Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island

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On July 9, 1903, cinematographer Alfred C. Abadie recorded this short actuality for the Thomas A. Edison company, which first sold the film of immigrants arriving in New York under the title Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island. The Edison sales catalog called it "a most interesting and typical scene" of the location already well-known as the place where the U.S. government officially processed immigrants. Between 1892 and 1924, millions came to Ellis Island from across Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. Running little more than two minutes, the Edison film, in three shots, records a ferryboat docking and dozens of passengers stepping onto Ellis Island and parading past the camera in orderly fashion. Ranging in age from elders to infants, most carry a variety of bags, bundles and baskets.

Many similar images from the era have become familiar in documentary depictions of American immigration, but Edison's film, made in the first decade of motion pictures, was the first to record the now-mythologized moment.

Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island was added to the National Film Registry in 2019.

The footage can be viewed on this very page, at the Library of Congress's website, or on YouTube.

Tropes used in Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island include:

• Big Applesauce: The boat arrives at Ellis Island.
• Boring but Practical: There is little exciting about the disembarkation process to a modern viewer, however it gets people off the boat in an orderly fashion, and permits a good look at many given the film quality.
• Documentary: A short one about immigrants arriving at Ellis Island.