Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts 20161119

Youre watching a mechanistic tv all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. Allmerican history tv weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. Between 1892 and 1954, about 12 Million Immigrants seeking a new life in america were taken to ellis island for questioning and health screening. Today, millions of americans take ferry boats to visit it. Up next in the american artifacts, we visit the Ellis Island Immigration Museum to learn about the immigration experience. Peter urban good morning, my name is peter urban, and i am a park ranger here at ellis island. This island for Many Americans is a place where their story began. 12 million to 13 million americans came to this island, this building in order to be given the ok to go out and start their lives in the 1800s and early 1900s. A lot of people dont know about ellis island, so let me talk briefly about the island itself. We are 27 acres in size, but in the original island, it was three acres. A small island in the middle of the harbor rarely above sea level at high tide. It for most of its life was a military installation. It was used in the war of 1812 and was for storage. Somewhere around 1890 it was decided by the federal government this would be the place they would institute the first building specifically for the processing of immigrants, and so they did construct to 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 five years and burned to the ground in about three hours. There was a fire in 1897. The federal government decided at that point they needed to build something more permanent, something that would also reflect the grandeur of a government building. This opened in december 1900. The beautiful building, and from the moment it opened it was already too small for what it was about to face. It could handle half a Million People a year. It ended up handling in 1907 alone 1,002,000 people. When you look at the building, there was no thirdfloor of the original structure. It was two stories with four towers, 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 stories. The building we saw here, the threestory structure was called the dormitory building. It was added on for the overflow of people being detained here or waiting for detained members of their family was so enormous that the dormitories were too small. It also turns out two thirds of the people coming through here would going to other parts of america. Only a third of them go to new york city. The building we have 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 to chicago, a large czech going to nebraska, slovaks going to texas. So there were 12 railroads that would eventually sell the tickets the immigrant needed, and they would go up for auction. They would go to the Central New Jersey terminal where they would eventually find the train to take them out to friends and relatives who were likely already settled in those areas. The rest would head to new york, and those people will find many different ethnic neighborhoods that oftentimes would welcome them with open arms. We are now standing at the seawall of ellis island facing at the new york harbor. This is the Perfect Place to begin the story of the immigrants that came here. 12 million to 13 Million People would make their way through the building we have here, but their journey started back in europe when they made the brave and sometimes ambitious decision to leave sometimes everybody they knew behind to make the journey here to this country. For most of those immigrants who came to ellis island, this would have been a place they would have saved the money just to be able to buy a ticket and make their way through this building. An immigrant had to pay 30 with the money of the time period which could be several hundred dollars just for a ticket on an ocean liner never meant for any human being. The ocean liners had only taken care of people with money, firstclass passengers would pay thousands of dollars in todays money to be able to wine and dine and be treated like royalty. Even if you had a little bit less money, you could get a secondclass ticket that would give you a modest but private room. Shipping Companies Began to realize so many people who were poor onto to come here in the 1800s and early 1900s, they had to accommodate that demand. So they begin to sacrifice cargo holds behind jack. Cramped, dirty. They now house bunkbeds, three to four high, packed in tightly. The immigrants coming to ellis island would be a passenger in those lower decks. They were not pleasant, very little light, very little ventilation. About 1000 to 1500 of them packed down there. Your ship ride could go anything from weeks to one month. Coming to america was a great challenge, but they would be leaving cities like hamburg or constantinople where the shipping companies had their offices. Very important part of the immigrant story, when they boarded a ship, they had to answer 25 to 30 questions about themselves to a shipping clerk on whose boat they were about to board. Those answers are a part of the immigrant story. That is the information that will be used to greet them to determine if they have the right to land here. We will return their later. I want to bring that in now. We are at the harbor for a reason. We assume the immigrants made it. The first place they enter his new york harbor in area that we call the narrows here. They will check and see of this ship has a raging epidemic of the disease. They dont want to let immigrants bringing diseases into the country. That is one of the things we are checking inside of the great hall. If they find someone with tremendous amounts of illness, shipping companies have already done the processing. They know american law stated that if a shipping company run someone sick, they will be deported, and they have to bring them back at the shipping companies lost. So they do a lot of processing already. So they got taken off the ship, and you are ocean liners move into this harbor. If you look at it now, it is about the most peaceful site you would ever want to see. But if you use your imagination, think about the fact that basically your International Travel was all on ship at this time. The harbor was filled with commercial vessels, private vessels, ocean liners, especially at peak times of the year in the 1900s and 1910s time period, you had people anchored out here waiting for a dock to open. It would be dingy, no environmental laws back then. And the poor little immigrant farmer, and many of them are going to be from rural areas, they are going to be absolutely amazed at the site. They will look at the skyline and see even the smaller buildings that are brick, and they will look very big compared to one world trade. For an immigrant who has never seen more than a couple of stories of the building, it would be like something from outer space. There welcome to america is this gorgeous site, this harbor, and they are amazed at lady liberty. It is the first thing that welcomes them, and absolutely largest site which opened in 1886. Out, the ship, people think the ships docked here and let people out, but that is not true. It is too shallow. The ships make their way up the harbor, and they go dock up the river here. That is where the uss intrepid is now. There is where an immigrant learns their first lesson in america. In america, money talks. First and second class passengers are going to be given a very quick inspection as the boat moves its way up the harbor, and unless they have a glaring problem that needs attention, they are going to be let out to start their lives. The thinking is this, if you have a slight illness, you have the money to pay for a doctor. You are going to go and get the care you need and afford a place you live. Firstclass passengers have got the 30 ticket, and in their pocket, another couple hundred dollars that they will prove they have inside. Not enough to prove they will not be a problem to society. They are afraid of people bringing disease and getting involved in crime, of being overwhelmed by the population. That is what ellis island does. It serves as a way to clear firstclass passengers to start their lives. There is clear delineation for this. You have the money, you are in. You dont have the money, you are going to get checked. We go inside in a couple of minutes, we will start the story of those immigrants who come off the ship and are brought down here by a fairy and are going to enter the front door and come into the first floor of ellis island. It will look dramatically different than it does today. Ok, we are about to enter the main entrance of ellis island, but a point of note. These beautiful buildings that are now abandoned were the hospital complexes that were run by the United States Public Health service which was a fantastic group of doctors who cared for immigrants who were detained for medical reasons. 10 of the people who came through here were detained for medical reasons. The string of buildings you see here were not contagious diseases. 30 yards parallel is a string of buildings for contagious diseases, the measles word, tuberculosis, and insane asylum. There is a morgue which is one of the most scariest places i have been in my life. This is a real operating island. The Public Health service was so good at their job, occasionally hospitals in new york would send cases out here to be taken care of. They did a great job nursing people back to health. They had diseases that were curable. A very big standard. If you had a disease that was incurable and contagious, you are going back. So it is a very big part of the complex, not opened the public yet. It is being worked on, but ellis island is a work in progress. Slowly but surely we will get that complex opened up and opened to the public to see. We are walking up the ramp underneath that bell underneath the canopy here at ellis island, this was this what were immigrant who had just gotten up lined up to go in the door and begin that process. The original canopy had black slate roof. People lined up here, and what they had with them was virtually only what was important to them. For many, they are bringing their entire lives. They had to sell everything they owned. The farmland, the cattle, all of the supplies. The farm itself just to be able to afford everything. You will see inside there is a beautiful picture that shows they have got a bag or a satchel or a steamer trunk. That is of value to them. He will come with them. They take it inside. The room we are entering is the baggage room. Here is the place where immigrants got their first sight of ellis island. To be honest, the room looks very different depending on the moment you came. In 1907, depending on floor plans i have seen, immigrant had to go immediately over to our left, their right, for the medical examination. Eventually they would end up in the staircase, which was originally right up to the ceiling that took you right up to the middle of the great hall. As i mentioned to you earlier, this building was really meant to handle a lot less people than they got. Over the years, the process of having all the medical processing here, immigrants going up the stairs, became highly impractical. They had to find a way to make it work more efficiently. Around 1912, this stairwell in the middle of the room was closed up, and a wooden staircase was built where he have the modern staircase today, taking you upstairs to the second floor. It wasnt just to make the flow go faster, it was a way to make the medical process more efficient as well. You give credit to the people who were here, they handled a highly chaotic situation. They were really efficient and in many cases compassionate. It does not mean it were scary or terrifying to immigrants, but a lot of care was put forward to make things better. What was going on in the early 1900s, this could be a place that was very tricky for an immigrant to get through. People who were bringing their baggage in, as you can see, samples of the baggage here that we have, baggage handlers could hold luggage, make sure it gets on the boat when you had over to catch your fairy or train. But early on we had concessions who took advantage of immigrants, baggage handlers would double charge them for services. Money Exchange People were given back small amounts of what their money was worth and pocket the rest. The food concession people dressed up as someone looking like an inspector, going into crowds and they if you did not buy a lunch from the food stand, you would get reported. You would get deported. There was inspectors dressed as immigrants among the crowd to document corruption. He was instrumental in getting rid of the corrupt concession firms and making things more fair for the people coming through. Here you come in, and after 1912 , you will be directed to go up the stairs. We will go up to the second floor to talk about the medical and legal process. You are also going to see the room most of you have come to know as the symbol of ellis island. Officially called the register registry room, but we call it and most people call it the great hall of ellis island. It is a majestic piece of architecture. We take you first with the immigrants, so follow me up the stairs if you will. We are heading up the stairs to the second floor. This is a modern staircase. Imagine there being a wooden staircase here. Immigrants would walk up a large crowds. Some have refused to give their baggage to the baggage handlers, so they have still got either their suitcase or a sheet with stuff in it over their shoulder, longings. They are coming up these stairs. One thing they dont realize yet in that they are already being inspected as they walk up the stairs. They might be limping because of a bad foot, maybe they stubbed their toe. They might be carrying big baggage, holding their chest and having trouble breathing. They might look wonderfully ecstatic. All three of those conditions would be observed by inspectors, who would be at the top of the stairs, they would be watching. When you 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 will mark your initials that signify exactly what they feel may be the condition you have. Stubbed toetoe get l for lameness. The Person Holding their chest, might have a heart problem. The person who is so ecstatic to be here they are singing and dancing, we feel they may have a condition that needs to be checked mentally, so they have an x put on their coat. Immigrants did not expect it. I ask everybody to do something, and when they dont do it, we have to check your hearing because you will not listen. So it was not to make them feel bad about themselves, but it was all about inspection without understanding what was going on. Doctors will also meet you here and give you an inspection that is just about as fast and inspection you will get. They were sometimes called the six second specialist. Anywhere from five to 10 seconds, maybe 15. They are highly skilled members of the United States Public Health service who can spot even the smallest sign of 60 ailments that can inflict an immigrant. Any doubt that you have something means more initials are going on your coat. The one set you dont want on your account is ct. That represents an illness called trachoma. It is still in some parts of the world. It made your underside of the eyelid as rough as sandpaper, and eventually it would make you blind. Highly contagious and incurable. They would use button hooks to check the eyes. They would catch your eye lid and pull it up from underneath to see if it had telltale signs of trachoma. If you are taken at this moment with initials on your coat, it did not automatically mean you would be sent back. It did mean down the hallways here and over here, they will take you to individual medical exam rooms. All of these initials were about making your process more efficient. They did not have the time to give you a thorough exam, but the doctors down the hall could look at you and check you out more specifically based on initials on your coat. The vast majority, no problem. The man with the stubs to know, stubbed toe he will be , treated and come back out. For some, it may need interment in the hospital of days, weeks, maybe even months. And for some as i said, it may mean the doctors rule that you need to be sent back. This is step one of the process. As they walk into this room, as terrifying as this moment can be, they are also in a room which is the greatest room some of them have ever seen in their entire life. This is the great hall of ellis island. It was restored around 1918. Our american flags have 48 stars, because in the relief in the early 1900s, we only had 48 states, so we try to be accurate and write to the point of 1918 and what would they had. The tile that were put up here by a Family Company whose work is still famous in places like carnegie hall, Grand Central station, and the cathedral of saint john in new york. 29,000 titles on a vaulted ceiling in a patented styling that was all their own. The restoration was done here in the 1980s, they had to check every tile for their integrity, and they found only 13 tiles that were wrong. So it was legendary and solid. The work was over 100 years old. When they waxed the floor, it looked brandnew. The tiles around here are part of the room as it opened in 1900. As for the chandelier, the first chandelier and the other one in the middle of the room, the third one you could never guess is a reproduction. It was destroyed by a cable snapping when they did the restoration, but you could go up and check. These are are some of the original chandeliers. To get a sense of the room what it was like, when people came here, you have to use your imagination. Today we dont have much in here because we want people to rome and look at it, but if you were here as an immigrant, you wouldve entered a room after 1912 that was absolutely full of rows of benches. We had benches in the front. The darker ones are original, the lighter ones were reproductions done by a High School Program in new york state. If we use our imaginations, the benches would have been rows going all the way down to hear, and the rows would have come into this room. Once you got past the medical inspection, you are going to sit and wait. When you got off the boat in new york, a tag was put on your coat with a number that corresponded to your ship manifest. When your ships manifest was brought to the desk, they called your number and sent inspectors out to get everyone with that number to line you up. You were all to be retested to see if you were the person you say you are when you got on the boat. That is where we will head next down to the inspection desk. We will talk about the questions that were asked and what happened to many people when they got there. The last stop in the great hall is going to be at a replica of possibly of about 15 to 20 inspectors desks lined the hall. There is the spot where you go through the last part of your processing. If you remember, we talked a little bit about the ship manifest outside. The manifests were a list of questions and answers immigrants gave. What is your name . What is your age . What is your nationality . Where will you live and with whom . What is your final destination . Can you read and write . Where will you go to live in america . How much money will you have . That was a tricky question. It was not always known by immigrants that inspectors were looking for you to have about 25 in money of the time period, a couple hundred dollars of todays money. You might have that when you board the ship. It will be stolen. You might have lost it. If you dont have anywhere near that amount, that could be a reason to detain you, because they dont want you with no money to go start your life. This is another tricky question people would not think is a tricky question, by whom was your passage paid . Most people said i would pay for myself. My husband paid, my mother paid. The question you dont want to give even if you are nervous or you think it will impress the inspector is my new boss in america a for me to come here. I start working for him tomorrow. It may seem impressive because the inspector would let you in because you already have a job, but you just admitted to being a contract laborer. That was made illegal in 1985. 1885. To admit that would be a certain trip back to europe and a hefty fine if you are an american employer. Every one of these questions would be asked. Some of these are physical descriptions, and i can answer them by looking at the immigrant. I can see that person is the young woman who is 52, has got gray eyes and blond hair. For the vast majority of people that came up to this desk, this is going to be a pretty easy process. They will answer all the questions, remember all the answers, they wont look too suspicious in answering, because if you look too suspicious in answering some of that alone can be reason for detaining. But 80 will eventually leave here to go start their lives after an experience of about three or four hours. 24 are detained, 10 for legal processing, another 10 are some discrepancies in their interrogation here. We will take you to the room where they had their chance or their day in court. It is a scary experience. I will talk about that. We will head down the hall to the official inquiry room, which was restored to look the way it did in the early 1900s. Follow me, we will head down there. This wing that you are heading into was the legal wing of ellis island at the time period. There were four of them here at for operating courtrooms here at the time. Offices were here for the lawyers. There were detention rooms for those who would be detained in some way. Many of the items on this desk are authentic, and some are collections. From our collections. What they have tried to do here is recreate what an inspectors desk would look like. There are three inspectors seated here, and they are your judges. Each of them will hear your case and will ask you some important questions. A stenographer would be here for a record of the case, and in interpreter would be seated at the end to help the inspectors understand the words of the immigrant with different cases. Immigrants are not allowed to have a lawyer in this first hearing. They had to plead their own cases. Often times, there were immigrant aid societies, groups who had been set up by specific ethnic groups to help people of their background get through the process on ellis island. They could serve as the interpreter for the immigrants. An immigrant could also call witnesses to testify on their behalf. Lets say a young woman who lost her money on the boat befriended by a nice man who eventually ended up stealing her money, she would send a telegram to her brother in new york who she is going to live with and ask him to testify. They would never allow the brother and sister in the same room at the same time. They would interrogate them separately. If the brother said, she is my sister, here is my address, she will stay up under my wing until she has enough money to get a place of her own, that would oftentimes be more than enough to assuage the fears of the inspectors. All they need to do is to convince to live the inspectors that the reason they were detained is not enough of a reason to send them back to europe. For the people who came through here, it is a terrifying moment. Many of them have come from brutal regimes. They have never seen a man in uniform do anything compassionate. They are given a wonderful introduction to the american justice system. Only 2 of the people here would eventually be sent back. 18 had enough reason that it would be enough for the inspectors to allow them to stay. This room is one that created a sense of terror but for most, it is a room that causes celebration and joy. This would be where the story would end for the rest of them. 80 will start their lives, one third heading to new york. 18 out of bed 20 could be here one month or more but for them, the story would eventually start. I have three grandparents that came through here. It is a very special experience working here because i am telling their story. I can only imagine what they would think if they knew that their grandson would be telling their story. The items in this exhibit were donated to us by people whose ancestors had come here and the items are actually organized by theme. Here, we have clothing that was worn by many people who came here. Beautiful texture and craftsmanship. These are items that were actually worn here when they got off the boat and came on to ellis island. As we walk down, we have the case of personal papers that were part of many immigrants process. A lot of these are going to be documents that they took from their old country that have been put in here and just representatives of the type of things that you will find doing family research. The case here is religious items. These religious items, it is the type of things that they would not dare leave behind. For many, you can see rosary beads. Many of the other items, the clothing that is religiously based, these are things that they would not leave behind. This would definitely be something, ok . Here are so many pictures of so many people either in the old country or perhaps in america when they finally came, would definitely be something that you would do to send countries back to the old country. I think every family has an ancestor has at home so many different images, backgrounds, people with dreams. You can really absorb and appreciate it. The last case brings in family life items, things that people would bring that the use in everyday life. Color me, sewing machines, cameras. Just a sampling of the tremendous amount of items that were actually donated to us. Just one look, some families gave us so much, some families gave us so much that cases were dedicated to those families specifically. We have 67 here and behind the photographs that are dedicated to specific families who literally gave us a trunk full of items. The Processing Center opened in 1892. For the next 30 years or so, operated as a mass Processing Center. Somewhere in the 1920s at the beginning of the process of restricting immigration through very restrictive laws that brought the flow of people through here to a fault. By 1924, a very restrictive quota law in conjunction with the creation of the system we have today, brought an assignment to a close brought ellis island to a close. It would be a place where those detained would be held. By 1954, we are in the middle of a strong anticommunist surge of fear of foreign elements and by that time the building had really lost its purpose. In november 1954, the building closed and it would be empty for 11 years until 1965 when president johnson issued the order to add it as part of the statue of Liberty National monument. For the next 15 years the building would be administered by the park service but not restored or open to the general public. You had to arrange for a hard hat tour. In conjunction with the restoration of the statue of liberty, money was raised to restore the statue as well as to restore the building. The statue will be rededicated in 1986 and this building will open in 1990. We have been open ever since. The people who came through this building were able to start their lives in america. 98 of 13 Million People translates into about 45 of the American Population today who can tell you that one of their ancestors came through this building, went through this process and began their story. For so many people it is the reason why they come here. They have heard so much about it. It has been in their family folklore. They come back to see the place where grandparents came to america, past the medical processing, and began their american story. In all the discussions of immigration we have going on today, there needs to be a context that this story of people coming here, the from a different cultural background, starting their lives and in many cases becoming successful, that is a Great American story and it will continue. It will not be one that never ends. Sometimes, we lose track of that. Some of us who are the descendents of those immigrants from the late 1800s have kind of forgotten about grandma and grandpas journey. Wille the media visit here reawaken that in many peoples eyes. That is what ellis island is all about. It is the story of americans looking for something better, really the american dream. ,i think wheelchairs greatly. I think we all cherish greatly. Thank you for coming along. We hope that you get to visit personally. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] beenhave always