Peter urban and im a park ranger at for the National Park service here at ellis island. This island for Many Americans is a 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 ellis island before that time, so let me talk to you briefly about ellis island itself. Today, we are 27 acres in size. But in the origin form this island was in, it was three acres. A small island in the middle of the the barely came above. Its first serve as a fort in 1812 and then as a storage depot. Somewhere around 1890, it was decided by the federal government that this would be the place that they would institute the first buildings specifically constructed for the processing of immigrants. And so they did construct that building between 1890 and 1892. The building you see here is 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. That happened 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. So the structure you see here is made of brick and limestone and was built between 1898 and 1900. It opened in december of 1900. It is a beautiful building. 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 1,200,000 people. So if you look at the building, there was no third floor on 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, it was really too small to handle the flow, they began to add structures. The building we see straight up here, the three store structuring is called madeleine dormitory. That was across the overflow of people either being detained here or waiting for detain members of their family. I was so enormous that the dormitories and the balconies were too small we also find out the two thirds of the people come through here or going to end up going to other parts of america. Only about a third of them will go to new york city. So this building right here was construct an added on for a place for emigrants to buy their tickets and start their lives and go to other parts of the country. Large portion polish population going to. Chicago a large check propagate gordon nebraska. A lot of slow backs going down to texas. So they had ticket windows for 12 railroads that would eventually sell the tickets at the end of the trip, and they would eventually go across the trip to the new jersey terminal where they would eventually find a train to take them out to most likely friends and relatives who were already settled in those areasy. The other third will be heading to new york and those people will find many different ethnic neighborhoods that oftentimes will welcome them with open arms. Were now staring at the seawall of ellis islands facing out of new york harbor. This is a Perfect Place for us to begin this story the immigrants who came here. 12 to 13 Million People would make their way through the building we have here other journey started back in europe when they made that very brave and and ambitious decision to may to leave everybody knew behind and to make the 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 save for quite a lot time the money to buy a ticket and make the way through this building. An immigrant had to pay 30 dollars of the money of the time period which could be 700 dollars of todays money just for a ticket for a spot and an ocean liner that was never meant for any human being. The ocean liners an out always taken place of first class passengers, who paid thousands of dollars in todays money it would be able to be winded 90 treated like royalty. Even if he had just a little less money, you had a second class ticket that would give you a modest but private room, shipping Companies Began to realize that so many people who are poor wanted to come here in the late 1800s and 19 hundreds they had to accommodate that demand. So they looked at their ships, they figure they could sacrifice cargo holds. Cramped, dirty, usually places for crates of that nature, they now housed bunk beds, sometimes three to four high, packed in tightly. The immigrant who is coming to ellis island would be a positives a passage in those lower decks. Those lowered acts were not pleasant, very little light, very little ventilation, about 1000 to 1500 of them packed down there and your ship ride could take anywhere from week to a month. So coming to america was a great challenge. They were leaving port cities like liverpool hamburg, where shipping companies had their offices. Very important part of the immigrant story as when they boarded the ship, they had to answer 25 to 30 questions about themselves to a shipping clerk from the company. And those answers are going to be a very important part of the immigrant story because thats the information that is going to be used to into interrogate the immigrants to determine whether they have the right to land here. So return to that story a little bit later but i want to bring it in right now. So were to harbor for a reason. Were going to assume that the immigrant ship is made it across safely. The first place they will enter new york harbor as where you see the burn the narrows bridge. When there is the first place where inspectors will board ships to check to see if the ship has a raging epidemic of a disease. They dont want to let immigrants bringing diseases into this country so thats one of the first things are checking in the hall. Now inspectors are likely to find anyone 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 the shipping Company Brought somebody here who was to be deported, they had to bring them back at the shipping companies cost. So Many Companies had their own Food Processing before they got here. Did mean that people wouldnt get sick on the ship. So they be taken off the ship there and your ocean liners are gonna move into this harbor. Now if youre looking at the harbor today, its about the most peaceful site irreverent 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. So this harbor would be full with commercial vessels, private vessels, ocean liners, especially at peak time here in the mid 1900s 1910 time period. You have ocean liners out here with anchored waiting for a dock to open. There would be noise, there will be dingy atmosphere, there were no environmental laws back then, and a poor little immigrant farmer who are going to be from rural areas, theyre gonna be absolutely amazed at the site. Theyre gonna look at the skyline of new york and even some of the smaller buildings that may have been here, not the beautiful modern struck shuns. They all look very big compared to they dont look very big compared to one world trade, but furniture ensues never seen more than a couple stories in a building, its gonna be like something from outer space. Theyre welcome to america is twofold, this gorgeous sight, this harbor and of course they are absolutely amazed at lady liberty. Absolutely gorgeous sight which opened in 1886. So up the harbor the ship comes, a lot of people who come here think that the ships docked here in a lot people out but thats not true. Its just too shallow for Something Like that. The ships are gonna make their way up the harbor and theyre gonna go up to docs up the river today where the uss entrap it is. Now here is where an immigrant learns a first lesson in america. In america, money talks. Because our 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, theyre going to be let out to go start their lives. The thinking was this. If you have a slight analysts, youve got the money to pay for a doctor. Youre gonna be able to go and get the care unit and youre also gonna be able to afford a place to live. Now the third class passengers, they got those 30dollar tickets and in their pocket hopefully another couple of hundred dollars not theyre gonna have to prove that they have when they get inside. Still not in enough to prove that theyre not really a problem to society. Theyre afraid of brave people bringing diseases, people there frayed people being involved in crime, theyre afraid of being overwhelmed by the population. So thats what ellis island does, it steerage is west passengers to come into this country. Theres a very clear delineation. If you have the money, here in. If you dont have the money, youre gonna get checked. So when we had inside in just a couple of minutes, were gonna store start the story of those immigrants who come off the ship, they walk down here by ferry, and you can enter the front door and come into the first floor of ellis island which really look dramatically different then does now. Okay, were about to action and to the main entrance of ellis island. But 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 department of Health Services which was just a fantastic crew of doctors who cared for immigrants who were detained for medical reasons. About 10 of the people who came through here were detained for medical reasons. A string of buildings that we see right here or for non contagious disease. Behind at about 30 years parallel, a string of buildings for contagious disease so there was a measles ward, a tuberculosis ward. There was an insane asylum, there is a more, thats one of the scariest places ive ever been in my life. This was a real operating island. 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. And they did a great job of nursing people back to health who had diseases that were curable. For a big standard here. If you had it is ease that was incurable and contagious, you are definitely going back. If you have an incurable disease, its more likely that youre going back. So its a very big part of our complex, its not open to the public yet. Its being worked on, so definitely ellis island is a work in progress. Slowly but surely, we will hopefully get that complex opened up and open for the public to see. So, walking up the ramp underneath the balcony excuse me underneath the canopy here at ellis island, this canopy and the spot would be in a place where immigrants who just got enough about here wouldve lined up to go in the door and begin their process. The original canopy headlock slate roofs. People lined up here and what they had with them was virtually only what was important to them. From many who are bringing their entire families at the same time, i had to sell everything they own back in europe. A foreign land, the cattle, all the supplies, the farm itself just to be able to afford all of the fares for everyone coming here. So youll see inside this beautiful picture that shows you this. A bag, a satchel, a steamer trunk and everything the family owns that is a value to them will come with them. So lets take you inside. The rumor entering right now is the baggage room. Here is the place where immigrants got their first sight of ellis island and to be honest with you this room looked a very different depending on the moment you came. In 1907, according to some floor plans ive seen, immigrants who came through the store had to go immediately over to our left, there are right where a medical examination would take place. Now eventually they would end up in the staircase which is originally right up in the middle of the ceiling that took you right up and in middle of the great hall. Now 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 bigots growing up the stairs here became highly impractical and they had to find a way to make it work more efficiently. So around 1912, the stairwell in the middle of the room was closed up and wouldnt staircase was built right where we have our modern staircase 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 are here, they handle a highly chaotic situation but were really efficient and in a compassionate way. It didnt mean it wasnt scary or terrifying to the immigrants, but i think there was a lot of care put forward to make things better. Well tell you this. 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 are bringing their baggage in and you can see samples of the baggage here that we have. Baggage handlers could hold your luggage, make sure it gets on your boat when you go on catch the ferry or catch the train. Early on, we had concession airs who took advantage. Baggage handlers were double or triple charge them for their services. Money exchange, people would often give them back just a small amount of what their money was worth and pocket the rest. The food concession people dressed up somebody looking like an inspector and he told crowds that if they didnt buy lunch from the food stand, they get deported. Now give credit to one of our earlier commissioners here, william williams, who jet best dressed up a couple of his best inspectors as inspectors as immigrants and looking for corruption corruption and was very instrumental in getting rid of the some of the corruption making it easier for people coming through. So here you come in and after 1912, youre going to be directed to go up those stairs. Were gonna head up the stairs to the second floor to talk about the medical processing. Were also gonna see most of the room that most of you have come to know as the a symbol of ellis island. Its officially called the the great hall of ellis island. Its in the jet stick piece of architecture. Were gonna take you place where the immigrants are following up the stairs if you will. So were heading up the stairs to the second floor. As i said, this is a modern staircase. But imagine there being a wooden staircase here that immigrants would walk up in large crowds. Some had refused to get their packages to the baggage handlers so theyve got either suitcase or perhaps she was stuff and it over the shoulder, their belongings. And theyre all coming up the stairs in 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, perhaps they stop the photo. They might be carrying a big bag and holding the 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 they would be watching. So as you got to the top of the stairs here, those inspectors would come up to you with one other tools of the trade, a piece of chalk. And then in america coat up with initials that signify exactly what they may be the condition you have. Stopped oh gets an alpha lameness, the Person Holding their chest might have a hard problem age. The person who was so ecstatic to be here that theyre singing and dancing, they might feel they have a condition of needs to be checked mentally so they have an expert on the coat. On immigrants didnt expect this. I sometimes do this on my tours, i ask everybody to do something and when they dont do it, what we have to check your hearing because they were listening. And again, not to make them feel bad about themselves but its all about the idea of inspection without understanding whats going on. Now, doctors will meet you here and you give me an inspection that is just about as fast and medical inspection as youre ever gonna get. I know there was sometimes called a six second specialist for that reason. Anywhere from five to ten seconds, maybe 15. They are a highly skilled members of the u. S. Public Health Service they can spot the smallest sign a 50 to 60 elements that normally inflicted emigrant. Again any doubt they you have something means more initials are gonna go in your coat. The one set of initials that you dont want to get our ctv. The city represented enormous called truck coma. Settlement was a disease was a muffed spread disease in the past, its still exist in some parts of the world. Who would eventually rub away make your eye blind. Highly contagious an incurable. They had to check the eyes and they would use button hooks, these little hooks that were used to pull up gloves of women of high society. It will catch your eyelid and to see through telltale signs of tree coma were there. So if you are there taken at this moment with initials on a, quote doesnt mean youre automatically gonna be sent back. It did mean that dime 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. They didnt have the time to give you a thorough exam but the doctors down at all could look at you and looking more thoroughly with just so this initials article. The vast majority, there will be no problem. We have a stop, toe will be treated no come back out. But for some, it may mean and interment in the hospitals of the days weeks and even months. And for some, as i said and may mean the doctors report that in fact a need to be sent back. So this is 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 right to 1918 as to what we had. The ceiling that you see up here, those tiles were put up here by a Family Company called cousteau venal family. Their work is still famous and places like carnage a whole the. 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 replaced. So the goose to phenom work is legendary and its solid. The floor were standing on his over 100 years old. When they flax 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 rose wouldve come up to the middle of the room. Once he got past his medical inspection, youre gonna come and sit and wait. And when you got off a boat in new york, 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 op 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 40 questions were asked. Whats your name . Whats your age . Whats your nationality . Weres 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. I 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, 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, pale another bay. 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 fewer american employer. So every one of these questions was asked or sadly. Some of them here are actually physical descriptions. I can actually answer them i looking at the emigrant. 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 had it has been restored to look pretty much the way look to nearly 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 elections. What they try to do is recreate and inspectors desk would look like. There are three inspectors seeded 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 that mean 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 in the 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 aaron, 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 purse 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 many 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 three grandparents who came in 1909 and 1912. Its a very special experience to work 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 their. 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. 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 Processing Center opened in 1892. And for the next 30 years or so, it operated at full tilt as a mass Processing Center. Somewhere in the early 1920s, at the beginning of the process of restricting immigration through very restrictive quota laws, that brought the flow of people through here almost to a halt. World war one 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. It remained open for a neither 30 years. It would be a place where those detained import in new york would be brought out and held until their case was educated. By 1954, we were in the middle of a strong anti communist surge, a fear of foreign elements. By that time, the building ahead really kind of 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 monuments. 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 hat tour. They did bring people out here and walked 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 restore this building. So the statue will be rededicated in 1986 and this building will open in october of 1990. I believe Vice President quail came out to officiate at the opening of the museum. 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, that one of their ancestors came through this building, went through this process and began their families american story. For 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 begin their families america story. I think in all of the discussions of immigration that we have going on today, i think there needs to be a 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. Next, forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley gives an illustrated talk about his work with civil war remains, including excavations from the gettysburg and analysis battlefields. And a confederate submarine that sank just off the coast of charleston, south carolina. Mr. Owsley is the head of biological anthropology at the Smithsonian National museum of natural history. All right, our last speaker for the day as you just heard is mr. Brandon buys. Hes the
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