The Proposed Emigrant Dumping Site
- Title:
- The Proposed Emigrant Dumping Site
- Alternate Title:
- The Proposed Emigrant Dumping Site
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Gillam, Victor
- Date:
- 1890
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 1109.01
- File Name:
- PJM_1109_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1870 - 1899
- Subject:
- New York City
Bias
Satirical
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 34 x 26 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- As a "nation of immigrants," Americans have produced persuasive maps addressing the issues of immigration and nationality over most of the country's lifetime. The collection includes a number of these maps published since the 1840s. Some are welcoming, encouraging, and provide advice to immigrants. Some assert that the diversity of our nationalities is a source of strength for the country. And yet others attack immigrants in general, or specific ethnic or religious immigrant groups, particularly Asians, Catholics, and Jews. For the range of these maps, Search > "immigration.”
This satirical cartoon attacks a proposal by William Windom, Secretary of the Treasury in the Harrison administration, to move the processing of immigrants from The Battery to Liberty Island. Two "European Garbage Ships," one labeled "Refuse," unceremoniously deposit a scruffy mix of immigrants at the feet of the Statue of Liberty. Windom looks on from the Treasury building in Washington as Lady Liberty, her face angry, lifts her robes to keep them from being soiled. "Mr. Windom," she says, "if you are going to make this island a garbage heap, I'm going back to France."
Windom was personally eager to restrict immigration into the U.S. He had urged exclusion of those "inimical to our social and political institutions," wanted to require "certificates of character and fitness" from American consular officials, and warned of "threats to native blue-collar jobs as the fruits of unrestrained immigration." Fischer 1988, 107. On March 13, 1890, he proposed more rigorous screening of immigrants under direct federal control - offshore, on Liberty Island. This cartoon followed nine days later, along with a storm of criticism from many sources. "If Windom's suggestion was a mere trial balloon (as many thought it was), it soared higher and more explosively than the naive secretary could have expected." Pulitzer's New York World called it an "outrage" and asked Congress to act. In Paris, the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi himself called the proposal "monstrous" and a "desecration," putting an end to the idea for good. Cunningham 2003, 56.
The collection includes a number of persuasive maps featuring the Statue of Liberty: ID #2309 (1875), #1091 (1885), #2125 (1885), #1109 (1890), #1176 (1915).
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Judge, March 22, 1890.
- Repository:
- Private Collection of PJ Mode
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.