We often forget that every single one of the immigrants who entered this country between 1892 and 1954 was a unique individual with their own cultural identity. These people came to the United States filled with the hope of a better life, and the mingling of their cultures eventually wove the fabric of American identity.
But it’s easy to quantify these people into lists of numbers, names, and nations. It’s far more difficult, however, to reach back into the past and reveal the faces behind those facts and figures. A man named Augustus Sherman worked as an immigration intake clerk for 25 years. He was determined to document the immensity of Ellis Island’s mission, and his photographs pay homage to the basis of what makes this country great.
This is the image that we associate with Ellis Island today.
While the Immigrant Wall of Honor is an incredibly important monument, there’s something distant and isolating about seeing thousands of names etched into shiny stone walls.
But the images that Sherman captured over the course of his career reveal the true faces of immigration.
Russian Cossacks
Woman from the West Indies
By confining these people to textbooks, we lose touch with the fact that a wave of diversity rolled in every time a new ship docked at Ellis Island.
German Stowaway
Norwegian Woman
Sherman photographed the final glimpses of who these people were before they started over in America.
Albanian Soldier
Boy from India
These images reveal a collision of pain, confusion, and triumph that’s unique to those who adopt new identities.
Women from Guadeloupe
Italian Woman
If you traced lines between Ellis Island and each nation that was represented by the immigrants who arrived there decades ago, you could easily cover an entire map.
Danish Man
Shepherd from Albania
And even after so many years, this country is still emblematic of hope and opportunity. America rests in the hearts and minds of people around the world who dream of leading better lives.
Children from the Netherlands
(via Wimp)
While Ellis Island’s heyday seems like something from a bygone era, the reality is that people from nations around the world see America as a symbol of freedom to this day. We should all be proud of this legacy, and it’s important that we keep it alive for as long as we can.