Jewish Grandmother on Ellis Island

Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874–1940

“Jewish Grandmother – Ellis Island, 1926”

New York, 1926

Lewis Wickes Hine was a renowned American sociologist and photographer who pioneered the use of the camera as a tool for social reform. He was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and moved to New York in 1901. He studied sociology at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. Starting around 1904, he took thousands of photographs of immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island daily. He often referred to his work as “photo-studies,” as he was trying to see his models in detail, to deepen the perspective and make his art more impactful. For Hine, the new immigrants were not a faceless mass, but rather, vital individuals captured in real situations of life. Without depriving them of their personalities, he presented them as a group, thus amplifying the social message he aimed to deliver. 

Hine frequently accompanied his gallery of portraits of Jewish immigrants on Ellis Island and scenes on the Lower East Side with some associative  quotations by authors or with his own notes. These helped to frame a specific message and communicate it so  the viewers would study his works from the societal point of view. 

In this photograph that Hine captured on Ellis Island in 1926, the steady gaze of the Jewish grandmother is directed skyward, as though she is engaged in some kind of silent prayer.

“So this is America,” wrote Hine on the accompanying note card, as if reading the woman’s thoughts. He continued: “This Jewish grandmother’s face is filled with awe and hope, as she looks towards the land for which her people have gained, and to which they have given so much.”