© 2008 The Posy Collection PC-1003.

Immigrant Family
Counted Cross Stitch Kit

From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Prior to becoming an immigration station, Ellis Island served as a hanging site for pirates, a harbor fort, and an ammunition and ordnance depot named Fort Gibson. The island developed a reputation as an "Island of Tears," because about two percent of the arriving immigrants had to be turned back, because they either had a contagious disease or were judged likely to become a public problem. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson declared Ellis Island part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Today, the museum receives two million visitors annually.