Incredible Photos Of Immigrants Arriving At Ellis Island

1 Million Immigrants A Year

From 1905 to 1914, approximately 1 million immigrants arrived in the United States each year. During its peak period, officials processed nearly 5,000 immigrants a day. Of the 12 million immigrants who passed through Ellis Island, the majority (in the beginning) were from Germany, Ireland, Britain, and the Scandinavian countries. As their numbers slowed down, Southern and Eastern Europeans (many of them Jews) started entering the country.

Others who were processed included people from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Slovakia, Syria, Turkey, and Armenia. The Immigration Act of 1924 greatly restricted immigration and allowed people to be processed at overseas embassies.