
Tag for Railroad Trip West, Ellis Island (Primary Title)
Lewis W. Hine, American, 1874 – 1940 (Artist)
Hine returned to Ellis Island in 1926, revisiting many of the subjects that he had photographed twenty years earlier. Due to language barriers encountered during their long passage, immigrants were pinned with tags to indicate their final destination. While the tagging of whole families may seem an uncomfortable practice to 21st-century viewers, it was understood at the time as a modern efficiency. Hine himself chose to focus on the nobility of the families, many of whom were still combating an image of immigrants as destitute. Hines noted in his writings the modern dress and respectability of the arriving families
Black ink stamp on verso: "Lewis W. Hine / Interpretaive Photography / Hastings-on-Hudson, New York"
Inscribed in graphite by unknown hands on verso: "Tag for RR trip west E. I. - 1926 or 1905?", "701", "75-29-19C", and "GEHNEG 3764".
Virginia Museum Art Purchase Fund
The Likeness of Labor, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, October 17, 2015 - April 10, 2016
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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