The American Dream: The Journey of Immigrants in the Early 20th Century United States

These are some of the Italians who became of the barbers, waiters, chauffeurs and mayors of America. Some became the artists and sculptors of our national Capitol and of other public buildings.

This Armenian Jew probably left his native land to escape the Turkish persecution of the post-war period. His beard is typical of that worn by the orthodox Jews of Europe and the near East

This woman is wearing her native costume. At times the Island looked like a costume ball with the multicolored, many-styled national costumes.

The desire to come to America must have been very strong for this young man to face all sorts of uncertainties.

Jewish immigration from Russia dates back to the 1840s. The Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and the Pogroms kept the exodus high. Today there are supposedly 2,000,000 Russian Jews in America.

The woman in the background carries her baggage in typical peasant fashion. The identification tag on her chest is the first touch of American civilization.

The attendant brings a milk lunch, a great improvement over former days, when prunes or prune sandwiches, was the chief diet offered.

Notice the variety of foods on the table; this is a considerable improvement over the earlier days. The room too is less crowded and more comfortable looking.

A social worker explains to a group of immigrants some of the technicalities of becoming an American.

Here the elders too could play baseball, box or play some of their native games. In the background New York skyline can be seen.

This little girl finds the wonders of Ellis Island and the New World far more fascinating than the first penny clasped in her hand.

This beautiful mother and child sit outside the detention cell. Sometimes 1700 immigrants were crowded into a room which was built to accommodate 600.

The large window in the background becomes a halo for this Russian family, who might have been a suitable subject for a Renaissance painter.

Carrying clothing to the tenement to be ‘finished’ by family. Many young children have been employed long hours this way when they should have been at play or study.

This young Slovak woman is one of the vast number of her people who started to come as early as the 18th century. Hungarian persecution started an extensive wave of migration by Slovaks to this country”

Until 1918, the stream of immigration of the Czechs and Slovaks was independent, so that today there are actually twice as many Czechs and Slovaks in the United States

Ellis Island was not only recipient of the great Italian immigration of the early nineteen hundreds. A very large number went to South America, settling in Argentina and Chile

This is a typical German sampling of farmers, scholars, professional men, and perhaps a butcher. The group is fairly prosperous as modern clothes and baggage indicate

This is the small boat of the Immigration Service which carried aliens from the pier to Ellis Island. Sometimes the number of immigrants waiting to be transferred was so great, that they waited for several days and nights before the little ferry boat could bring them to the island.