William Williams Documents Ellis Island Immigrants
CHAPTER ONE Taking Charge President Theodore Roosevelt gave William Williams an important assignment when he appointed the lawyer commissioner of Ellis Island in 1902 make it respectable The Ellis Island facility the point of arrival for most immigrants to the United States was barely ten years old People were passing through the island by the thousands each day During Williams’s first week as commissioner more than 25,000 immigrants entered Ellis Island’s Great Hall for processing 1 The reputation of the immigration station a beacon of hope for those seeking a new life in the United States had become tarnished Employees mistreated new arrivals Many jobs at the facility were won through corrupt methods and immigration laws 5 The main building at Ellis Island was easily visible to immigrants as they approached the facility from the water
were sometimes ignored Roosevelt demanded improvements in all these areas Williams arrived determined to do just that and more Serving as Commissioner In his position as head of the Ellis Island immigration processing facility Williams had a double role He had to get the facility in proper working order making it as efficient as possible as workers processed the thousands of immigrants who graced its doorway every day He also had to ensure his employees followed and enforced immigration Williams played a key role in the US immigration system at a time when the country was welcoming huge numbers of immigrants 6
laws established by the US government which changed often and were becoming more restrictive in limiting who could enter the country Williams quickly got to work setting the nation’s leading immigration center on a path to improvement He planned to tackle the corruption and other problems that existed He would leave his mark on the nation’s first federal immigration center and affect the lives of many of the people who passed through the site Williams was meticulous He kept a record of his time at Ellis Island writing in a journal and saving newspaper clippings He collected and preserved dozens of photographs of Ellis Island and the newly arrived immigrants there Many of the photos were taken by the clerks who worked at the site Some photos such as images taken by professional photographer Edwin Levick captured the island’s grounds and facilities Others were portraits of immigrants Many of these were taken by Augustus F Sherman a clerk who worked at Ellis Island and one of the many people Williams supervised as commissioner The subjects in Sherman’s photographs were young and old male and female They were often clad in traditional clothing from their 7
