Ellis Island, N.Y. Line Inspection of Arriving Aliens
1923
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On the ground floor of the main building on Ellis Island, immigrants checked their precious belongings. They then climbed stairs with immigration officials observing them. At the top of the stairs, they were directed either to detainment in a physical examination room or to the registry room for legal inspection. In the spacious registry room, throngs of people were channeled slowly toward inspectors. Aliens failing to answer questions properly were immediately sent to special inquiry rooms for further questioning, language interpretation, or tests of mental acuity. Most passengers spent an average of five hours at Ellis Island before they descended a staircase on the opposite end of the hall to retrieve baggage and purchase ferry and rail tickets to final destinations. Detainees, however, slept in cramped third-floor dormitories until their special cases were reviewed. Most of the immigrants detained at Ellis Island were kept for medical reasons. Public Health Service doctors estimated that they spent fewer than 10 seconds on each individual at the top of the first stairwell in their search for manifestations of more than 60 diseases. They looked for rashes, pox, lameness, pregnancy, and mental disorders. With a buttonhook, they peeled back eyelids, searching for signs of the highly contagious disease trachoma. Anyone exhibiting signs of illness received a blue chalk mark on the lapel and was detained. Those who passed the scrutiny of the Public Health Service faced another hurdle at the legal inspection station. With ship manifests in hand, inspectors questioned each potential entrant with the aid of translators. After "Name?" and "Place of Birth?,” the inspectors’ questions became more complex as they searched for responses that might give reason for exclusion. Inspectors asked aliens if they had criminal records or if they were anarchists. Unaccompanied women were denied entry if there was no father or husband to claim them; they were labeled "of questionable character." Men who answered that they had a job could be barred for violating the ban on contract labor. Ironically, if men claimed to have no job awaiting them, they could be denied entry as "likely to become a public charge." Those individuals passing all inspections, immediately or after weeks of detainment, collected their baggage, purchased their rail tickets, and carefully passed through the "golden door."
Text adapted from"Photographs of Ellis Island: The High Tide of Immigration" in the September 1994 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.
This primary source comes from the Records of the Public Health Service.
National Archives Identifier:
6116683Full Citation: Photograph 90-G-125-57; Ellis Island, N.Y. Line Inspection of Arriving Aliens; 1923; Public Health Service Historical Photograph File, 1880 - 1943; Records of the Public Health Service, Record Group 90; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/ellis-island-ny-line-inspection-of-arriving-aliens, April 26, 2024]