German fare dodgers trying to get to America without a ticket or a Canadian who as Frank Woodhull wanted to spend the rest of his life in the US … More than a hundred years old secrets of selected characters of the photography exhibition „Augustus F. Sherman. The Atlas of the Immigrant” will be available during the Free Art Day on Saturday, 22 April, at 12 at the Emigration Museum in Gdynia.
8 seconds. It is the average time that we spend on watching one museum object. It’s not enough to get to know each of them well. On the Polish nationwide Free Art Day, which the Emigration Museum in Gdynia joins for the second time, you can visit the exhibition to see five specially selected objects and, for one hour, talk only about them. Assistance will be provided by volunteers who will invite each interested visitor for a talk.
This year the selected exhibits will be four photographs presented at the temporary exhibition „Augustus F. Sherman. The Atlas of the Immigrant” and the publication of the Immigration Commission of 1891 shown on the touch screen.
Augustus Francis Sherman, the author of the photographs presented at the exhibition, was not a professional photographer, but a civil servant, an employee of Ellis Island Immigration Station Registration Office in 1892-1925. Having contact with thousands of people arriving from other continents and representing different cultures, religions and customs, he created extraordinary documentation. As a talented amateur photographer, he left more than 200 individual and group portraits of newcomers to America from its most intense migration period. Today, this collection is a document of great research value.
In order to extend the historical and social background of the times of the mass migration to the United States, the exhibition includes also multimedia materials – digital publications, a documentary and audio recordings presenting the history of Polish immigrants who could potentially be Sherman’s models, which were made available by the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.
Stories of the selected exhibition characters will be available during the Free Art Day.
More information on „Augustus F. Sherman. The Atlas of the Immigrant” exhibition: http://bit.ly/2osB6g3.