--- title: Ellis Island: Rare Photos From the Gateway to a New World, 1950 description: LIFE.com presents rare photos from America's most famous entry point for immigrants -- Ellis island, a.k.a, "the island of hope and tears." canonical: https://time.com/3517805/gateway-to-a-new-world-rare-photos-from-ellis-island/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-24T18:01:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:21.719Z og:title: Ellis Island: Rare Photos From the Gateway to a New World, 1950 og:description: LIFE.com presents rare photos from America's most famous entry point for immigrants -- Ellis island, a.k.a, "the island of hope and tears." og:url: https://time.com/3517805/gateway-to-a-new-world-rare-photos-from-ellis-island/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7295dfb6613e3695/6987616b0b72e3723a6db1a0/ellis-island-14.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Rachel and Schulim Pewzner, from Warsaw, Poland, interviewed at Ellis Island, 1950. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ellis Island: Rare Photos From the Gateway to a New World, 1950 twitter:description: LIFE.com presents rare photos from America's most famous entry point for immigrants -- Ellis island, a.k.a, "the island of hope and tears." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7295dfb6613e3695/6987616b0b72e3723a6db1a0/ellis-island-14.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Gateway to a New World: Rare Photos From Ellis Island by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jun 24, 2014 6:01 PM UTC  Not published in LIFE. Rachel and Schulim Pewzner, from Warsaw, Poland, interviewed at Ellis Island, 1950. Not published in LIFE. Rachel and Schulim Pewzner, from Warsaw, Poland, interviewed at Ellis Island, 1950.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jun 24, 2014 6:01 PM UTC For a country constantly patting itself on the back and touting its unique status as a “nation of immigrants,” the United States has an awfully hard time maintaining a consistent policy—and attitude—toward the [millions of people who desperately want to come to the U.S.](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/opinion/charles-blow-the-crisis-of-children-at-the-border.html) and join the great, chaotic American experiment. Today, as the question of whether the United States will seriously address comprehensive immigration reform looms ever larger, and as the country’s racial and ethnic demographics shift more rapidly and more dramatically than at any time in the past century, LIFE.com looks back at a lasting emblem of immigration in the U.S., [Ellis Island](http://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm), through the lens of one of LIFE’s greatest photographers (and a proud immigrant himself), Alfred Eisenstaedt. Eisenstaedt went out to the island in Upper New York Bay in the fall of 1950 because the rough machinery of politics had once again brought confusion and delay to the processing of thousands of men, women and children looking to step on to American soil. But beyond chronicling the immediately evident impact that political rivalries in Washington were having on real lives a few hundred miles to the north, Eisensteadt’s pictures also uncannily mirror photographs made at Ellis Island decades before. (By some estimates, a full third of the population of the United States—more than 100 million people—can trace their ancestry to immigrants who first arrived at Ellis Island. Few Americans, meanwhile, recall that both Liberty Island and much of Ellis Island are not in New York, at all, but are instead part of the great state of New Jersey.) Many of the pictures in this gallery were never published in LIFE magazine. Here, in black and white, are the faces, the clothes and even the dreams and the fears of people who have crossed thousands of miles to get to this very spot—and have been stopped, for the moment, from going any further by the one force capable of thwarting hope: bureaucracy. Some of the pictures in this gallery appeared in the Nov. 13, 1950 issue of LIFE. The story explained the photos, and the situation on the island, this way: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- LIFE then went on the describe the “flood-tide activity” at Ellis that the great photographer Lewis Hine documented in the early 1900s—activity that slowed to a trickle (1,300 a month vs. 3,000 a day in 1906) by the late 1940s—and noted that for the first time in decades, the island was “again full of deeply human scenes.” --- > “” --- --- Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at [@LizabethRonk](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk).  Caption from LIFE. "Antonio Magnani copes with his children and fat briefcase holding his entry papers." Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Immigrants at Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Twenty-four-year-old Schulim Pewzner, a rabbinical student from Warsaw, Poland, at Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. The Saturnia docks at at Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rachel and Schulim Pewzner, from Warsaw, Poland, interviewed at Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Maria Nadalin of Italy, seated at left of the table, is worked on by an inspector-stenographer-interpreter team ..." Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Exhausted parents in recreation hall try to keep their child amused and quiet. Most of them will put up with endless piggyback riding, hair-pulling -- anything -- to get relief from the bewildered crying." Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "In women's dormitory, separated from husbands, wives sit silently on their beds. At right is Maria Palmerini of Italy, here for a six-month visit. She receives same treatment as those who will stay." Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rachel Pewzner, 20, and her 24-year-old husband, Schulim, at Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Tired child is ready to go to sleep with his head on the dining-hall table. American food is sometimes too strange for aliens. There is a kosher kitchen for orthodox Jews." Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Boarding a ferry at Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rachel Pewzner, 20, and her 24-year-old husband, Schulim, at Ellis Island, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. On a ferry in New York Harbor, looking at lower Manhattan, 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images   LIFE magazine, Nov. 13, 1950\. (Note: This is best viewed using the "Full Screen" option; see button at right.) Life Magazine  LIFE magazine, Nov. 13, 1950\. (Note: This is best viewed using the "Full Screen" option; see button at right.) Life Magazine  LIFE magazine, Nov. 13, 1950\. (Note: This is best viewed using the "Full Screen" option; see button at right.) 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