Vintage Portraits Of America’s Immigrant Past on Ellis Island

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Photos of immigrants from the early 1900s courtesy of the the New York Public Libary’s digital collections.

1. A German stowaway

Via: William Williams papers/Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

2. A Greek Orthodox priest

Via: William Williams papers/Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

3. A Bavarian man

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

4. Two Romanian women

Via: William Williams papers/Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

5. A man whose descent was not identified, possibly Russian

Via: Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection / New York City — Ellis Island/New York City Public Library

6. A Guadeloupean woman

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

7. Three Scottish boys

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

8. A Dutch woman

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

9. A Danish man

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

10. Three Russian Cossacks

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

11. A Ruthenian woman

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

12. A Slovak woman with her child

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

13. Another man whose descent was not identified, possibly Russian

Via: Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection / New York City — Ellis Island/New York Public Library

14. A Romanian man

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

15. Several Romani people

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

16. An Albanian soldier

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

17. A Greek woman

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

18. A Greek man

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

19. An Italian woman

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

20. An Algerian man

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

21. An Indian boy

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

22. Three women from Guadeloupe

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

23. A Romani family

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

24. Three Dutch women

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

25. Two pipers

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

26. An Italian woman

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

27. A Turkish man

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

28. An Algerian man

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

29. Two Lapland children, possibly from Sweden or Finland

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

30. A Romanian shepherd

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library

31. A Czech-Slovak grandmother

Via: Lewis Hine/New York Public Library

32. A Jewish immigrant

Via: Lewis Hine/New York Public Library

33. A Bavarian man

Via: William Williams papers /Augustus Sherman photographs/New York Public Library