About the collection

The Ellis Island Oral History Collection began in 1973, when the National Park Service at Statue of Liberty National Monument conducted taped interviews with immigrants to the United States and others associated with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The collection consists of approximately 2,000 interviews managed by the National Park Service in the museum collection on Ellis Island.

What you'll find here

This site makes the audio recordings and transcripts of the collection searchable for the public. Each interview page includes the recording, a full transcript, biographical metadata extracted from the project catalog, and a downloadable PDF of the original transcript.

Browse by series

• EI — 1990–2009 interviews conducted by the NPS, recorded on Ellis Island and in the field.
• NPS — 1973–1986 interviews conducted by the NPS that predated the recording studio on Ellis Island.
• KECK — 1985–1986 interviews conducted by Allee, King, Rosen, and Fleming, Inc. (AKRF).
• KM — 1993–94 interviews by Kate Moore of the University of Helsinki.
• DP — 1989 interviews by Nancy Dallett and Andrew Phillips.

Citing this collection

Each interview page includes a recommended citation. The general form is:

Interviewee, date, interviewer, Ellis Island Oral History Collection, Statue of Liberty National Monument, U.S. National Park Service, interview ID.

Rights and reuse

The recordings and transcripts are made available for personal, educational, and research use. For more information, please contact the National Park Service.