Hello Torch Readers,
As the Director of the American Family Immigration History Center (AFIHC), I am lucky enough to see people discover their families’ immigration stories every day. Finding a family member’s arrival record, when their American experience officially began, is an emotional moment that we are always grateful to be a part of. It’s easy to be overcome by the diversity of experiences reflected in the manifest records and in the lives of museum visitors searching for their place in American history.
The work of the History Center could not happen without a dedicated team of staff members and volunteers. One such volunteer, from whom you will hear more in the near future, is Michael Barbalat.
Michael’s dedication to exploring immigrants’ impact on American culture has been a catalyst for the creation of a website dedicated to collecting the oral histories of people who have made an immigrant’s journey: the American Mosaic. Michael has collected stories that reflect the breadth and depth of the American experience itself.
I would encourage anyone who has made the immigrant’s journey themselves and wants to pass your experiences on future generations to contact Michael and visit his website.
In addition to collecting stories of modern-day immigrants, Michael shares the History Center’s passion for celebrating the underappreciated and unexplored impact that past generations of immigrants continue to make on our lives. His Substack is called “Unsung Heroes,” where curious folks can discover fascinating biographies about such folks as:
- Peter Tsai, the Taiwanese-American inventor of the filtration material used in N95 masks.
- Stephanie Kwolek, the American chemist. Her best-known invention, Kevlar, is used in everything from bicycle tires to bulletproof vests. Stephanie’s father Jan Kudek immigrated in 1914, and her mother Aniela Zajdel immigrated in 1913. Both of their manifests can be found in the Ellis Island Database:
- Jonas Salk, the virologist who developed the polio vaccine. In order to increase its worldwide distribution and save more lives, he refused to patent it. His father was the child of Jewish immigrants, and his mother was herself a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in the US at the turn of the 20th
Summer is the busiest season for the AFIHC crew, and I hope you get the chance to visit Ellis Island to see us in action. And be sure to check the Torch in the weeks ahead for more info about what we’re up to at the American Family Immigration History Center!
Sincerely,
Stephen Lean (he/him)
Director, American Family Immigration History Center
The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation