Italian Family Seeking Lost Baggage, Ellis Island
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 17.4 × 12.5 cm (6 7/8 × 4 15/16 in.); Paper: 19.6 × 17 cm (7 3/4 × 6 3/4 in.)
Classification
gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
23347
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Beginning in 1905, Lewis Hine began trekking to Ellis Island to photograph immigrants entering America through the New York port. His purpose was to show newcomers to the United States as dignified individuals rather than anonymous masses of foreigners, as the press frequently portrayed them. Hine went on to develop a form of documentary photography that advanced social reform and at times even resulted in changes to the law, as seen most famously in his images of child labor. In this photograph...
About the Artist
Lewis Wickes Hine · 1874–1940
Lewis Wickes Hine (1874–1940) was born on September 26 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Douglas and Sarah Hine, who ran a coffeehouse and restaurant on Main Street. After his father's accidental death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound around 1892, the teenage Hine supported his widowed mother and sisters through various jobs while pursuing education. He attended Oshkosh Normal School, where he met ment...