Ellis Island - original building

Annie Moore from County Cork Ireland arrived on January 1, 1892 was the first person to enter the U.S. via Ellis Island.

The first hospital on Ellis Island opened in 1902.

The 1891 legislation set a precedent for federal intervention and established a formal process by

which immigrants would be accepted or excluded.

• In 1903 beggars, the insane, prostitutes and anarchists are excluded

• In 1907 a literacy requirement is added

• In 1924 a quota system significantly reduces the number of immigrants coming to America

Doctor boarding steamship to inspect first- and second-class passengers in the privacy of their

own cabins

On average, 4,000 to 5,000 immigrants were processed each day on Ellis Island. The largest number of immigrants processed in one day

was just over 11,000 in April, 1907

More Italians entered through Ellis Island than any other group. Approximately four million immigrants arrived from Italy.

Terence Powderly Fiorello LaGuardia

The Immigrant’s Tag was placed on the clothing of each immigrant upon arrival

Six second medical exam

Eye Exam

The Button Hook

These immigrant children, who arrived with favus, a skin disease of the scalp, were treated in the hospitals on Ellis Island.

Chalk marks

Mental Health

Immigrants awaiting examination on Ellis Island, c. 1920

Immigrants’ names were checked against the steamship manifests as part the screening procedure on Ellis Island.

Most immigrant spent only four or five hours on Ellis Island, departing through the ferry terminal onto boats that delivered them to New York City or the Central Railroad of NJ terminal in Jersey City, where they

boarded trains to destinations across the country.

Immigrants who were detained on Ellis Island, mostly awaiting a relative to retrieve them, were served three meals a day. Immigrants

often spoke about eating unfamiliar food, like bananas.

U.S. Public Health Service doctors and nurses posed in front of the general hospital with young immigrant patients.

An operating room on Ellis Island, as it looked in the 1920s. U. S. Public Health Service doctors practiced the latest in medical knowledge

and techniques, giving immigrant patients the best of medical treatment.

One of the wards in the Ellis Island hospital. Patients were treated for everything from broken bones to tuberculosis and other contagious

diseases. Three hundred fifty-three babies were born on Ellis Island and 3,500 people died in the hospitals.

Immigrants confined to the Ellis Island hospitals spent some of their time in craft classes and other activities. A library near the hospitals

had books and newspapers on twenty-six languages.

As part of the health services on Ellis Island, nurses held baby clinics for immigrant mothers.