Forgotten Ellis Island

October 1, 2007
Gr 7 Up-This account focuses exclusively on the medical care and hospitals of the facility, considered one of the finest public institutions in the world when it opened in 1902. Conway details the medical inspection that immigrants went through after disembarking and shows how thousands of people were treated at the island's hospitals, sometimes against their will. The author touches on the political thinking of the time: immigrants were needed as labor for the huge industrial boom happening in early 20th-century America, but they were viewed with suspicion and prejudice. She ties this to the handling of immigrants and the history of medicine. New diseases and newer treatments were being discovered, and Ellis Island grew from one piece of land to three islands, two manmade, to handle the influx of people and their illnesses. Each chapter contains dozens of interesting archival photographs and large blocks of quotes from doctors and immigrants. These quotes and the photo captions relate the story in a more compelling way than the well-documented text. They let the people who were there tell their own stories. This is not a book that many students will seek out on their own, but once they get it into their hands, they may well lose themselves in the copious photographs. It will add depth to any report on U.S. immigration."Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.