William Williams Documents Ellis Island Immigrants
INTO THE LENS WILLIAM WILLIAMS William Williams was born in New London Connecticut on June 2 1862 He came from an upper-class family that had a strong history in North America dating back to before the founding of the United States A great-great-great-grandfather on his mother’s side Jonathan Edwards was a prominent minister Edwards was the leading theologian of British American Puritanism and played a role in the Great Awakening a religious movement that took place in the mid-1700s Williams had two prominent family members on his father’s side as well Robert Williams a Puritan helped settle Deerfield Massachusetts William Williams signed the Declaration of Independence as a representative from Connecticut Williams began college in Germany but then enrolled at Yale University in his junior year After graduating in 1884 he attended Harvard Law School Williams got a degree in law in 1888 and went to work as a lawyer In the 1890s before becoming commissioner of Ellis Island Williams worked as a corporate lawyer in New York City where he had his own practice He also held a position as a lawyer with the federal government negotiating with the United Kingdom over the Bering Sea That job had him working in Washington DC and in Paris France He returned to his New York law practice next holding this position until becoming commissioner of Ellis Island in 1902 Williams had gained extensive experience in legal and government matters before coming to Ellis Island 8
homelands All the photos give a glimpse into what Ellis Island was like in the early 1900s as people from across the ocean sought to make the United States their new home Joy and Anguish Over the years Ellis Island would become a symbol of hope for those who arrived by ship in New York Harbor But it was also a site that caused fear and anxiety Entry was not guaranteed Many arrivals had to submit to physical and mental examination Depending on the results immigrants could be denied entry into the United States Sometimes this meant they simply had to wait to overcome an illness or be claimed by someone already in the country But some arrivals were deported and sent back to their homelands their hopes dashed 9 AUGUSTUS F SHERMAN Augustus F Sherman was the source of many portraits in Williams’s collection Sherman was born in Pennsylvania in 1865 He moved to New York City in 1884 and began working as a clerk at Ellis Island in 1892 He advanced to senior clerk and sometimes served on boards of special inquiry These boards heard individual cases of detainees listening to witnesses and deciding if the detainees would be allowed into the country Sherman was a self-taught photographer He may have started photography as a result of knowing Terence V Powderly who served as commissioner general of immigration from 1897 to 1902 Because of his position as clerk at Ellis Island Sherman had access to the site and the thousands of people who arrived there every week Sherman died on February 16 1925 In the 1960s Mary Sherman Peters his niece donated the remainder of the photos by her uncle to the American Immigration Museum This facility is now called the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration
Inspections helped immigration officials decide whether newly arrived people would be welcomed into the country or sent back home 10
Inspectors rejected immigrants for a variety of reasons Some were physical such as carrying an infectious disease Some were mental Testers had immigrants arrange blocks to check their intelligence Other rejections had to do with good character and not having been in prison Many were based on stereotypes and reflected prejudice As the United States progressed in a world that was becoming ever more industrial immigration officials sought to bring in young strong capable people to aid the nation’s advancement Williams believed in that goal He had firm ideas about who should be allowed to enter the United States and who should not He felt arrivals had to be able to work and care for themselves In its six decades of operation Ellis Island welcomed millions of foreigners who would 11 EDWIN LEVICK Several photos among those Williams kept while serving as commissioner of Ellis Island were taken by Edwin Levick Levick was born in London England in 1869 He spent some of his childhood in Asia and the Middle East He also studied in France Levick moved to the United States in 1899 He acquired a love of the water and sailboats as a child and would gain a reputation as a marine photographer especially of boat races He photographed other sports as well including golf horse racing polo and tennis Levick’s photos of Ellis Island that feature the harbor and barges reflect his specialty in marine photography The award-winning photographer ventured outside his standard subjects when he shot immigrants in various stages of being processed such as the medical inspection line Levick died on November 26 1929
