Hoboken, Ellis Island, and the Immigrant Experience, 1892-1924

Hoboken, New Jersey is a mere square mile in size. Yet immigrants packed into this city which lays at the footsteps of Ellis Island at the turn of the last century. An exhibit at the Hoboken Historical Museum chronicles the stories of those who settled here, starting with a view to their lives before they left the homeland for the unknown. Hoboken's surge in European immigration was fueled in part by the major passenger shipping lines that docked here, as well as the employment opportunities the city offered, such as positions as longshoremen and porters.