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.
On the afternoon of October 22, 1895, Guillaume-Marie Pellerin, the engineer of the Granville–Paris Express train, was irritable. He was behind schedule, though it was anyone’s guess why, since the train left Granville at 8:45 a.m., its usual time. Pellerin hated to be late.
Gare Montparnasse station, prior to the derailment
The speed of steam locomotive No. 721 may have been slowed by its cargo. Far from traveling light, the Granville–Paris Express had 131 passengers aboard and was hauling six coaches, three luggage vans, and a post van to Gare Montparnasse terminus.
Pellerin drove the locomotive faster to make up for lost time, and at 4 p.m., Gare Montparnasse came into view. The conductor was doing paperwork, and hadn’t even noticed how fast they were traveling.
Pellerin didn’t brake as soon as usual, which would have made the train even later but he was confident he could stop quickly and safely, thanks to its state-of-the-art Westinghouse air brake. He applied it a moment later, but to his horror, nothing happened.
Pellerin then tried the locomotive brakes but they were ineffective; he was unable to curb the train’s speed. His scrambling caught the conductor’s attention, who realized in a moment that the train was entering the station too fast and that it was too late to apply his own handbrake.
The Granville–Paris Express train ran across the buffer stop on the station platform, crashed through a 23 inch wall, then fell over 32 feet to land on the street.
Photo credit: Levy & fils
The following day, London’s Morning Post ran a story by their Paris correspondent describing “a most sensational accident [that] occurred at 10 minutes past four this afternoon.”
Incredibly, the accident claimed only one life, and that was of a poor woman selling newspapers near the station. Marie-Augustine Aguilard was struck and killed by falling masonry. Six people had injuries.
The Pall Mall Gazette of London wrote that the train was still suspended over the road two days after the train derailed. “According to the information given before the examining magistrate,” they wrote, “there appears to be no doubt that Pellerin, the driver, was to blame and that he will be tried before the Correctional Tribunal for manslaughter, due to imprudence.”
Four days after the accident, The Star of Guernsey, England wrote, “Pellerin declared yesterday to the examining magistrate that on reaching Dreux and Versailles he asked the stationmaster to provide him with a new engine as the brake upon his own was not under proper control. They are held to be responsible for the accident in so far that they did not reverse the engine in time, and that they broke the rule by relying upon the Westinghouse brake to draw up at the terminus.”
Pellerin was found guilty of driving too fast and fined 50 francs. The conductor was fined for not applying the handbrake; he paid 25 francs.
In 1890, Clément Ader, aviation pioneer, unveiled his new invention to the world, the steam-powered Éole. It was followed by other flying contraptions, like the Avion III.
Ader with his flying machine
Ader was a brilliant man with a vision – or a nightmare – of what flying humans would look like. And his inspiration came from the bat.
