Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920 by Augustus Frederick Sherman

The first big wave of immigrants arrived in America between 1847 and 1860. A larger wave of immigrants from a larger range of countries sailed to America between the late 1800s and 1920. Most of them passed through Ellis Island, New York City. The exhibit of Augustus Frederick Sherman's "Ellis Island Portraits," reminds us that America is still a melting pot. Once again foreign languages and foreign looking clothing are heard and seen in our markets and shopping malls. Once again America is on the rocky road toward assimilation.

"Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920" by Augustus Frederick Sherman
October 11- April 26, 2009
National Heritage Museum
33 Marrett Road/Route 2A
Lexington, MA

If you live in an urban area of any size, you’ve certainly noticed the appearance of people who don’t look “American.” They don’t speak English with fluency and they certainly didn’t buy their wardrobe from Target or Sears. It’s still a bit of a shock to see a woman wearing a head scarf and a strange looking dress who is packing your groceries at the market or collecting your money when you drive past the toll booth at a parking garage. And what about the turbans and clothes worn by some of the men who drive the taxis?

By the middle of the twentieth century the people’s attire and language seemed as homogenized as the milk in the dairy case. In the past decade, though, we’re returning to the delicatessen style look and feel that exploded in the early 20th century. In the beginning, it can feel disorienting and bring on a touch of xenophobia, even in the most liberal-minded.

Just around the time I’m beginning to feel snippy about who these foreigners are, what their religious affiliations and cultural habits are, and who invited them here anyway, I drive to The National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA. One New York minute after I’m walking through the “Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920 by Augustus Frederick Sherman” exhibit, I’m am jolted by the fact that if I’d been me at that time I would have been feeling a bit of condescension about my great-grandfathers Giovanni Sciutto of Genoa and Salvatore Tamburello of Palermo who entered through New York in the early 1900s.

Alfred Stieglitz's photo (not in exhibit): The Steerage, 1907, courtesy of Getty Museum

In Ellis Island’s peak year of 1907, more than 1,000,000 foreigners were processed for entry into America. An earlier wave in the 1800s was French and German. This second wave was mostly Catholics and Jews from Eastern Europe as well as Italians, Greeks, Dutch and Irish. They came for the usual reasons: poverty, persecution, and politics.

Travelers in First Class were processed aboard ship. Those in third class and in steerage passed through Ellis Island. In its heyday, the island could process 5000 people a day and send them off into America. Many headed west. To this day, their descendants populate Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and other areas of the heartland.

And boy oh boy their clothing advertised their heritage like a walking billboard. In Sweden, a maiden’s apron, and blouse could tell you her social status and hometown. The young girl wearing the white blouse and apron with horizontal stripes identifies her as an unmarried female from Ruttvik, a farming town on Lake Siljan in Sweden. Who needed Facebook to know that? You can still see apron patterns like this in Minnesota and South Dakota, but don’t make any assumptions about her marital status from them.

The photographer whose eye captured the immigrants in their raw “just off the boat” state was Augustus Frederick Sherman. An accomplished photographer, he was chief clerk with the Immigration Division at Ellis Island between 1906 and 1921. He had access to the 20% of immigrants who were temporarily detained for health, paperwork, or political background. Most made it through, 2% were deported.

Sherman clicked the shutter when he saw a tilt of the head, a hesitant or proud gaze, a certain bearing of the body, which revealed the person inside the elaborate national costume or unusual clothing.

Photo courtesy of National Heritage Museum web site

Women from the Netherlands wear headgear you might have seen in a Pieter Bruegel painting. Sherman’s photos bring us Romanian shepherds in tunics and boots, Bavarian men in lederhosen, a Syrian family in black embroidered shawls and coats. There is a young Albanian woman who would have been mistaken for a hippie if she wandered into Haight-Ashbury in 1968, and a regal Guadaloupe woman wearing a pillbox hat and flowing dress.

This was us at the dawn of the twentieth century, mostly folk and peasant stock. The pride in where they were coming from had not yet been eroded by taunts or prejudices that certainly would follow them until they had assimilated and become “us,” the citizens who built roads and populated factories and who fought for and died for the country that they now call home. Historians believe that more than 40% of us are descendants of these immigrants.

Look around. Some day these “foreigners” wearing funny clothes and speaking strange languages will be in the Chamber of Commerce and holding office in our city halls. They will don a military uniform with a red, white, and blue emblem on the sleeve. They will be proud of their roots but will be as much a part of our history as those whose portraits line the walls in the gallery at The National Heritage Museum.

They will be our fellow Americans.

Comments

[Barbara]

I just looked at the photos this morning. They are wonderful. The thing that
struck me was the juxtaposition of the subjects with the formal, classic
composition of the actual photos that gave them an aristocratic, almost
regal quality. There was such honoring coming from the photographer. Thanks
for sharing them with me.

[Pat J.]

Paul,
I really enjoyed reading your article. You have inspired me to take a trip over to the museum if the exhibit is still on.

[Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.]

Pat, the exhibit runs through April 26, 2009, so you have plenty of time. There is no charge for admission and there's a decent little food cart serving salads, soup, and sandwiches under a skylight in a small atrium just outside the exhibit. There are several other "Americana" exhibits there, too. Click on the link to their website on my blog to find out more about the museum.
Paul

[Hilary Anderson Stelling]

Thanks for taking the time to visit and review the Sherman show. If, after reading your description, any of your readers can't wait to get to the museum to see the photographs, you can view examples at the New York Public Library, William Williams Collection (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org , click through to related subjects under the subject heading of immigrants, United States.)

Thanks again for you thoughtful review.
Hilary Anderson Stelling,
National Heritage Museum

[Anne Starr]

Thank you for your thoughtful commentary. The photos are truly intriguing, and, as you note, make those of us whose ancestors came through Ellis Island reflect on their experiences. And if you're interested in further comparing the Ellis Island immigrant experience with that of today, the museum is hosting a lecture series on the topic. Please take a look at the Programs and Events page on the museum web site https://www.nationalheritagemuseum.org.
Anne Starr
National Heritage Museum

[Hilary]

If, for future posts, you need photography related to an exhibition,just drop us a line. We will be happy to share images/captions with you.

If you have a second, I am curious to know how you heard about the exhibition.

Best,

Hilary

[Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.]

Hi Hilary,
Thanks for your response, I'll pass it on through my blog. I was told I couldn't photograph inside the exhibit so I used one photo that I shot from your museum catalogue and another I pulled (and attributed) from your web site. Thanks for the offer to supply photos - I will certainly get in touch with you any other time I come out to review an exhibition.
I believe the exhibit came up on my radar as I was perusing the then Calendar section of the Globe, now succeeded by the "g" section. I didn't see Mark Feeney's writeup in the Globe till I completed my own and was interested in comparing how we interpreted the exhibit. Thanks again for this conversation.
Best,
Paul