Views from the Digital Collections: Immigrants Arriving at Ellis Island
View of the Immigration Station, Ellis Island
Photo by Edwin Levick. NYPL Digital Collections: Image ID: 416766
On April 17, 1907 a record-breaking 11,000 immigrants arrived in the U.S. through Ellis Island. For this reason, the week surrounding this date is used to celebrate Immigrant Heritage Week in New York City and honor the many contributions immigrants have made to our city throughout its history.
The New York Public Library's Digital Collections contain many photographs of the Ellis Island facilities and the people who arrived there from all over the world seeking a better life for themselves and their families. A sampling of photographs is below and we invite you to explore more. The majority of the photographs were taken by Augustus Sherman, who worked as a clerk on Ellis Island from 1892 to 1925, and social photographer Lewis Wickes Hine.
Interpreter and recorder interviewing newcomers, Ellis Island, New York.
Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, 1908. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 79880
Three women from Guadeloupe.
Photo by Augustus Sherman. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1206544
A family of seven sons and one daughter, Ellis Island, New York.
Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 79883
Photo by Augustus Sherman. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1206547
Immigrants being served a meal at Ellis Island.
Photo by Edwin Levick. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 416780
Italian family looking for lost baggage, Ellis Island.
Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, 1905. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 79878
Hindoo boy.
Photo by Augustus Sherman, 1908. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 418056
German stowaway.
Photo by Augustus Sherman, 1911. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 418057
Group photograph of newly-arrived immigrants in native costumes, some with turbans, some with fezzes.
NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 417072