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The First Ellis Island Immigration Station Opens
The first person to pass through the Ellis Island immigration station was Annie Moore, who was from Ireland. On opening day, three large ships like this one were pending arrival to land, and three hundred immigrants were processed. -
Ellis Island Fire
A fire on Ellis Island destroyed a majority of the immigration records from 1855. Up to this date in the first five years of operation, about 1.5 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island. -
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Peak Year of Operation
In 1907, Ellis Island processed the most immigrants in one year than it did in any other year in its history. In this year, 1,004,756 immigrants were received. -
Ellis Island Processes its Highest Number of Immigrants
Within Ellis Island's busiest immigration year, it hit a peak on April 17, processing a total of 11,747 immirgants in a single day and packing the Great Hall with foreigners. -
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Decline in Immigration During WWI
During World War I, there was a sharp decrease in immigration. The number of immigrants processed went from 178,416 in 1915 to just 28,867 in 1918. -
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Immigration Increases After WWI
After World War I was over, immigration to American through Ellis Island increased. In 1921, 560,971 immigrants were processed. -
Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 Passes in Congress
The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, pictured here, restricted immigration into the United States. The law stated that the yearly amount of any European nationality received could not exceed three percent of immigrants of that nationality that lived in America in 1910. Nationality was determined by the country of birth, and any nationality could not exceed 20 percent of the annual quota in any given month. -
Biagio Croce Leaves Naples for America
My great-grandfather, Biagio Croce, traveled from Salandra, a town in southern Italy, to Naples. He departed Naples, which is pictured here, for New York with his mother, father, and two sisters at the age of 11. -
Biagio Croce Arrives at Ellis Island
After a nine day trip at sea, Biagio and his family arrived at Ellis Island for processing. During this process, the workers renamed Biagio as William on his immigration papers because Biago was not a name they were familiar with or understood. -
William Goes to Philadelphia
William's mother had a sister that was already living in America. Though she passed well before their arrival, she had daughters living in Philadelphia. After the immigration process was complete, William and his family were picked up by his aunt's daughters and driven back to Philadelphia. -
William Arrives in Chicago, Illinois
After spending five days with his cousins, William and his family departed for Chicago. Here, they moved into a house across the street from some family friends that moved to America in 1913. -
The Immigration Act of 1924 Passes Congress
The Immigration Act of 1924 changed the basis of restriction from the 1921 act. Instead of using the census of 1910 to dictate the amount of immigrants that could enter, it changed to the 1890 census. This altered the annual quota of total immigrants from 358,000 to 164,000. Ellis Island's main function became a detention and deportation center for aliens who violated the terms of admittance or entered the U.S. illegally. -
Immigration Fuctions Cease
Even after World War II ended, by 1946 about 7,000 enemy aliens and citizens were detained at Ellis Island. The number of people detained got so large that immigration functions had to be moved from Ellis Island to Manhattan, pictured here. -
Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952
President Harry Truman first vetoed the bill, which allowed the government to deport immigrants involved in subversive activities and banned discrimination over who could naturalize. This allowed Asians to become citizens. Congress overrode the president's veto to pass it into law. Because of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 and a different detention policy, the number of aliens and citizens detained on Ellis Island became fewer than 30. -
President Signs 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the new act during a ceremony on Liberty Island, New York. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act abolished the old 1920s quota system of regulating immigration and replaced it with a system based on reuniting families and immigrant worker capabilities and skills.
