Chances are you'll be with a crowd of international tourists as you disembark at Ellis Island. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the jostling crowd 100 times larger. Now picture that your journey has lasted weeks at sea and that your daypack contains all your worldly possessions, including all your money. You're hungry, tired, jobless, and homeless. This scenario just begins to set the stage for the story of the millions of poor immigrants who passed through Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th century. Between 1892 and 1924, approximately 12 million men, women and children first set foot on U.S. soil at the Ellis Island federal immigration facility. By the time the facility closed in 1954, it had processed ncestors of more than 40% of Americans living today.
What's Here
The island's main building, now a national monument, reopened in 1990 as the Ellis Island Immigration museum, containing more than 30 galleries of artifacts, photographs, and taped oral histories. The centerpiece of the museum is the white tile Registry Room (also known as the Great Hall). It feels dignified and cavernous today, but photographs show that it took on a multitude of configurations through the years, always packed with humanity undergoing one form of screening or another. While you're there, take a look out the Registry Room's tall, arched windows and try to imagine what passed through immigrants' minds as they viewed lower Manhattan's skyline to one side and the Statue of Liberty to the other.
Along with the Registry Room, the museum's features include the ground level Railroad Ticket Office, which has several interactive exhibits and a three dimensional graphic representation of American immigration patterns; the American Family Immigration Center, where for a fee you can search Ellis Island's records for your own ancestors; and, outside, the American Immigrant Wall of Honor, where the names of more than 700,000 immigrant Americans are inscribed along a promenade facing the Manhattan skyline.
The gift shop has a selection of international dolls, candies, and crafts. You can also personalize a number of registry items here as well.
Making the Most of Your Visit
Because there's so much to take in, it's a good idea to make the use of the museum's interpretive tools. Check at the visitor desk for free film tickets, ranger tour times, and special programs.
Consider starting your visit with a viewing of the free film Island of Hope, Island of Tears. A park ranger starts off with a short intoduction, then the 25 minute film takes you through an immigrant's journey from the troubled conditions of European life (especially true for ethnic and religious minorities), to their nervous arrival at Ellis Island, and their introduction into American cities. The film is a primer into all the exhibits and will deeply enhance your experience.
The audio tour ($8) is also worthwhile : it takes you through the exhibits, providing thorough, engaging commentary interspersed with recordings of immigrants themselves recalling their experiences.
The island's main building, now a national monument, reopened in 1990 as the Ellis Island Immigration museum, containing more than 30 galleries of artifacts, photographs, and taped oral histories. The centerpiece of the museum is the white tile Registry Room (also known as the Great Hall). It feels dignified and cavernous today, but photographs show that it took on a multitude of configurations through the years, always packed with humanity undergoing one form of screening or another. While you're there, take a look out the Registry Room's tall, arched windows and try to imagine what passed through immigrants' minds as they viewed lower Manhattan's skyline to one side and the Statue of Liberty to the other.
Along with the Registry Room, the museum's features include the ground level Railroad Ticket Office, which has several interactive exhibits and a three dimensional graphic representation of American immigration patterns; the American Family Immigration Center, where for a fee you can search Ellis Island's records for your own ancestors; and, outside, the American Immigrant Wall of Honor, where the names of more than 700,000 immigrant Americans are inscribed along a promenade facing the Manhattan skyline.
The gift shop has a selection of international dolls, candies, and crafts. You can also personalize a number of registry items here as well.
Making the Most of Your Visit
Because there's so much to take in, it's a good idea to make the use of the museum's interpretive tools. Check at the visitor desk for free film tickets, ranger tour times, and special programs.
Consider starting your visit with a viewing of the free film Island of Hope, Island of Tears. A park ranger starts off with a short intoduction, then the 25 minute film takes you through an immigrant's journey from the troubled conditions of European life (especially true for ethnic and religious minorities), to their nervous arrival at Ellis Island, and their introduction into American cities. The film is a primer into all the exhibits and will deeply enhance your experience.
The audio tour ($8) is also worthwhile : it takes you through the exhibits, providing thorough, engaging commentary interspersed with recordings of immigrants themselves recalling their experiences.
