Ellis Island

Library Journal

Few readers will fail to be moved by the poignant photographs and text of this compelling book. From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the United States' major immigration station and virtually the first step on American soil for some 12 million anxious men, women, and children. Tifft has been photographing and studying Ellis Island since 1968. With 100 of his own photographs, some 175 archival photos, and oral histories, letters, and other documents, he chronicles not only the island's fascinating story but traces the history of American immigration as well. He also pays particular attention to the facility's painstaking restoration work of the last 15 years and to its recent reopening as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Highly recommended.-- Jack Bales, Mary Washington Coll. Lib., Fredericksburg, Va.