Italian Family Seeking Lost Baggage, Ellis Island

Beginning in 1905, Lewis Hine began trekking to Ellis Island to photograph immigrants entering America through the New York port. His purpose was to show newcomers to the United States as dignified individuals rather than anonymous masses of foreigners, as the press frequently portrayed them. Hine went on to develop a form of documentary photography that advanced social reform and at times even resulted in changes to the law, as seen most famously in his images of child labor. In this photograph of an Italian family, Hine likened the mother to a Madonna figure, employing Renaissance art to evoke the sympathy of his viewers.