Educational Media Reviews Online

Part of the Great Museums for Social Studies series, The Ellis Island Immigration Museum offers a positive take on the early immigration experience, emphasizing the excitement immigrants felt on arriving at Ellis Island, the services provided to them there and the positive emotions immigrants (and their millions of descendants) feel on tracing their family histories through the Museum’s exhibits and records.

At the turn of the century Ellis Island was the United States’ largest immigration processing center. Ellis Island explains why people left their homes to start new lives in the United States and stresses that, while immigrants were not always welcomed, they ultimately made America a better place. Birgitta Fichter, who came to America from Sweden as a child in 1924, is featured as a model of the immigrant experience. Fichter describes her overseas journey, the excitement of reuniting with her father at Ellis Island’s “Kissing Post,” the personal items she has donated to the Museum and how important the Museum is to her and her family.

Museum representatives discuss the emotional impact of its buildings and collections, which feature immigrants’ personal possessions and focus on people who might not usually be considered historically significant. Ellis Island addresses the myth that immigrants’ names were changed when they were processed through the island, and points out that detainees were looked after by aid societies, offered classes in English language and American culture, had use of a children’s playground, took walks outdoors and were given three meals a day.

The program is illustrated primarily with archival photographs and “talking head” interviews, with some footage showing artifacts from the Museum’s collections. Featured speakers include author Fred Wasserman, Steve Briganti of the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation, Paul Sigrist of the Ellis Island Oral History Project and Diana Pardue, Chief of Museum Services.

The Ellis Island Immigration Museum: Face of America is recommended as an introduction to the Museum and the turn-of-century immigrant experience for those with a general interest, for those planning a visit to the Museum, or as a springboard for further study.