AT Modern European History: Ellis Island Virtual Field Trip: Culture, Identity, Disability & Migration

One of the central claims of this course is that it is a fallacy to claim any monolithic "European perspective." Rather, "Europe" always contained a myriad of perspectives based on geography, ethnicity, language, religion, socio-economic status, and ideology. Our Ellis Island virtual field trip showcases this diversity. As the archived photographs at the New York Public Library reveal, different groups from across Europe (indeed across the world) came through its doors every day. These photographs and the Library of Congress modules on the experiences of Germans, Italians, Russians/Polish, Scandinavian, Irish, and Jews illustrate the myriad of factors which pulled families and individuals to the United States and/or which pushed them out of their native lands. From our vantage point, the photographs' labels can be extremely specific, overly simplistic, and sometimes jarring. For example, individuals are labeled as having come from the Ottoman Empire, often without clue as to whether they were Greek, Assyrian, Turkish. In tracing my heritage, I discovered that many Assyrians, for example, left the Ottoman Empire (due to religious persecution) during this period for Ellis Island and eventually made their way to Boston. We see others that we might not have expected until the mid-20th century, such as a South Asian young man, a North African man, and Caribbean women.

As seen in the video, photographs, and data table, borders were relatively open at some points in history. At other times, immigration laws serve to exclude or restrict entry. During Ellis Island's operation, according to John Cunningham, the percentage deported did not rise above 2%. Emigrants did undergo questioning and testing upon arrival. Sometimes they might be deported, for example, as "likely to become a public charge" due to lack of funds or "diminished mental or physical capabilities." Disability historians point out the ableism underlying this latter criterion. Rejection also might occur due to what the National Institutes of Health terms "medical prejudice," whereby fears of disease outbreak might target a specific group, such as the Irish in the 1830s (cholera) or Jews in the 1890s (tuberculosis). According the February 22, 1905 edition of the New York Times, the group of Hungarian gypsies depicted in the photograph below were deported. The National Institutes of Health points out that “immigrant physicians, community spokespeople, newspapers, and religious and fraternal groups . . . disseminated public health information to their respective communities in culturally sensitive manners and in the languages the newcomers understood, offering crucial services to immigrants and American public health officials.” During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, New York’s failure to conduct similar outreach to community leaders of the Orthodox Jewish community was widely criticized.

Prep: European Immigration Overview

Graphic Organizer for Virtual Field Trip

Ellis Island Interactive Field Trip

Ellis Island 1892 Footage below: