Modern Coney Island
1947, photographer unknown. Gelatin silver print. Sheet: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm).
Brooklyn Museum Collection. X894.18.
Three Dutch Women
Notes: Identified as ‘Mother and her two daughters from Zuid-Beveland, province of Zeeland, The Netherlands’ in Peter Mesenholler ‘Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920’ (c1905) p.57.
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
![Group photograph captioned ‘Hungarian Gypsies all of whom were deported’ in The New York Times, Sunday Feb. 12, 1905.
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. 1902-1905 Notes: N.d., but 1905, just after Commissioner Williams’ resignation. When the same photograph appeared in ‘City life and municipal facts’ (June 8, 1911), it was called ‘A family of Servian Gypses.’ (Both clippings appear in the Williams scrapbooks: Vol. I, p. 71 back; and Vol. II, p. 55 front.) This photo appears in Dunne, Thomas. ‘Ellis Island’ (W.W. Norton & Co., 1971), p. [62]. Source: Photographs of Ellis Island, 1902-1913. (more info) Repository: The New York Public Library. Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt0elhJyjM1qzsxryo1_500.jpg)
Group photograph captioned ‘Hungarian Gypsies all of whom were deported’ in The New York Times, Sunday Feb. 12, 1905.
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. 1902-1905
Notes: N.d., but 1905, just after Commissioner Williams’ resignation. When the same photograph appeared in ‘City life and municipal facts’ (June 8, 1911), it was called ‘A family of Servian Gypses.’ (Both clippings appear in the Williams scrapbooks: Vol. I, p. 71 back; and Vol. II, p. 55 front.) This photo appears in Dunne, Thomas. ‘Ellis Island’ (W.W. Norton & Co., 1971), p. [62].
Source: Photographs of Ellis Island, 1902-1913. (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.
![Italian woman
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914] Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info) Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt0efprzrT1qzsxryo1_500.jpg)
Italian woman
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914]
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
![Ellis Island Portraits- Hindoo Boy
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [1911] Notes: Indentified in Peter Mesenholler ‘Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920’ (c1905) p.94 from another print that bears a caption: Thumbu Sammy, aged 17, Hindoo ex SS ‘Adriatic’, April 14, 1911.
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksx0jyWOJQ1qzsxryo1_500.jpg)
Ellis Island Portraits- Hindoo Boy
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [1911]
Notes: Indentified in Peter Mesenholler ‘Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920’ (c1905) p.94 from another print that bears a caption: Thumbu Sammy, aged 17, Hindoo ex SS ‘Adriatic’, April 14, 1911.
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
![Ellis Island Portraits - Romanian Piper
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914] Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info) Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksx0htScrT1qzsxryo1_500.jpg)
Ellis Island Portraits - Romanian Piper
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914]
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
![Ellis Island Portraits - Slovak woman and children
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914] Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info) Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksx0cu6PHC1qzsxryo1_500.jpg)
Ellis Island Portraits - Slovak woman and children
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914]
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
![Ellis Island Portraits - Ruthenian Woman
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906] Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info) Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksx05zhPN01qzsxryo1_500.jpg)
Ellis Island Portraits - Ruthenian Woman
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906]
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
![Ellis Island Portraits - Lapland children, possibly from Sweden
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914] Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info) Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksx029rPhN1qzsxryo1_500.jpg)
Ellis Island Portraits - Lapland children, possibly from Sweden
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914]
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
![Ellis Islands Portraits - German stowaway
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [1911] Notes: Varient print reproduced in Peter Mesenholler ‘Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920’ (c1905) p.86 bears typed caption: Tattooed German stowaways deported May, 1911.
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info) Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
“Many photographers were drawn to Ellis Island by the general human interest and newsworthiness of the scene; others, such as pioneering social photographer Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940), responded to the individual humanity of the immigrants’ raw eagerness, symbolized for Hine by their humble possessions and their stoicism. One amateur photographer, Augustus Sherman, the Ellis Island Chief Registry Clerk, had special access to potential subjects for his camera. It is likely that Sherman’s elaborately costumed subjects were detainees, new immigrants held at Ellis Island for one reason or another. While waiting for what they needed to leave the island (an escort, or money, or travel tickets), some of these immigrants may have been persuaded to pose for Sherman’s camera, donning their best holiday finery or national dress, which they had brought with them from home.
Sherman’s pictures were published in National Geographic in 1907 and for decades hung anonymously in the lower Manhattan headquarters of the federal Immigration Service. Incoming correspondence in the William Williams Papers suggests that the Commissioner gave copies of Sherman’s haunting photographs to official Ellis Island visitors as mementoes.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kswzydeHjF1qzsxryo1_500.jpg)
Ellis Islands Portraits - German stowaway
Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) — Photographer. [1911]
Notes: Varient print reproduced in Peter Mesenholler ‘Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920’ (c1905) p.86 bears typed caption: Tattooed German stowaways deported May, 1911.
Source: William Williams papers / Photographs of immigrants (more info)
Repository: The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.
“Many photographers were drawn to Ellis Island by the general human interest and newsworthiness of the scene; others, such as pioneering social photographer Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940), responded to the individual humanity of the immigrants’ raw eagerness, symbolized for Hine by their humble possessions and their stoicism.
One amateur photographer, Augustus Sherman, the Ellis Island Chief Registry Clerk, had special access to potential subjects for his camera. It is likely that Sherman’s elaborately costumed subjects were detainees, new immigrants held at Ellis Island for one reason or another. While waiting for what they needed to leave the island (an escort, or money, or travel tickets), some of these immigrants may have been persuaded to pose for Sherman’s camera, donning their best holiday finery or national dress, which they had brought with them from home.
Sherman’s pictures were published in National Geographic in 1907 and for decades hung anonymously in the lower Manhattan headquarters of the federal Immigration Service. Incoming correspondence in the William Williams Papers suggests that the Commissioner gave copies of Sherman’s haunting photographs to official Ellis Island visitors as mementoes.”
