Awaiting Examination, Ellis Island. New Jersey New York Ellis Island, 1920. [1 June] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/97501087/.
Understanding what immigration meant and what it looked like for almost every family in the United States is an important part of teaching the history of immigration. This primary source, along with countless others from the Library of Congress, offers not only an accurate view of immigration, but also the harsh reality of it. This is a photo from the 1920s just after WWI ended and before the beginning of WWII. Many of the people depicted in such works were coming to the US to escape persecution.
This is a photo of people waiting in a queue at Ellis Island. As the title suggests, immigrants need to be examined before they proceed to the next step for immigration.
As immigrants came to America by way of the East Coast, they arrived at Ellis Island to be processed. This process could take hours or days, depending on how many people were coming, what you were bringing, or what your nationality was. There were times in our history when we excluded people of certain races.
- When you read the title of this photo, what does it make you feel?
- Why would people need to be examined?
- What kinds of people do you see here?
- How do you think these people are connected?
Texas ELAR TEKS and Texas Social Studies TEKS
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ELA Standards |
Social studies standards |
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5.6G: evaluate details read to determine key ideas.
5.7C: use text evidence to support an appropriate response.
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5.4F: identify the challenges, opportunities, and contributions of people from various American Indian and immigrant groups such as the settlement of the frontier and building of the Transcontinental Railroad.
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- Ellis Island was the main thoroughfare for immigration to the United States. Starting with this image of Ellis Island will help ground students in any topic studies that come later. Teachers can use the Primary Source Analysis Tool from The Library of Congress, and if needed, can change the words to read “See, Think, Wonder” for a variation of terms.
- Connecting the work to any children’s book that discusses immigrants or immigration will help make this photo become more real for students.
- Watercress by Jason Chin (author) and Andrea Wang (illustrator) is an excellent follow-up read-aloud to this photo. While this photo shows historical immigration experiences, the parents and children in Watercress are current immigrants, trying to hold on to their culture.
- A Different Pond by Bao Phi (author) and Thi Bui (illustrator) shows the work ethic of an immigrant family and the emotional side of losing your cultural identity in immigration.
- This can also be used to show students how the Transcontinental Railroad was built by a large portion of immigrants, namely Chinese immigrants. This will allow teachers to showcase both east and west immigrant paths in the US. The Asian American Education Foundation has videos and essays that help teach this aspect of immigration to the US.
- There is a tendency to shy away from the topic of immigration, but the US was populated by people from other countries, with the exception of Native Americans. Learning the history of immigration in the US is a requirement (in most states), a right, and a privilege. Showcasing the breadth of immigrant experiences helps showcase facts versus fiction.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- iCivics has some elementary resources about how to teach topics like immigration.
- This is an eight-page book on immigration law from 1866. This could be used in place of a picture of people waiting inspection.
- A simple photograph of Ellis Island could be used in place of people experiencing immigration first hand.
- National Geographic has resources for Ellis Island, both past and present.
- The State Department has copies of The Chinese Exclusion Act, which could be used for historical background for this primary source.
- The National Parks System has a collection called Chinese Labor and the Iron Road that has primary sources as well as commentary to explain how Chinese immigrants helped build in the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
- How we built the Union Pacific railway, and other railway papers and addresses is a collection of 246 images that have a variety of images of books, cartoons, drawings, and maps all covering how the railroad was built at the turn of the nineteenth century.