National Archives Nationwide Network and Attachments: Faces and Stories from America’s Gates

What is the National Archives? The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1% - 3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.

Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching an historical topic that interests you including Genealogy Workshop Events.

A new National Archives exhibition in Washington, DC, Attachments: Faces and
Stories from America’s Gates, draws from the millions of immigration case files in the
Archives to tell a few of these stories from the 1880s through World War II. It also ex
plores the attachment of immigrants to family and community and the attachment of
government organizations to immigration laws that relected certain beliefs about im
migrants and citizenship. These are dramatic tales of joy and disappointment, opportunity and discrimination, deceit and honesty.

Attachments is free and open to the public, and runs through September 4, 2012.

The exhibition explores both physical and emotional attachments — the attachment of immigrants to family and community, and the attachment of Americans to their beliefs about immigrants and citizenship. Attachments is divided into three sections: Entering, Leaving and Staying.

Entering examines the exciting, strange, and frightening experience of entering a new country. For most immigrants to the United States, the actual entry processes at immigration arrival points lasted only a few hours or days. Still, the stakes were high. For those escaping religious or political persecution, the outcome of their immigration application could mean life or death. Some individuals took desperate measures including forging visas; others created false families or crossed borders illegally. Many appealed detention or fought deportation in the courts.

Leaving shares the stories of immigrants who — willingly and unwillingly — left the United States. While some immigrants came for only a short time and left by choice; others wanted to enter, but were turned away. For some immigrants who successfully entered, the ultimate punishment for a criminal past — which may have included financial trouble, a disability, or moral turpitude — was deportation.

The final section, Staying, examines what it meant to leave behind the familiar and stay in America. While not all immigrants chose to stay, for those who did, making a life in a new land presented both opportunities and challenges. Feelings of loss and nostalgia over 'the old country' balanced the thrill of greater freedom and the chance to begin again. American ideals of inclusion, democracy, and individual rights faced off against the reality of prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping. For many, these struggles were resolved, in part, by taking the steps to become a US citizen. For others, it was enough to live as an alien in America for the rest of their lives.

In Attachments, visitors will discover dramatic tales of joy and disappointment, opportunity and discrimination, deceit and honesty. They will learn about these stories through original documents and images, and will have the opportunity to look into the eyes of the immigrants through large photomural portraits. Entering the gallery, they will pass by a large (8 x 26 feet) panoramic photograph of Angel Island, the immigration station in San Francisco Bay which was sometimes called 'The Ellis Island of the West.'

People you will meet in Attachments include:

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National Archives Nationwide Network and Attachments: Faces and Stories from America’s Gates

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