Immigrants in New York City, mid-19th century

The Bay and Harbor of New York, 1855? by Samuel Bell Waugh

Waugh (1814-1885), a Pennsylvania native, painted romantic landscapes and portraits. He is best known, however, for his panoramas (produced largely in his studio in New Jersey).

The Bay and Harbor of New York, oil on canvas, was originally the final section of an eight hundred foot (243.84 meters) long painted moving panorama called Italia (which was inspired by his eight-year stay in Italy). It was donated to the Museum of the City of New York (founded in 1923) in the early 20th century.

The view was recorded from a point just north of The Battery which is at the tip of Manhattan, New York City (in what is today the 25 acres* of Battery Park).

In the middle distance, in the centre of the picture, is the Keying, a Chinese junk which visited the United States in 1847. It was the first vessel from the Celestial Empire (China) to visit America and caused a sensation; it shows that New York City was already an international centre. It gives us a date for the scene.

On the left, the round sandstone building standing on rocks in the water was, since 1824, an entertainment centre called Castle Garden. It was converted into the US's first official immigrant processing centre. Over 34 years, from 1855 to 1890, more than 8 million immigrants passed through here (two out of every three immigrants to the USA); it predates Ellis Island as an immigration centre (1892 to 1954).

Castle Garden, circa 1870

Immigrants at Castle Garden in 1866

Castle Garden is today called by its original name: Castle Clinton. It is a National Monument.

Behind the steam paddle ship (behind Castle Garden), one can see a small part of Brooklyn.

Behind the impressive tall ship on the right, one can see the round Castle William on Governors Island. Four forts were built to defend the harbour of New York City against the British during the War of 1812: Castle Williams, Fort Wood on Bedloe's Island (known today as Liberty Island), Fort Gibson on Ellis Island, and the Southwest Battery (which became Castle Garden) on Manhattan Island.

The wharf, in the fore-ground, is crowded with the passengers (they are very numerous), mostly immigrants, who are coming off the tall ship.

In 1860 there were 105,123 immigrants admitted at Castle Garden, of whom 47,330 were Irish, 37,899 German, and 11,361 English. Unlike their predecessors, who were vulnerable to waterfront fraud and other abuses, the people arriving on the piers near Castle Garden now benefited from police surveillance and the assistance of immigrant aid societies.

The artist shows the mix of nationalities and social classes of the people disembarking. The crowd contains quite a few well-dressed people; are they newcomers dressed in their Sunday best or fashion-conscious New Yorkers come to welcome their relatives or friends to America?

Most of the immigrants seem to be Irish. Most are fleeing the Great Famine (1846-1851). The ethnic prejudice faced by rural Irish entering the USA is indicated by the trunk on the lower right labelled "Pat Murfy for Ameriky", kitchen utensils typical of simple hearth-prepared meals cluttered around it. A shawled woman rests on the trunk, children by her side. The Irish farm boys attired in worn frock coats, peaked hats, and outmoded knee pants are caricatures.

A few facts and events of the period:

1830: The population of the USA is 13 million.

1840: The population of the United States is almost 18 million. Railway track has grown from 100 to 3,500 miles. The US now has 1,200 cotton factories, two-thirds of them in New England (north east of the USA).

1845: The faster shipment of potatoes from the Americas across the Atlantic to Europe allows the survival of mould arriving with the potatoes. The mould creates potato crop failures across Europe and starvation in Ireland…

1845-1855: About two million Irish emigrate, most to America.

1849: Poor sanitation in New York City creates a cholera epidemic, killing 5,000 people, most of them poor and Irish. Some believe the epidemic is God's punishment… It could partly explain why there was anti-Irish sentiment by some Americans towards the Irish immigrants (plus the fact that the Irish were mostly Catholic; there was an anti-Catholic sentiment by part of the Protestant majority).

1850: Five percent of British ships are now powered by steam rather than sail.

1857: Elisha Graves Otis installs the first passenger-safe elevator in a department store in New York City (elevators will allow the building of skyscrapers).

Click HERE to view a panorama of New York City in the 19th century

A few pictures of New York in the 19th century:

The Battery and Castle Garden before 1855

Castle Garden after 1855

New York harbour, mid-19th century

  

New York City, second half 19th century

*An acre equals 4047 m².

QUESTION

The Bay and Harbor of New York is a primary source for historical study; what insights about the 1840s and 1850s do we gain from studying it?