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35 Ellis Island Immigration Photos That Capture American Diversity from Between 1905-1914

Ellis Island is a federally-owned island in New York Harbor that was the busiest immigrant inspection station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there under federal law. Today, it is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and is accessible to the public only by ferry. The north side of the island is the site of the main building, now a national museum of immigration. The south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is open to the public only through guided tours.

In the 19th century, Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson and later became a naval magazine. The first inspection station opened in 1892 and was destroyed by fire in 1897. The second station opened in 1900 and housed facilities for medical quarantines and processing immigrants. After 1924, Ellis Island was used primarily as a detention center for migrants. During both World War I and World War II, its facilities were also used by the US military to detain prisoners of war. After the immigration station’s closure, the buildings languished for several years until they were partially reopened in 1976. The main building and adjacent structures were completely renovated in 1990.

The 27.5-acre (11.1 ha) island was greatly expanded by land reclamation between the late 1890s and the 1930s. Jurisdictional disputes between New Jersey and New York State persisted until the 1998 US Supreme Court ruling in New Jersey v. New York. (Wikipedia)

An Albanian soldier.
Some hopeful immigrants could be held on Ellis Island for days, or even weeks, before being approved or deported.

An Algerian man in traditional apparel.
Immigrants were given free meals upon arriving — in most cases introducing them to new foods such as bananas and ice cream.

**Girl from the Kochersberg region near Strasbourg, Alsace, 1905**

**Wilhelm Schleich, a miner from Hohenpeissenberg, Bavaria, 1905**

Cossack man from the steppes of Russia.
With the U.S. attitude toward becoming increasingly negative, World War I marked the end of mass immigration to America.

**Peter Meyer from Svendberg, Denmark, age 57. April 30, 1909.**

**Three Dutch protestant women identified as “Mother and her two daughters from Zuid-Beveland, province of Zeeland, The Netherlands” (circa 1905).**

**Identified as “Dutch siblings from the Island of Marken, holding religious tracts” (circa 1905).**

**Photo identified as “Protestant woman from Zuid-Beveland, province of Zeeland, The Netherlands.”**

**Three women from Guadeloupe in fancy dress.**

**A tattooed German stowaway allegedly deported in May 1911.**

**Rev. Joseph Vasilon, a Greek-Orthodox priest, 1905**

**A Greek evzone, which is a member of a light infantry unit in the Greek army.**

A Guadeloupean woman, 1911.
About 700 immigrants passed through on the very first day of Ellis Island’s operation, January 1, 1892.

A young Italian woman, 1906.
Eighty percent of immigrants were processed and approved in just a number of hours.

An Italian woman.
The highest number of immigrants to arrive on Ellis Island in a single day was 11,747, on April 17, 1907.

**Swedish children in Lapland costume.**

**Originally titled “Swedish woman,” the title was changed when it was noticed that the woman’s clothing originated from the west coast of Norway.**

**A young Swedish girl from the Rattvik providence of Dalarna.**

**A Romanian immigrant poses with his instrument.**

Romanian shepherd, 1906.
As opposed to wealthier arrivals, poor passengers were detained on the island for physical inspections and further legal questioning.

**Russian Cossacks, armed and in full dress.**

**A traditionally dressed Ruthenian woman, who would now be known as Ukrainian.**

**A Laplander woman from Finland, 1905.**

**Captioned “Hungarian Gypsies all of whom were deported,” this photo appeared in The New York Times on February 12, 1905.**

**Romanian shepherds, one proudly posing with his pipe**.

Three Slovakian women.
It is estimated that nearly 40 percent of U.S. citizens can trace at least one ancestor back to Ellis Island.

Three Russian Cossacks.
Many famous people were processed at Ellis Island, including Charlie Chaplin, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Charles Atlas, and Irving Berlin.

“Turkish bank guard John Postantzis, Feb 9, 1912.”
The last person to pass through Ellis Island was a Norwegian merchant seaman by the name of Arne Peterssen in 1954.

**A print of this image reads, “Thumbu Sammy, aged 17, Hindoo ex SS ‘Adriatic’, April 14, 1911.”**

All photos taken by Augustus Sherman (ca. 1905-1914)

58 Stunning Vintage Photos of Actress Ida Lupino from the 1930s

Ida Lupino (4 February 1918[1] – 3 August 1995) was a British actress, singer, director, and producer. Throughout her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed eight, working primarily in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948.

She is widely regarded as the most prominent female filmmaker working in the 1950s during the Hollywood studio system. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several social-message films and became the first woman to direct a film noir, The Hitch-Hiker, in 1953. Among her other directed films, the best known are Not Wanted, about unwed pregnancy (she took over for a sick director and refused directorial credit); Never Fear (1949), loosely based upon her own experiences battling paralyzing polio; Outrage (1950), one of the first films about rape; The Bigamist (1953) (which was named in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die); and The Trouble with Angels (1966). Her short yet immensely influential directorial career, tackling themes of women trapped by social conventions, usually under melodramatic or noir coverings, is a pioneering example of proto-feminist filmmaking.

As an actress, her best known films are The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) with Basil Rathbone; They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart; High Sierra (1941) with Bogart; The Sea Wolf (1941) with Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield; Ladies in Retirement (1941) with Louis Hayward; Moontide (1942) with Jean Gabin; The Hard Way (1943); Deep Valley (1947) with Dane Clark; Road House (1948) with Cornel Wilde and Richard Widmark; While the City Sleeps (1956) with Dana Andrews and Vincent Price; and Junior Bonner (1972) with Steve McQueen.

She also directed more than 100 episodes of television shows in a variety of genres, including westerns, supernatural tales, situation comedies, murder mysteries, and gangster stories. She was the only woman to direct an episode of the original The Twilight Zone series (“The Masks”), and the only director to star in an episode (“The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine”). (Wikipedia)

Lupino died from a stroke while undergoing treatment for colon cancer in Los Angeles in 1995, at the age of 77.

Take a look at these glamorous pictures to see the beauty of this talented woman in the 1930s.

64 Incredible Vintage Photos of Disneyland in the 1950s

The Disneyland Park, originally Disneyland, is the first of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opened on July 17, 1955. It is the only theme park designed and built to completion under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. It was originally the only attraction on the property; its official name was changed to Disneyland Park to distinguish it from the expanding complex in the 1990s. It was the first Disney theme park.

Walt Disney came up with the concept of Disneyland after visiting various amusement parks with his daughters in the 1930s and 1940s. He initially envisioned building a tourist attraction adjacent to his studios in Burbank to entertain fans who wished to visit; however, he soon realized that the proposed site was too small. After hiring the Stanford Research Institute to perform a feasability study determining an appropriate site for his project, Disney bought a 160-acre (65 ha) site near Anaheim in 1953. The Park was designed by a creative team, hand-picked by Walt from internal and outside talent. They founded WED Enterprises, the precursor to today’s Walt Disney Imagineering. Construction began in 1954 and the park was unveiled during a special televised press event on the ABC Television Network on July 17, 1955.

Since its opening, Disneyland has undergone expansions and major renovations, including the addition of New Orleans Square in 1966, Bear Country (now Critter Country) in 1972, Mickey’s Toontown in 1993, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2019. Opened in 2001, Disney California Adventure Park was built on the site of Disneyland’s original parking lot.

Disneyland has a larger cumulative attendance than any other theme park in the world, with 726 million visits since it opened (as of December 2018). In 2018, the park had approximately 18.6 million visits, making it the second most visited amusement park in the world that year, behind only Magic Kingdom, the very park it inspired. According to a March 2005 Disney report, 65,700 jobs are supported by the Disneyland Resort, including about 20,000 direct Disney employees and 3,800 third-party employees (independent contractors or their employees). Disney announced “Project Stardust” in 2019, which included major structural renovations to the park to account for higher attendance numbers.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration has declared a zone of prohibited airspace around both Disneyland and some of the surrounding areas centered at Sleeping Beauty Castle. No aircraft, including recreational and commercial drones, are permitted to fly within this zone; this level is only shared with Walt Disney World, other pieces of critical infrastructure (military bases, Pantex) in the United States and whenever the President of the United States travels outside of Washington, D.C. (Wikipedia)

Take a look at these fantastic snapshots to see what Disneyland in the 1950s looked like.

28 Wonderful Photographs of Dublin, Ireland in 1961

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Situated on a bay on the east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey, it lies within the province of Leinster. It is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (traditional County Dublin) as of 2016 was 1,347,359. The population of the Greater Dublin Area was 1,904,806 per the 2016 census.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where and when Dublin originated, with a settlement established by the Gaels during or before the 7th century AD, and a second, Viking, settlement, following. As the small Kingdom of Dublin, the city grew, and it became Ireland’s principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire after the Acts of Union in 1800. Following independence in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is a contemporary and historical centre for Irish education, arts and culture, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of “Alpha minus”, which places it as one of the top thirty cities in the world.

55 Vintage Photos of Nurses from the Edwardian Era

25 Vintage Photos of Elvis Presley’s Concerts at the Florida Theatre on August 10 & 11, 1956

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Elvis appeared at the Florida Theatre in Jacksonville, FL. Juvenile Court Judge Marion Gooding warned Elvis in chambers after the first show that he must tone down his act. Elvis told reporters “I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong”. Elvis modifies his show nonetheless, wiggling his little finger suggestively with a gesture that replaces some of his less restrained body movements and at the same time still drives the audience wild.

“One of the most memorable events in the theatre’s history occurred in 1956, when Elvis Presley came to the Florida Theatre for his first concert appearance on an indoor stage. Presley, the City of Jacksonville and the Florida Theatre found themselves subjects of a LIFE Magazine feature when Juvenile Court Judge Marion Gooding sat through the performance to ensure that Presley’s body movements would not become too suggestive”. Florida State Theater.

**Crowds await entrance to see Elvis Presley performs at one of his two concerts at the Florida Theatre on August 10 & 11, 1956.**

42 Amazing Photos Showing Life in Whitby, England during the Late Victorian Era

Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Cliff is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey, where Cædmon, the earliest recognised English poet, lived. The fishing port emerged during the Middle Ages, supporting important herring and whaling fleets, and was where Captain Cook learned seamanship. Tourism started in Whitby during the Georgian period and developed with the arrival of the railway in 1839. Its attraction as a tourist destination is enhanced by the proximity of the high ground of the North York Moors national park and the heritage coastline and by association with the horror novel Dracula. Jet and alum were mined locally, and Whitby jet, which was mined by the Romans and Victorians, became fashionable during the 19th century.

The earliest record of a permanent settlement is in 656, when as Streanæshealh it was the place where Oswy, the Christian king of Northumbria, founded the first abbey, under the abbess Hilda. The Synod of Whitby was held there in 664. In 867, the monastery was destroyed by Viking raiders. Another monastery was founded in 1078. It was in this period that the town gained its current name, Whitby (from “white settlement” in Old Norse). In the following centuries Whitby functioned as a fishing settlement until, in the 18th century, it developed as a port and centre for shipbuilding and whaling, the trade in locally mined alum, and the manufacture of Whitby jet jewellery.

The abbey ruin at the top of the East Cliff is the town’s oldest and most prominent landmark. Other significant features include the swing bridge, which crosses the River Esk and the harbour, which is sheltered by the grade II listed East and West piers. The town’s maritime heritage is commemorated by statues of Captain Cook and William Scoresby, as well as the whalebone arch that sits at the top of the West Cliff. The town also has a strong literary tradition and has featured in literary works, television and cinema, most famously in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.

While Whitby’s cultural and historical heritage contribute to the local economy, the town does suffer from the economic constraints of its remote location, ongoing changes in the fishing industry, relatively underdeveloped transport infrastructure, and limitations on available land and property. As a result, tourism and some forms of fishing remain the mainstay of its economy. It is the closest port to a proposed wind farm development in the North Sea, 47 miles (76 km) from York and 22 miles (35 km) from Middlesbrough. There are transport links to the rest of North Yorkshire and North East England, primarily through national rail links to Middlesbrough and road links to Teesside, via both the A171 and A174, and Scarborough by the former. As at 2011, the town had a population of 13,213.

**Portrait of three people outside a house**

**The Strom family of Robin Hood’s Bay**

**Village with a pile of wood in front**

**A group of boys bathing from a rowing boat**

**A group of fishing girls in the stairs down to the beach, Whitby**

50 Gorgeous Fashion Photos From the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s

Willy Maywald (1907-1985) was a German photographer who grew up in Kleve and attended art school from 1928 to 1931. He moved to Paris in 1931 and was active there through the 1930s. He documented daily life in the streets, cafes, the interiors of the artist’s studios and workshops of Montparnasse and the construction of the l’Exposition Universelle of 1937. From 1942-1946 he worked as a portrait photographer in Switzerland and later returned to Paris where he concentrated on fashion and celebrity photography.

Maywald worked for the fashion designers Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain, Jacques Fath and Jeanne Paquin. His recordings were for discreet elegance and were caused in part or in luxurious interiors of expensive luxury cars, but also partly in the open, in the streets and cafes of Paris or, for example, before the window of an antique book. His photos were published in magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

(Photos by Willy Maywald)

37 Beautiful Photos of Actress Julie Andrews in the 1950s and 1960s

Dame Julie Andrews DBE (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. Throughout her career spanning nine decades, she has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards. Andrews was made a Disney Legend in 1991, and has been honoured with a Honorary Golden Lion as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2000, Andrews was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the performing arts.

Andrews, a child actress and singer, appeared in the West End in 1948 and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend (1954). Billed as “Britain’s youngest prima donna”, she rose to prominence starring in Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady (1956) playing Eliza Doolittle and Camelot (1960) playing Queen Guinevere. On 31 March 1957, Andrews starred in the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s written-for-television musical Cinderella, a live, colour CBS network broadcast seen by over 100 million viewers. Andrews made her feature film debut in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964) and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role. The following year she starred in musical film The Sound of Music (1965), playing Maria von Trapp and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.

Between 1964 and 1986, Andrews starred in various films working with directors including her husband Blake Edwards, George Roy Hill, and Alfred Hitchcock in The Americanization of Emily (1964), Hawaii (1966), Torn Curtain (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Star! (1968), The Tamarind Seed (1974), 10 (1979), S.O.B. (1981), Victor/Victoria (1982), That’s Life! (1986), and Duet for One (1986). After 1986 her workload decreased, appearing in two films in 1991 and not again until 2000. After the turn of the new millennium, however, her career had a revival. From 2001 to 2004 Andrews starred in The Princess Diaries (2001) and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). From 2004 to 2018 she lent her voice to the Shrek and Despicable Me animated films and Aquaman (2018). In 2017 she co-created and hosted a children’s educational show titled Julie’s Greenroom, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. Beginning in 2020, Andrews voiced the narrator Lady Whistledown in the Netflix series Bridgerton. She has also worked hosting performance shows such as Great Performances and narrating documentaries such as the 2004 Emmy-winning series Broadway: The American Musical.

In 2002, Andrews was ranked No. 59 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In 2003, she revisited her first Broadway success, this time as a stage director, with a revival of The Boy Friend. Apart from her musical career, she is also an author of children’s books and has published two autobiographies, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (2008) and Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years (2019).

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