They did a great job of nursing people back to help who had diseases that were curable. Now its a very big standard here. If you had a disease that was incurable and contagious, you are definitely going back. If you have an incurable disease, its more likely that you are going to go back. So its a very big part of our complex. It is not open to the public yet. It is being worked on. Its definitely that ellis island is a work in progress. And slowly but surely, we will hopefully get that complex opened up and open for the public to see as well. We are walking up the ramp underneath the canopy here at ellis island. This canopy and this spot would have been a place where immigrants who had just gotten off the boat here would have lined up to go into the door and begin their process. The original canopy had blank slate roofs. People lined up here and what they had with them was virtually what was important to them. For them for many who were bringing entire families at the same time, they had to sell everything they owned back in europe. The farmland, the cattle, all of the supplies. The farm itself just to be able to afford all of the fares for everybody coming here. So you will see inside that there is a beautiful picture that shows you this. They have a bag, or a satchel, or a steamer trunk, and everything the family owns that is a value to them will come with them. So lets take you inside. The room we are entering right now is the baggage room. Here is the place where immigrants got their first sight of ellis island. To be honest with you, this room looked very different depending upon the moment you came. In 1907, according to some floor plants but i have seen, immigrants who came in this door had to go immediately over to our left, there right, where medical examination would take place. Eventually, they would end up in the staircase, which is originally right up in the middle of this ceiling and took you right up into the middle of the great hall. As i mentioned to you earlier, this building was really planned to handle a lot less people than they thought. So over the years, the process of having all this medical processing here and immigrants going up the stairs here became highly impractical. They had to figure out a way to make it work more efficiently. So around 1912, this stairwell in the middle of the room was closed up and a wooden staircase was built right where we have our modern staircase today. Taking you upstairs to the second floor. It wasnt just to make the flow go faster, it was also a way to make the medical processing more efficient as well. Give credit to the people who were here. They handled a highly chaotic situation in a really efficient, and i think in many cases, compassionate way. It doesnt mean it wasnt scary or terrifying to the immigrant, but i think there was a lot of care put forward to make things better. We will tell you this, that early on in the early 1900s, this could be a place that was very tricky for an immigrant to get through. So the people who were bringing their baggage in, and you can see samples of the baggage here that we have, baggage handlers could hold your luggage and make sure it gets on the boat when you head over to catch your ferry or if you are going to go and catch a train. But early on, we had concession airs here. Baggage handlers would double or triple charge them for their services. Money exchanged people would sometimes give them just a small amount of what their money was worth. The food concession people dressed up someone looking like an inspector, went into the crowds and if they did not buy a lunch from the food stand that they would get deported. Give credit to one of our early commissioners, william williams, who dressed up a couple of his best inspectors is immigrants and put them up in the crowd to document the corruption. He was very instrumental in getting rid of the corrupt concession firms and making things even more fair for the people coming through. So here you come in, and after 1912, you are going to be directed to go up those stairs. We will head upstairs to the second floor now to talk about the medical and Legal Processing. We are also going to see the room that i think most of you have come to know as the symbol of ellis island. It is officially called the registry room, but we call it, and i think most people call it the great hall of hairless island ellis island. It is in majestic piece of architecture. We will take you first with the immigrants, so follow me up the stairs if you will. Were heading up the stairs to the second floor. As i said, this is a modern staircase. Imagine there being a wooden staircase here that immigrants would walk up in large crowds. Some had refused to give their baggage to the baggage handlers so they still have either their suitcase or perhaps a sheet with stuff in it over their shoulders, their belongings. They are all coming up the stairs and the one thing they dont realize yet is that they are already being inspected as they walk up the stairs. They might be limping because of a bad foot. Maybe they stuck their toe. They might be carrying a big bag and holding their chest and having trouble breathing. They may be very happy to be here and singing a song from the old country. Just looking wonderfully ecstatic. All three of those conditions would be observed by inspectors who would be at the top of the stairs and would be watching. So as youve got to the top of the stairs here, those inspectors would come up to you with one of their tools of the trade, a piece of chalk. They are going to mark your core coat up with initials that signify exactly what they feel may be the condition you have. The stubbed toe gets in hell for lameness. The Person Holding their chest might have a heart problem, age. The person who is so ecstatic to be here that they are singing and dancing, they would feel they have a condition that needs to be checked mentally. So they have an ex put on their coat. Immigrants did not inspect expect it. Sometimes on my tours, i ask people to do something and when they dont do it, i say we have to check their hearing because they were not listening. Again, not to make them feel bad about themselves, but its all about the idea of inspection without understanding what is going on. Now doctors will also meet you here. They will give you an inspection that is just about as fast and medical inspection as you are ever going to get. I know that they were sometimes called the six second specialists for that reason. Anywhere from five to ten seconds, maybe 15, theyre highly skilled members of the Public Health service who can spot even the smallest sign of any where from 50 to 60 ailments that normally afflict an immigrant. And again, any doubt that you have something means more initials are going on your coat. The one set of initials you do not want on your coat is ct. City represented in illness called truck home. It was a widespread disease back in the past. Its still exist and some part of the world. It made the underside of your eyelid as rough as sandpaper and would eventually make you blind. It was highly contagious and incurable. They have to check the eyes. They would use button hooks, little hooks that would be used to pull up gloves of women of formal society. They would pull up your eyelid to look underneath to see if there were telltale signs of the disease. So if you are taken at this moment with initials on your coat, it did not mean you are going to automatically be sent back. It did mean that down these hallways, here and over here, they will take you to individual medical exam rooms. All of these initials were about making this process more efficient. We dont have the time to give you a thorough exam, but the doctor still not hole could look at you and check you out more specifically with just those two or three initials on your coat. Far the vast majority, there will for the man with a stub tow theres no problem the come back out here but for some it may mean that interment in the hospitals of the days and weeks ahead even months and for some as i said and then it may mean the doctors report that in fact a need to be sent back so this is a step one of the process. As they walked into this room, as terrifying as this moment can be, they are also in a room that is the grandest room that some of them have ever seen in their life. This is the great hall of ellis island. It has been restored to the way it looked roughly the way look around 1918. American flags at 48 stars because in the early 1900s well head 48 states. Trying to be a little accurate about 1918 as to what we had. The ceiling that you see up here, those tiles were put up here by a Family Company calledfamily. Their work is still famous and in places like carnagie hall. 29,000 tiles placed on the vaulted ceiling, and the patented styling that was all their own. When the restoration was done in the 19 eighties they had to check every tile for their integrity and they found only 13 tiles had to be who replaced. The floors were standing for over 100 years. When they wax this floor and look brandnew. Tiles in the columns all around here are part of the room as it open in 1900. Has our the chandelier, first chandelier here and the second chandelier, a third one you can never guess it was reproduction but apparently was destroyed by a candle snapping when they do the restoration. I guess they figured he couldnt go up there and check. But anyway, these are the original chandeliers except for the third. One to get a sense of what the room is like when people came here, you have to use your imagination. Today we dont have much in here for people to enjoy and to look at the room. But if you were here as an immigrant, he wouldve entered a room after 1912 that was absolutely full of rows of benches. We have benches in the front, the darker ones are original benches, the wider ones are reproductions done by a High School Program up in new york state. If we use our imaginations, the benches wouldve been rose coming all the way down here and the rows wouldve come up to the middle of the room. Once you got past the medical inspection, youre gonna come and sit and wait. And when you got off a boat in new york, a tag was put on your coat with a number that corresponded to your ships manifest. When your ships manifest book is brought to the desk, they call you number, i send inspectors out to get everybody with that number, a line you up and you are about to be retested, to see if you are in fact the person use the the you say you are as when you get on the. Thats where were going next to handed to the inspectors desk. And well talk about those questions that were asked and what happens to people when they got there. A last stop in the great hall the replica of the 20 inspectors deficit lined the hall. Heres a spot where you go through the last part of your processing. Now if you remember, we talked a little bit about the ship manifest outside. Manifests were the answers questions. 25 to 30 questions were asked. Whats your name . Whats your age . Whats your nationality . Wheres the last place you lived in europe and with whom . Whats your final destination . Can you read and write . Where are you going to live in america and with whom . How much money do you have . Now thats a bit of a tricky question. It wasnt always known by immigrants that inspectors at most points were looking for you to have about 25 dollars in the money of the time period, couple of hundred dollars in todays money. You might have that money when you board ship, and maybe stolen might have lost it, if you dont have anywhere near that amount, that could be a reason to detain you because they dont want a lot of people are in america with no money to go start their lives. Now heres another tricky question that people wouldnt think. By whom was your passage . Pay most people say i paid for myself. My father paid my mother paid. The answer that you dont want to give, even if youre nervous, even if you think its going to impress the inspector is my new boss in america paid for me to come here, i start working here tomorrow. It may seem like an impressive answer because the inspector would let you win because you already have a job, but you just admitted the foreign act made that illegal. To admit that would be a certain trip back to europe and a hefty fine for your american employer. So every one of these questions was asked. Some of them here are actually physical descriptions. I can actually answer them i looking at the immigrant. I could see that for instance a woman is five foot two and shes got gray eyes and scott blond hair. For the vast majority of people that came up to this task, this is going to be a pretty easy process. They will answer all the questions, the remember all the answers, they wont look to suspicious and answering because if you look to suspicious that along to be a reason for detention. But around 80 of the people who come through this building will eventually leave here to go start their lives after an experience of about three or four hours. But 20 are detained, 10 for the Legal Process we saw and another 10 for some discrepancies in their interrogation. So were gonna take you to the room where they had their chance or their day in court. Its a scary experience, ill talk about that in a minute. So were gonna head down the hall to the board of special inquiry room. This is locator in the very spot where it existed and has been restored to look pretty much the way it looked in the 19 hundreds. If you follow me, will head down there. This we are heading into is actually the legal wing of late ellis island at the time period. Im actually for operating courtrooms in this area at one time. Offices were here for lawyers, there were detention rooms for those who would be detained in some way. Many of the items on this desk are authentic and from our collections. What they try to do is recreate and inspectors desk would look like. There are three inspectors seated here and they are your judges. Each of them will hear your case and they will ask you important questions. A stenographer would be here to keep a record of the case and interpreter would be seated at the end here to help inspectors understand the words of the immigrants for the different cases. Immigrants were not allowed to have a lawyer in this first hearing. They had to plead their own case. Oftentimes there would be members of what would be called immigrant aid societies. Groups set up by specific ethnic groups to help people of their background get through this process here at ellis island. And they could serve as the interpreter for the immigrant themselves. Now immigrants could also call witnesses to come testify on their behalf. So lets say the young person, the young woman who lost her money on the boat befriended by a very nice man who ended up stealing her money. She would send telegram into new york to her brother lives in new york who shes going to go live with and ask him to come out to testify on her behalf. They would never allow the two people, the brother and sister in the same courtroom at the same time. They would interrogate them separately so that there would not be any sort of story created between the two. If the brother came in and said, she is my sister, i will take her in, heres my name and address, i voted for her. She will stay under my wing until she has enough money to get a place of her own and get a job, that would often be more than enough to solve or to persuade the fears of the inspectors here. All they need to do is convince to a three of these inspectors that the reason for which they were detained was not enough of a reason to send them back to europe. For the 20 of people who came through here, its a terrifying moment. Theyve really not seen much justice in their countries, many of them have come from pretty brutal regimes. Theyve never seen a man in uniform who are compassionate, but they are gonna be giving a wonderful introduction to an american Justice System that gives them a real good shake. Of the 20 in this room, only 2 would be sent back. 18 had enough of an explanation for the reason of their detention that it would be good enough released to the three inspectors to let them go through. So the always created a sense of fear, but its room that causes a great celebration in jaw joy when theyre told it they can go to start three new lives. So this is where the story would and for many of. 80 of them out to start their lives. A third heading to new york, two thirds heading to other. Places but but 18 of that 20 , for that story would eventually start to. For, me i had three grandparents who came in 1909 and 1912. Its a very special experience to work here, i can only imagine what they would think if they knew 100 years later, that their grandson would be here giving tours and telling their story. The items that we have in this exhibit area, which is called treasures from home, were donated to us by people whose ancestors had come here. The items are actually organized by theme. Here we have a case of clothing that was worn by many people who came here. A beautiful rich texture and the craftsmanship is just absolutely gorgeous. These are items that were, in many cases, actually worn here when immigrants got off the boat and came in to ellis island. As we walk down, we have a case of personal papers that were part of many immigrants process. So a lot of these are going to be documents that they took, legal documents, from the old country that have been put in here. It is just representative of the kinds of things that you would find if you started to do some research and looking for documents overseas. The case next to us is here is religious items. These religious items are, again, its the types of things that immigrants would bring here that they would not dare leave behind. For many, you can see rosary beads here and so many of the other items. The clothing that is religiously based. These are things they would not leave behind. If they had that one steamer trunk, this would definitely be something that would be in there. Here of course our pictures. So many pictures of so many people, either back in the old country or perhaps here in america when they finally came. It would definitely be something that you would do, to send pictures back to the old country of your life in america. There are so many pictures like this that i think every family who had an ancestor come through ellis island has at home. I know i have a shoe box full at home that im still sorting through. But so many different images. So many different backgrounds. So many people with so many dreams of something better. This is, when you look at all these pictures, you can kind of absorb and appreciate. The last case here brings in what they call family life items. Just things that people would bring that they used in everyday life. Cutlery, sewing machines, a camera, just a sampling of the tremendous amount of items that were actually donated to us here. Just one quick look in the back here. Some families gave us so much. Actually, we can turn right this here. Some families gave us so much that cases were dedicated to those families specifically. We have about six or seven of these here. They are dedicated to specific families who kind of literally gave us the steamer trunk full of items and asked us to tell their story and their importance to their family and to their culture and their backgrounds. The you Processing Center opened in 1892. For the next 30 years or so, it operated full tilt at today as a mass Processing Center. Somewhere in the early 19 twenties, it was the beginning of the process of restricting immigration through restrictive quota laws that brought the flow of people through here almost to a halt. World war i helped to do that as well. But by 1924, a very restrictive quote a law in conjunction with the creation of the consulate system that we have today, really brought ellis island to a close as a mass Processing Center. Now it remained open for a another 30 years. It would be a place for those detained in port in new york would be brought out and held until their case was abdicated. By 1954, we are in the middle of a strong anti communist surge. A fear of foreign elements and by that time the building had really lost its total purpose and use. So in november of 1954, the building closed and would be really empty for the next 11 years. That is until 1965 when president johnson issued the order to add ellis island as part of the statue of Liberty National monument. Now for the next 15 years, the building would be administered by the parks service, but not restored or open to the general public. You had to arrange for what they called a hard head tour. They did bring people out here and walk them through the abandoned structures. But i guess in conjunction with the centennial of the statue of liberty and its restoration, money was raised by the statue of Liberty Ellis island foundation, both to restore the statue as well as to distort this building. So the statue will be rededicated in 1986. This building will open in october of 1990. I believe Vice President quayle came for the opening and weve been open ever since. So all told, 98 of the people who came through this building were able to get out and start their lives in america. 98 of 12 to 13 Million People will translate into about 45 of the American Population today. They can tell you, honestly, no one of their ancestors came through this building, went through this process and began their families american story. Or so many people, it is the reason why they come here. To visit ellis island, because theyve heard so much about it. It has been in the family folklore. They come back to see the moment or the place, i should say, where grandma or great grandfather came to america, answer the questions, passed the medical processing and began their families american story. I think in all of the discussions of immigration that we have going on today, i think there needs to be the context that this story of people coming here, being from a different cultural background, starting their lives here and, in many cases, becoming successes, that is really a Great American story. And it will continue. It will not be one that ever ends. I think that sometimes we lose track of that. That some of us who are the descendants of those immigrants from the late 1800s have kind of forgotten about grandma and grandpas journey. I hope perhaps a visit here will reawaken that in many peoples eyes and minds. That is what ellis island is about. It is the story of americans looking for something better. Really, the american dream, which i think we all cherish greatly. So thank you for coming along. We are glad that you did. We hope you get to visit ellis island and see you in person. So today we are going to be talking about landscapes and preservation and sort of how preservation unexpectedly