Portraying Race beyond Ellis Island: The Case of Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine first went to New York’s Ellis Island Immigration Station to take photographs that would elicit sympathy from his students at the Ethical Culture School toward the new immigrants. Since then, the photographs, dating from 1905 to 1926, have visually defined his sitters as foreigners in classrooms, in print, and at museums. Produced at a time when the so-called race of the foreign-born was deemed indicative of their overall character and abilities, the photographs both sustained and countered turn-of-the-century racialized conceptualizations of newcomers. More recently, contemporary artists including JR and Tomie Arai have returned to Hine’s Ellis Island work for installations that bring the past into direct dialogue with the present, confronting contemporary viewers with enlarged versions of his photographs. Hine’s pro-immigrant intentions and reputation as a social reform photographer, however, have clouded how these photographs also racialized their sitters. This article traces the circulation of a selection of Hine’s works in different contexts dating from 1905 to today, and considers them within the broader histories and theories of photography, race, and immigration.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1904-1967

J. Robert Oppenheimer died on 18 February 1967 in Princeton, N.J. More than any other man, he was responsible for raising American theoretical physics from a provincial adjunct of Europe to world leadership. Robert Oppenheimer was born on 22 April 1904 in New York. His father, who had come to the United States from Germany at the age of 17, was a prosperous textile importer. By inheritance, Robert was well-to-do all his life. The father was quite active in many community affairs, and much interested in art and music. He had a good collection of paintings, including three Van Goghs. Oppenheimer’s mother, Ella Freedman, came from Baltimore. She was a painter who had studied in Paris, and was a very sensitive person. Robert had one younger brother, Frank, who also became a physicist; he is Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo. Oppenheimer had close ties both with his parents and his brother. As a boy, Robert was already most interested in matters of the mind. He attended the Ethical Culture School in New York, one of the best in the city. He was more interested in his homework, in poetry and in science than in mixing with other boys. He has said, ‘It is characteristic that I do not remember any of my classmates.’