Abstract
This article analyses messages and pictures drawn on the
walls by detainees at Ellis Island immigration station in New York
c. 1900–1923. This fragmentary source material provides a valuable insight into the perceptions and emotions of people held in the limbo of immigration detention. Largely neglected in the historiography, the graffiti are significant as a counterpoint to official mark-making and bureaucracy. Ellis Island was an environment where the performance of writing was suffused with power, infamously in the marking out of passengers for further inspection with chalk symbols on their clothing. In the official documents, detainees’ voices were translated, transcribed, and circumscribed. In contrast, the walls of dormitories and detention rooms formed a backstage space for personal musings, creativity, and low-level dissent.
walls by detainees at Ellis Island immigration station in New York
c. 1900–1923. This fragmentary source material provides a valuable insight into the perceptions and emotions of people held in the limbo of immigration detention. Largely neglected in the historiography, the graffiti are significant as a counterpoint to official mark-making and bureaucracy. Ellis Island was an environment where the performance of writing was suffused with power, infamously in the marking out of passengers for further inspection with chalk symbols on their clothing. In the official documents, detainees’ voices were translated, transcribed, and circumscribed. In contrast, the walls of dormitories and detention rooms formed a backstage space for personal musings, creativity, and low-level dissent.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 5-35 |
| Journal | Journal of American Ethnic History |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2019 |
