William Williams Documents Ellis Island Immigrants
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
Immigrants could see the New York City skyline from Ellis Island but they would only reach the city if they were approved by Williams’s inspectors become Americans Approximately 40 percent of US citizens today can trace at least one relative to Ellis Island 2 During the site’s heyday in the early 1900s Williams used his position as commissioner to improve processes and procedures He also set the standards for what made a new arrival acceptable But Williams did more than that In his photo collection he documented a unique part of US history and preserved special moments in people’s lives The newly arrived individuals in these portraits have become the faces of Ellis Island 12
