Bob Hope Memorial Library

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

The immigration station at New York's Ellis Island opened in 1892 and remained the largest U.S. port for immigrant entry until World War I. In popular memory, Ellis Island is typically seen as a gateway for Europeans seeking to join the "great American melting pot." But as this fresh examination of Ellis Island's history reveals, it was also a major site of immigrant detention and exclusion, especially for Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian travelers and maritime laborers who reached New York City from Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, and even within the United States. And from 1924 to 1954, the station functioned as a detention camp and deportation center for a range of people deemed undesirable. Anna Pegler-Gordon draws on immigrants' oral histories and memoirs, government archives, newspapers, and other sources to reorient the history of migration and exclusion in the United States. In chronicling the circumstances of those who passed through or were detained at Ellis Island, she shows that Asian exclusion was both larger in scope and more limited in force than has been previously recognized.

An original collection of voices, filled with hope and tears, chronicles the history of Ellis Island and the people it served. Indians, settlers, immigrants, inspectors, doctors, nurses, cooks, and social workers all played a big part in that history. Author Gwenyth Swain reimagines the lives of those who landed, lived, and worked on the island through fictional letters, monologues, dialogues, and e-mails, basing them on historical documentation and real-life people. In doing so, she creates a moving picture of their struggles and triumphs. Illustrated with poignant and affecting photographs, this is a unique exploration of Ellis Island's history. Includes further resources, bibliography, and source notes.