On January 1, 1892, a fifteen-year old Irish girl named Annie Moore became the first of the more than twelve million immigrants who would pass through the doors of the Ellis Island Immigration Station in its sixty-two years of operation. This small island off the New Jersey coast in the New York Harbor lies in the shadow of the
Statue of Liberty. Together, these
two landmarks have welcomed millions of immigrants to America.
A Statue of Annie Moore
Fred Astaire's father, Fritz Austerlitz, was another 1892 arrival. A few other famous Ellis Island immigrants who arrived during this era include Harry Houdini in 1914, Walter Elias Disney (Walt Disney) in 1919 Albert Einstein in 1921, F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1921 and George Gershwin in 1921.
