Ellis Island
March 2007
I visited Ellis Island on a day of record cold temperatures in NYC—March 7. I’d been sick, and I was freezing, and I had a plane to catch that evening, but I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. So I took the subway to Battery Park and the ferry to Liberty Island and then Ellis Island.
I didn’t have enough time. The exhibits were puzzling, and I took my time with them. Puzzling because they seemed unfinished, and I later learned why they were.
I didn’t know that the restoration of the main building on Ellis Island only began in 1984 after the buildings were left to fall to ruin after 1954. How much denial are we talking about here as a nation? To not recognized the historic significance of this place? I was astounded. The restoration and ongoing work on the unfinished exhibits was and is, largely, financed privately.
The exhibits tell some of the story of the restoration, but much remains unsaid. Within a glass enclosure sits a rotted upright piano, among other relics that were also dirty and in disrepair. The other buildings on the island remain unrestored.
I must have looked like I could have landed there recently, with my Wool Peddler shawl wrapped around my head like a babushka and my pale, broad Finnish/Irish face.
It was a haunting experience.
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Comments 2
What an exquisite photo and how true about our denial as a nation. What I find most sad is that we don’t seem to learn from our mistakes, we simply keep repeating them.
Posted 19 Mar 2007 at 7:05 am ¶Wow, what an amazing photo, AF! It is beyond pathetic that we don’t respect our history. Then again, if we had any respect for ourselves as a nation at all, W would not be President.
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 2:47 am ¶