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“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door”
-Sonnet by Emma Lazarus, Inscription for the Statue of Liberty

From 1892 to 1954 Ellis Island served as the gateway to the United States for over 12 million immigrants. This small island, located off the southern tip of Manhattan, was the first US Federal immigration station and the most popular destination for steamship companies. After a long journey across the Atlantic, Ellis Island provided immigrants with their first glimpse of America. Imagine the thoughts that ran through their minds as their boat navigated into New York Harbor – the places and people they had left behind, their voyage across the ocean, the inspection process they now faced and what kind of fate awaited them in their new world.