Augustus F. Sherman

"I See My Own Face Everywhere"

Italian woman Did your family travel through Ellis Island? Has some interesting story about how your ancestors came to America been passed down the generations? We asked questions like these of visitors to “Augustus Frederick Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits, 1905–1920.” Since the exhibition opened in October, visitors have shared a number of funny, thoughtful, and intriguing responses with us. Here is a sampling:

“My husband’s grandmother got on a ship from Europe to Ellis Island with her fiancé. She got off the boat engaged to my husband’s grandfather, NOT the original fiancé. We only wish we knew the stories of what happened on board!”

“My grandfather immigrated to the USA. Bought some land—then back to Ireland. Got married, had 11 children: 10 girls, 1 boy. Never returned to America.”

“My father came from an island in Greece—with no money but full of expectation and hope to build a family and new life in the USA. He did and was successful.”

“My mother’s parents and siblings came to the U.S. via Ellis island around 1910. My uncle took sick on ship and was taken off during a stop in Scotland. My grandmother was hysterical that she would not see him again. She waited at Ellis Island for a week and, sure enough, my uncle arrived on a later ship. As a token of my uncle’s stay in at Scottish hospital, he carried his picture taken at hospital, dressed in kilt! That picture (and the story) is still with our family to this day.”

“I immigrated from the U.S. to Australia in 2004.  It was struggle to figure out the visa application, housing, and even where to shop for certain things…. It struck me at the time and ever since how difficult immigration is for those who don’t speak the right language of who have very few resources. Makes you very vulnerable, to be in that situation.”

The exhibition has also helped our visitors gain new understanding about their ancestors’ lives as they settled in their new country. One commented, “This interesting exhibit clearly show how similar … we are to these brave people who faced adversity, change and the future with courage in their hearts and hope in their eyes. Just as we need to today.” Another observer said simply, “I see my own face everywhere.”

We hope you will tell us about your family’s immigration experience by clicking the Comments link below. Or you can visit the exhibition and leave us your thoughts on a comment card. “Augustus Frederick Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits, 1905–1920” will be on view through April 26, 2009.

Photo: Italian woman. Augustus Frederick Sherman (1865-1925). Courtesy of Aperture Foundation and Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island Immigration Museum


Ellis Island: Gateway to America

A thought-provoking new exhibition of portraits of immigrants, taken at Ellis Island by registry clerk Augustus F. Sherman, recently opened at the National Heritage Museum, and will be on view until April 26,2009. Equally as intriguing is Ellis Island’s place in American history as the primary immigration processing center at the height of immigration.

Main gallery Ellis Island Leaving their homelands to escape poverty or religious or political persecution, or lured by the promise of economic opportunity, more than 20 million people immigrated to America between 1892 and 1924. Some traveled with their families, but many sent a husband or older child to America to work for several years to pay for the rest of the family’s passage. More than 70 percent of them traveled through Ellis Island. Today, historians believe that more than 40 percent of Americans are descended from these trailblazers.
 
Augustus F. Sherman took the photographs featured in the exhibition from 1905-1920, during Ellis Island’s heyday. In 1907, the peak year, more than 1 million immigrants passed through its halls. The largest numbers were Catholics and Jews from eastern Europe, as well as Italians and Greeks. Many Germans, Dutch and Irish immigrated to America during this period as well.

Officials at Ellis Island processed immigrants primarily to weed out the sick and the indigent. Well-off travelers were assessed aboard ship, but the passengers traveling in steerage or third class disembarked at Ellis Island. There, doctors inspected them for “a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease,” mental illness, or physical deformities, writing codes in chalk on the immigrants’ clothing to indicate potential health problems. Then, aided by interpreters, inspectors questioned each immigrant about his or her name, place of origin, literacy level, job skills, and financial means, to determine whether he or she was likely to become a burden to American society. Officials detained those suspected of problems for anxiety-ridden hours, days or weeks. These were the people Sherman photographed. Although most immigrants ultimately made it to New York, 2 percent were deported.

World War I intensified native-born Americans’ fears of foreigners. The U.S. government soon passed new immigration laws, enacted in 1924, which set quotas and slowed the influx of immigrants to America. As immigration legislation changed, Ellis Island’s role as a processing station became unnecessary. Its function shifted to law enforcement—arrest and deportation of foreigners suspected of crimes—until it finally closed in 1954. It reopened in 1990 as a museum, paying tribute to the many intrepid travelers who passed through its doors to start new lives in America.

The Great Hall seen from the west balcony, pre-1916. Augustus Frederick Sherman. Ellis Island, New York. Courtesy of Aperture Foundation and Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island Immigration Museum


“I See My Own Face Everywhere”: Augustus Frederick Sherman’s Portraits Resonate with Visitors

Copy of Dutch siblings We thought you would be interested to hear that in the few weeks that “Augustus Frederick Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits, 1905-1920” has been open, it has touched a chord with visitors.

We greatly appreciate the comments visitors offer verbally to staff, and on comments cards. Many of the thoughts we have received have been funny, insightful, and intriguing. Here is a sampling:

In answer to the question, “If you were immigrating to another country, what you bring and why?,” one visitor said, “No matter what country I immigrate to, it will be my home if my family is with me.” A young visitor noted, “If I didn’t have to be selective, I would take a lot.”

Some visitors shared their immigration stories with us, including this one: “My husband’s grandmother got on a ship from Europe to Ellis Island with her fiancé. She got off the boat engaged to my husband’s grandfather, NOT the original fiancé. We only wish we knew the stories of what happened on board!”

Many of Sherman’s portraits inspire curiosity. More visitors have responded to the query, “Who in these photos would you like to meet?” than any other. One visitor wrote, “I would like to meet the two German stowaways and ask them where they got their tattoos. I am sure they have a story for each one.” Another said, “I would like to meet a mother of many children and ask her how she managed such a large group on such a long and uncertain voyage!”

In sharing their impressions of the exhibition, visitors left these thoughtful remarks. One commented, “This interesting exhibit clearly shows how similar … we are to these brave people who faced adversity, change and the future with courage in their hearts and hope in their eyes. Just as we need to today.” Another observer said simply, “I see my own face everywhere.”

In addition, the exhibition warranted a full-page review in The Boston Globe by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Mark Feeney. He called the exhibition “deeply affecting,” and characterized Sherman as the unlikely bureaucrat who became an “inadvertent artist.” Margaret Smith, art critic for The MetroWest Daily News sees the portraits as “studies of hope, fear, bewilderment and often pride in one’s place of origin and determination in one’s destination.” We hope you will visit! 

Dutch siblings from the island of Marken, holding religious tracts
Augustus Frederick Sherman (1865-1925)
Courtesy of Aperture Foundation and Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island Immigration Museum



Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits, 1905 – 1920

Girl K region jpegFrom October 11, 2008-April 26, 2009 the National Heritage Museum is presenting "Augustus Frederick Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits, 1905–1920," organized by the Aperture Foundation.   In working on the installation of the exhibition, we found these photographs of the people coming through Ellis Island both striking and evocative.

An amateur photographer and employee of the Executive Division of the Bureau of Immigration at Ellis Island, Sherman had access to immigrants detained at Ellis Island because they were ill or because inspectors sought proof of their means of support.  From around 1905 through the early 1920s, Sherman captured over 200 images (now housed at the National Park Service's Ellis Island Immigration Museum and the New York Public Library) of travelers and families from, literally, all over the globe. Algerian jpeg

We are excited to share this show with our visitors.  It offers a view on a quintessentially American story that resonates personally for  many.  As noted in one of the exhibition’s text panels, more than 20 million people immigrated to America between 1892 and 1924. Over than 70 percent of them traveled through Ellis Island, an average of 5,000 immigrants per day during the peak years from 1905-1907. Today, historians believe that more than 40 percent of Americans are descended from these immigrants.  These compelling photographs draw us into their world and invite  you to imagine what the subjects’ or our own forebears’ experience was like.  We all live in the country that these travelers helped shape and build. 


For more information see the description of the exhibition on our website.  As well, see the book that accompanies the exhibition,  Augustus F. Sherman:  Ellis Island Portraits, 1905-1920, published by the Aperture Foundation in 2005.  It includes an historical essay by exhibition curator Peter Mesenholler. 

 

Girl from the Kochersberg region near Strasbourg, Alsace
Augustus Frederick Sherman (1865-1925)
Courtesy of Aperture Foundation and Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island Immigration Museum

Algerian man
Augustus Frederick Sherman (1865-1925)
Courtesy of Aperture Foundation and Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island Immigration Museum