Ellis Island: The public and personal representations of the immigrant experience

Between 1892 and 1954, more than 12 million immigrants arrived at Ellis Island\u27s shores for the promise of a new beginning in America. During this period of immigrant influx and in the decades to follow, anti-immigrant sentiment remained at the forefront of the collective American conscious, varying in severity, though ever present. This study compares the relationship between the personal stories of immigrants and the print media\u27s account of immigration in Ellis Island\u27s peak year, 1907, in an attempt to understand how storytelling, as communication, helped shape the collective immigrant experience. It also examines how the relationship contributes to U.S. perceptions of immigrants. The study is informed by Walter Fisher\u27s narrative paradigm theory and was accomplished through a qualitative narrative analysis of both immigrant related articles published in 1907 New York Times articles and the archival artifacts on record at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum