There was no typical immigrant experience. Some families were driven from their homeland; others came by choice. Some came by steamship; others came enslaved in shackles. Some families were separated forever by immigration; others were reunited in the United States.
Willard B. Moore writes that, despite popular belief, most turn-of-the-century immigrants did not arrive in ethnic costumes, "they came in a mixture of things: a shirt handmade by a mother who stayed behind, a pair of boots bought in Bremerhaven, and perhaps a warm coat inherited from an uncle. In such garb Ivan Simininski, a future American, presented himself to the New World. Self-conscious reinvention of ethnicity, through costume, came much later." While a few did arrive with only the clothes on their backs, most had space for some personal memento, some familiar object that reminded him or her of the old country or of the traumatic trip across the ocean. Many of these articles have been carefully preserved over several generations.
For those who came voluntarily, mementos of the voyage itself often were saved--a ticket, a brochure, a picture of the ship. Most treasured of all, however, were the photographs of family and friends and familiar places in the old country. Of course, immigrants also kept official papers, such as birth certificates, baptismal records, marriage papers, and passports. The preservation of these items and their transmission to succeeding generations are important in shaping family memories and ethnic identity.
Practical objects frequently have survived as well. An address book might list friends and relatives left behind and names of people to look up here. Some shipping lines required steerage passengers to furnish their own dishes, utensils or bedding which they later used to set up housekeeping or saved simply because they represented a familiar way of cooking and eating. Then there were the Bibles, prayer books, and other religious articles carried for comfort and for connection with the eternal as well as the past.
The museum has an extensive collection of items that eastern and southern Europeans brought here from their homelands earlier in this century because the historical record tends to favor immigrants who come by choice through conventional legal channels. By contrast, refugees from many parts of the world arrive with few or no possessions. For example, Caribbean "boat people" have come to Miami's shores on wooden rafts or inflated inner tubes, with plastic cups and bowls or provisions stored in glass jars, materials rarely saved.
Although the museum's holdings are thus biased toward the more fortunate immigrants, they nevertheless offer rich insight into what people have valued. Family bonds, ethnic traditions, religious affiliations--these are the ties that have endured across continents and oceans and are physically embodied in many of the things people have brought with them and saved.
[Preserving Parts of The Past: Image Archive]
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© 1996 The Balch Institute For Ethnic Studies
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