Augustus Sherman was 27 years old in 1892, when he was hired by the Bureau of Immigration as a clerk at Ellis Island. The small island in the New York Harbor was the first American destination of millions of immigrants from all over the world, who had left their old lives behind to start over in the new world.
Sherman liked to photograph the immigrants, particularly in traditional costumes from their native countries. He had no training but the images he captured are among the most interesting records that survive from that time. During his tenure there, which lasted until his death in 1925, he took over 200 photographs.
Nothing more is known of Sherman. These beautiful pictures are his legacy.
Lapland children
A “prosperous family” of 14
Finnish immigrants
Bavarian man
Romanian woman
Ruthenians, Ellis Island, July 12, 1913.
1908 photograph of Johanna Dykhoff with her 11 children. Eleven children!
1905 photo of a Scottish family en route to Alabama
Cossack Immigrants
Dutch children (look at their shoes!)
Family of 15
Italian woman
Guadeloupean woman
German family
Dutch women
Dutch women
Cossack immigrant
Moroccans
This 1914 photograph includes an inscription “Hamberg” and specifies the subject is vegetarian.
Scottish Children
Two young ladies from the Netherlands
Ruthenian Woman
Slovakian woman with her children
Norwegian woman
“Male immigrant”
Girl from the Kochersberg region of Alsace
Protestant Dutch Woman
Amazingly, Redditor and research ninja Makviragok found an article identifying this woman and her baby as Minnie and Anna Kravitz!
An 11-month-old 55 lb Russian baby
Thank you again Makviragok!
old spirituals 
Kimberly those are some interesting pictures, I read once they didn’t smile in their pictures back then because of bad teeth.. I wonder if that is true, not many smiles.
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I’ve heard that too! There was also a very long exposure time. If you had your picture made, you had to sit perfectly still so long that it would be hard to hold a smile — at least a sincere one!
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These Cossacks in reality weren’t Cossacks at all, nor immigrants, they were Georgian horsemen, members of Wild West show, wrongly named as Cosssacks
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How interesting! How did they come to be at Ellis Island? Did Sherman know of their real origin?
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what beautiful pictures. the clothes are lovely!
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It’s such a tragedy that so many individual cultures have been destroyed by globalization. Pictures like Mr. Sherman’s inspire me to preserve everything we can!
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Couldn’t agree more with your comment about culture destruction. Who would want to tour Ireland, Greece, Germany, France, Italy, et al, only to find the culture and traditions of the country nonexistent.
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Hopefully people feel energized by that to preserve their traditions and languages. There’s still time!
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true. once it’s gone it’s gone
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