During the peak years for immigration between 1892 and 1924, 71.4% of the immigrants to America (over fourteen million people) came through New York, and Ellis Island (Birn, 1997). In the early 1920s, the federal government instituted a quota system for accepting immigrants based on the country of origin which resulted in blanket restrictions and declining numbers of arrivals (Baynton, 2005; Birn, 1980). The new laws curtailing immigration, along with the decline of steamship travel in favor of air travel, eventually led to the closure of the facility. The Ellis Island buildings were abandoned and gradually fell into disrepair until the 1980s when restoration and the transformation into the current museum began. The exhibition designed for Ellis Island's reincarnation as a museum does not sentimentalize the experience of the millions who passed through the island (Wallace, 1991). It is clear instead that Ellis Island and its inspection process was “as much filter as portal” (Wallace, 1991, p. 1025). Although its function was to screen out “those considered undesirable- the incurably ill, the impoverished, the disabled, those who belonged to the criminal classes and all others barred by the immigration laws of the United States," (Wallace, 1991, p.1025), Ellis Island was also the starting point for millions of American families' history. Today it is a place where those families can come to learn more about their past and their ancestors who made the journey to America.
You can visit the official Ellis Island Museum website to search ship manifests online at www.ellisisland.org
You can also take a virtual field trip to the island until March 2013 here:
http://bcove.me/20r2lvil
You can find more information on the official National Park Service website at:
http://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm
As well as many teacher resources including:
http://www.archives.gov/education/
http://www.nps.gov/elis/forteachers/upload/FamousFootstepsPacket.pdf
http://www.nps.gov/elis/forteachers/upload/A-Distant-Shore-teachers-guide-2-2.pdf
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/activity/immigration-stories-yesterday-and-today
http://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm
As well as many teacher resources including:
http://www.archives.gov/education/
http://www.nps.gov/elis/forteachers/upload/FamousFootstepsPacket.pdf
http://www.nps.gov/elis/forteachers/upload/A-Distant-Shore-teachers-guide-2-2.pdf
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/activity/immigration-stories-yesterday-and-today