Articles

Bateman-House, A., & Fairchild, A. (2008). Medical examination of immigrants at Ellis Island. AMA Journal of Ethics, 10(4), 235-241.

Bateman-House and Fairchild examine how the expanding labor force and racial ideology in the 19-20th century affected immigration policies in the United States. They address how non-European immigrant groups faced additional medical scrutiny at immigration stations (not just at Ellis Island). A major reason for this extra scrutiny was the prevailing belief that immigrants with physical handicaps made for “undesirable” workers. Health officials and the American public feared these immigrants would become charges of the states.

Baynton, D. (2005). Defectives in the land: Disability and American immigration policy, 1882-1924. Journal of American Ethnic History, 24(3), 31-44.

Baynton explores how social stereotypes for people with disabilities affected many immigrants on Ellis Island. Many immigration officials turned away immigrants for perceived physical and mental defects. Baynton argues that many of these decisions where due to cultural stigmas and the decisions were based on little evidence. Today, many of these “disabilities” are no longer credible. Baynton suggests that historians need to take a closer look at how disabilities were treated on the island.

Markel, H. (2000). “The eyes have it”: Trachoma, the perception of disease, the United States Public Health Service, and the American Jewish immigration experience, 1897-1924. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 74(3), 525-560.

Trachoma, declared a dangerous and contagious immigrant disease, was grounds for deportation at Ellis Island. The eye inspection was one of the most dreaded parts of the medical examination. In this article, Markel describes the public perceptions of trachoma and immigration through the story of the Jewish rabbi Chaim Irwin Goldenbaum, who was diagnosed with trachoma. This article not only deals with the medical inspections on Ellis Island, but also details the various treatments of trachoma in the contagious disease hospital. It was there that Goldenbaum stayed for four months. In addition, the article briefly explores Jewish immigration, social class, ethnic politics, and the high incidence of trachoma in Russian Jews.

Moore, H. (2009). Contagion from abroad: U.S. newspaper framings of immigrants and epidemics, 1891 to 1893. Atlanta Review of Journalism History, 8, 32–89.

Reviewing more than a hundred articles, Moore investigates how several major American newspapers portray immigration issues during the years 1891-1893. She suggests that newspapers played a critical role in shaping public opinion of immigrants and the rise of epidemics. Newspapers were also being shaped by public opinions. The 1890s was a pivotal time in American history as more immigrants were entering the country, epidemics were becoming more common, and nativist movements (the sentiment that immigrants and certain ethnic groups should be prevented from entering the country) were on the rise. Moore concludes that many newspapers were swept up in this anti-foreigner sentiment and framed immigrants and immigration issues in negative light.

Mullan, E. H. (1917). Mental examination of immigrants: Administration and line inspection at Ellis Island. Public Health Reports (1896-1970), 32(20), 733-746. doi:10.2307/4574515

This article is valuable to the researcher because it was written by a surgeon in the United States Public Health Service who worked at Ellis Island. It provides a first-hand account of the medical inspection procedure. Of special interest is the three-page list of notations on “hold cards” that explain why immigrants were sent to the immigrant hospital for observation and the statistics covering the number of mental certifications in 1916. The article also shows the medical and social perceptions of the time by listing the visible “signs and symptoms” of various “mental diseases and defects” that the medical officers screened for.

Richardson, J. T. (2003). Howard Andrew Knox and the origins of performance testing on Ellis Island, 1912-1916. History of Psychology, 6(2), 143-170.

This article starts with a history of the social values and immigration laws that exclude the “feebleminded” and immigrants likely to be public charges. It then documents the life and work of Howard Knox. Although he only worked at Ellis Island for four years, Knox played a key role in the development of intelligence testing. Specifically, his tests included both verbal and performance components; it also differed from earlier tests in that they were less dependent on literacy, cultural knowledge, or knowledge of the English language. Knox’s performance tests, such as the Cube Imitation Test, has had a lasting impact in the field of psychology.

Yew, E. (1980). Medical inspection of immigrants at Ellis Island, 1891-1924. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 56(5), 488-510.

In this article, Yew explores the development and changes for immigrants’ medical inspection at Ellis Island. It also explains how moral and social values, political climate, laws, and germ theory shaped those changes. In addition, Yew examines the tensions between the Public Health Service officers and the Bureau of Immigration and Board of Special Inquiries about which immigrants should be admitted and what department should make those decisions.