LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ellis Island
built 128 days ago
- Because of its unique historical importance, the Ellis Island was declared part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965. In September 1990 the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. opened the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The museum contains many pieces of a vital part of American culture. Read More
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The organization Save Ellis Island is working for to protect all the abandoned buildings on Ellis Island. Since 1954 several buildings are standing abandoned and are in great need of restoration. They need to be restored to be able to stand here for the next generation. This year, 2007, the Ferry Terminal was reopened after 50 years. The Ferry Building served as the departure point for immigrants who had passed all the legal inspections and health tests and was leaving Ellis Island to go by boat to New Jersey or Manhattan. Here the immigrants waited with patience to get off Ellis Island and to start their new life in America.
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- Ellis Island has had a unique history as an immigration station. View a timeline showing the history of Ellis Island. Learn about it's creation, the immigrants, the laws that affected immigrant flow to the U.S., and it's current standing. Read More
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Ellis Island's history journeys much farther back than most think; back before opening of Ellis's immigration screening station, and even before the first documented immigrants entered the country. In the 1600's, Ellis Island, at the time known as Gull Island by the Mohegan tribe, was a mere two to three acres. During high tide, the island could scarcely been seen above the rising waters. After being discovered for its rich oyster beds in 1628, Dutch settlers renamed it Oyster Island. Following the hanging of Anderson the Pirate in 1765, the island was again renamed, this time known as Gibbet Island after the instrument used to hang him. Finally on January 20, 1785, Samuel Ellis purchased the property and gave it his name, which remains the name of the island till today.
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An inaccurate myth persists that government officials on Ellis Island compelled immigrants to take new names against their wishes. In fact, no historical records bear this out. Federal immigration inspectors were under strict bureaucratic supervision and were more interested in preventing inadmissible aliens from entering the country (which they were held accountable for) rather than assisting them in trivial personal matters such as altering their names. In addition, the inspectors used the passenger lists given them by the steamship companies to process each foreigner. These were the sole immigration records for entering the country and were prepared not by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration but by steamship companies such as the Cunard Line, the White Star Line (which owned the Titanic), the North German Lloyd Line, the Hamburg-Amerika Line, the Italian Steam Navigation Company, the Red Star Line, the Holland America Line, the Austro-American Line, and so forth.[5]
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Ellis Island was closed for immigration in 1954. From 1954 to 1982 it was abandoned by everyone except the ghosts of the people who had passed through. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan asked the Chrysler Corporation to start a private fund to restore Ellis Island. In 1990 the island was reopened to the public as a museum. Many of the people who worked on and donated to the restoration were children of immigrants who had entered the United States through Elllis Island.
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