This thesis reexamines the historical visual narrative of early 20th century immigration inthe United States investigating the contributions made by photographers Lewis Wickes Hine andAugustus F. Sherman, and immigration officials William Williams and John R. Robinson.Though widely accepted as the visual record of early 20th century immigration, the Ellis Islandwork of Hine was in direct conversation with the work of amateur photographer Sherman.Compared to Hine’s egalitarian perspective of immigrants, Sherman’s photographs provide anarrower, darker view of immigration by focusing on representation of those classified“undesirable” upon arrival due to health, religion, culture, race or ethnicity. While Sherman’swork was largely forgotten over time, Hine’s work endured to create a visual mythology thatelicits nostalgia of Ellis Island as the celebrated entry point for millions of white Europeans.Hine’s work as a documentarian is compared to the topological portraiture Sherman made whichillustrates the exclusionary nature of his body of work. As agents of state power, Williams andRobinson collected photographs of undesirable immigrants that also construct a dark and narrowview of immigration. Comparing and contrasting the activities of these four actors builds anargument that photographs illustrating race and ethnicity were methodically produced andcollected to categorize ethnic and racial types and surveil undesirable immigrants.
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