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Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
| Article
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18149 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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11 / 1990 |
2,412 Words |
| Author
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Daniela Vincenti
Daniela Vincenti recently graduated from the Columbia
University School of Journalism |
The year was 1921. A train whisked Teddy from his village on the green slopes of the Bernese Alps to the gray-blue French port of Le Havre. From there, he embarked on a boat bound for the United States, accompanied by Gertrude Schneider, his eleven-year-old owner.
Teddy (Bear) was five years old when he and Gertrude arrived at Ellis Island in New York harbor, the immigrants' portal to the New World - "Isle o Hope" to the robust but "Isle of Tears" to the incurably ill who were not allowed to remain.
Wearing a gray jumpsuit that Matti, Gertude's mother, had sewn for him, Teddy waited in the family trunk while the Schneiders passed through immigration. Once out of Ellis Island, Gertrude and her family settled in Cotekill, New York. Eventually she grew up and married, and Teddy was relegated to the attic.
But sixty-nine years later, Teddy has become an honored guest at New York's new Ellis Island immigration Museum. Gertrude Schneider Smith donated him to the collection in 1988. "I loved that teddy bear more than anything else," Gertrude said, trying to contain powerful emotions. "It was like giving him up for adoption, like giving up a child.”
Teddy was just one of the hundreds of personal effects donated to the museum by naturalized citizens. Many items were accompanied by substantial sums of money to help establish the first grand-scale immigration museum in the United States. Officials predict that the museum will host more than half a million visitors annually. "This museum is the glorification of a common experience," commented Paul
... (1999 of 14137 Characters)
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