Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

During the early 20th century, the typical printed images and photographs of immigrants portrayed a poor group living in crowded tenements that were located in the ethnic ghettos of the urban cities of the United States. The images in popular magazines of this era also portrayed poorly dressed immigrants working as laborers with picks and shovels or in factories. A forgotten aspect of the immigrant experience of the early 20th century was their use of the public library as a shelter from the harsh realities of working life or a place to borrow books that would assist them in learning the English language. Many immigrant writers, such as Pascal D’Angelo, used the public library to learn the English language to eventually write poetry and books about their immigrant experiences. Lewis W. Hine did take some photographs of immigrants using the public library, but they are largely forgotten. These photographs are not the images that are associated with the immigrant experience in the early 20th century. This paper tells the forgotten story and show the forgotten images of the immigrant and the use of the public library during this era.