Ellis Island. Postcard, postmarked March 17, 1911.
“Immigrants at Ellis Island, New York,” March 1911
Category Archives: Immigration to the U.S.
“In the ‘tween deck”
Postcard, postmarked November 20, 1907
“Italian Fisherman at T. Wharf, Boston, Mass.”
Postcard, dated June 6, 1907.
Italian immigrant camp, 1908
Real photo postcard, postmarked September 4, 1908.
The text on the card reads: "Italian Camp On Line of New Bennington & No. Adams Electric R.R."
“The Steerage,” Alfred Stieglitz 1907
Alfred Stieglitz, "The Steerage" 1907. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Italian immigrants on the Iron Range
Magic lantern slide, undated.
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . . “
Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, about 1905. Courtesy, U.S. Library of Congress.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
- Emma Lazarus
Torch of the Statue of Liberty on display at the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. Courtesy, U.S. Library of Congress.
Poet Emma Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus" in 1883 as part of the effort to raise funds to pay for the base of the Statue of Liberty. A copy of her sonnet is on a plaque placed there in 1903.
Plaque at the Statue of Liberty, erected 1903. Souvenir real photo postcard, about 1930.
“Embarking Emigrants at Docks, Genoa, Italy”
Stereoview card, ca. 1900
“Welcome to the land of freedom” – Immigrants first see the Statue of Liberty
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 2, 1887. Courtesy, Library of Congress.
"NEW YORK - WELCOME TO THE LAND OF FREEDOM - AN OCEAN STEAMER PASSING THE STATUE OF LIBERTY: SCENE ON THE STEERAGE DECK."
That's the caption of this engraving, which appeared in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper on July 2, 1887.