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Immigration Drawing Ideas for a History or Family Project

One picture of a journey, an arrival, a new home or your family's story, with a fact or a prompt.

Immigration Drawing Ideas for a History or Family Project

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  1. Boots worn thin from the walk to the portA journey starts before the ship. Cracked leather, and laces knotted where they broke.

Next step Things to sketch on a journey of your own

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Journeys 13

  • A child at a porthole watching the waves A round window, a chin on two hands, and a horizon line that tilts with the ship.
  • A creased photograph of relatives who stayed Two thumbs at the edges, a fold down the middle, small figures in a row in front of a house.
  • A family on a dock with bundles, backs to the viewer Backs and bundles tell it without faces. The ship's side fills the top of the page.
  • A narrow bunk below deck with a hanging lantern Steerage was the lowest class of passenger space. Stacked bunks, a lamp, a small bundle.
  • A page of a ship's manifest with names in columns A manifest lists a ship's cargo and passengers. Rule the columns and invent every name on it.
  • A relative's address written on a tag tied to a buttonhole The address of a relative already there. A card tag, a loop of string, one line of handwriting.
  • A steamer trunk plastered with port stickers Invent every sticker: a port, a ship's name, a city to reach. Leather straps and metal corners.
  • A ticket for an ocean crossing, designed by you Make up the shipping line, the passenger and the port. Dots along one edge for the tear-off stub.
  • A two-funnel steamship pulling away from a pier Smoke trails back toward the land being left. Tiny figures line the stern.
  • An ocean chart with a ship's course from port to port Mark the home town, the port of leaving and the port of arrival. A small ship rides the line.
  • An open suitcase holding the five things someone chose What would you carry to a new country? Draw five objects and write a label beside each.
  • Boots worn thin from the walk to the port A journey starts before the ship. Cracked leather, and laces knotted where they broke.
  • The rail of a steamship crowded with faces Many crossed in steerage, the lowest class of passenger space on a ship. A long rail, rows of hats and scarves.

Arrival 13

  • A bronze plaque lettered with one line of a poem In 1903 words from The New Colossus, a poem of 1883, went on a plaque at the base of the statue.
  • A family meeting again beside a wooden column in a hall Those admitted at Ellis Island often met relatives and friends at a column outside the registry room.
  • A first sight of the harbor statue from a crowded deck The Statue of Liberty faces southeast, toward ships entering the harbor. Heads in front, the figure far off.
  • A girl stepping ashore first on opening day, 1892 The station on Ellis Island opened in 1892. The first person processed was a teenage girl from Ireland.
  • A harbor crowded with arriving ships in 1907 1907 was the peak year: 1.2 million people were examined on Ellis Island. Funnels, masts, tugboats.
  • A tally board showing the station's first-year count By the end of its first fiscal year, over 400,000 immigrants had been processed at Ellis Island.
  • The arched, tiled ceiling over the registry room The main building's roof was replaced with an arched ceiling of tiles by 1918. Small rectangles on a curve.
  • The Ellis Island ferryboat tied up at its slip The ferryboat named Ellis Island made its last run on November 29, 1954. A low hull, one funnel.
  • Poems carved into a wooden barracks wall On Angel Island, opened in 1910, hundreds of Chinese poems were carved into the walls. Draw planks and marks.
  • The registry desk: a tall ledger, a clerk and a line On average the inspection took about three to seven hours. A high desk, an open book, people waiting.
  • The registry room of Ellis Island, lines between rails From 1892 to 1924 over 12 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island. A wide hall, rows of rails.
  • Trunks, baskets and cloth bundles piled in a baggage room On the way to the registry room, arrivals at Ellis Island were asked to set their baggage down.
  • The wide staircase up to the registry room New arrivals at Ellis Island walked upstairs to the second floor. Broad steps, a rail, a crowd.

A new home 12

  • A citizenship ceremony: rows of raised right hands Naturalization is how someone who was not born a citizen of a country becomes one. Hands, small flags.
  • A festival from the old country held on a new street Pick a celebration your family or a friend's keeps. Lights, food stalls, a crowd of all ages.
  • A first day at a new school: a desk and a name tag One desk among many, a name tag lettered carefully, a window with an unfamiliar view.
  • A grandparent teaching a child a single word Two heads close together and one speech bubble with the word in it. Choose a word you were taught.
  • A kitchen table with a dish from the old country Choose a dish your own family makes. Steam, a serving spoon, a patterned cloth.
  • A letter home with a stamp from the new country An envelope, a stamp you design, an address in another alphabet if you can write one.
  • A mailbox with a newly painted family name A post, a box, a small red flag, and letters still wet. Invent the surname.
  • A sewing machine by a window over city roofs A wheel, a needle arm, cloth under the foot, and chimneys and water tanks beyond the glass.
  • A two-language dictionary open on a desk Two columns to a page. Letter one word you know in both languages along the top.
  • A windowsill with a pair of small flags and a plant The flag of the old country and the flag of the new. Choose the two that belong to the story you tell.
  • An evening class of grown-ups learning a new language Adults at school desks copying one word from the board. Coats on chair backs, a dark window.
  • Storefronts on one block, each sign in two languages Invent the shops and letter each sign twice. Keep to languages you can write correctly.

My family's journey 12

  • A dinner plate in halves: a dish from there, one from here Split the plate down the middle. Choose two dishes your family really eats.
  • A family flag of your own design One shape for each place your family has lived, three at most, in two or three flat tones.
  • A family tree where each branch ends in a birthplace Start with yourself at the bottom. Letter the town or country where each person was born.
  • A portrait of the oldest person you know, home town below Draw them from life or a photograph, then letter the place they grew up under the frame.
  • A postcard from the place your family comes from A view on the front, a stamp and three lines on the back. Draw both sides on one sheet.
  • A shelf holding three family keepsakes Things that made the journey: a photograph, a spoon, a book. Label who each belonged to.
  • A then-and-now pair: a great-grandparent's street and yours Two frames side by side. Keep the same viewpoint and change everything else.
  • A timeline of your family's moves One line, one mark for each move, a small house drawn at every stop.
  • A window of colored panes, one for each place in your family A simple picture in every pane: a mountain, a harbor, a street. Dark lead lines between them.
  • A world map with a pin where each grandparent was born Four pins at most, and a thread from each one to where you live now.
  • An arrival stamp for your own family: port, ship and year Ask which port and which year, or make them up. One round stamp, drawn large, ink a little uneven.
  • Your name written in every alphabet your family uses Ask someone who writes each script to check it. Stack the versions like a signpost.

How it works

These immigration drawing ideas follow one move in four parts: the journey, the arrival, a new home and your own family's story. The arrival pictures carry facts about Ellis Island and Angel Island, each checked against a named source.

Read the full guide

History on two coasts

Arrival holds the two stations a class studies. Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, opened in 1892 and processed over 12 million people by 1924. Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, opened in 1910; hundreds of Chinese poems were carved into its barracks walls.

A family story counts as history

My family's journey asks you to find things out at home: a birthplace for every branch of a family tree, a port and a year, a dish from there and one from here. Every family's story fits, whether the move was last year or long ago.

  • Draw people from behind or far off. Backs, bundles and hats tell a journey without a single face.
  • Copy no real poem onto the barracks wall. Rows of carved marks on planks are enough.

Questions and answers

What can I draw for an immigration project?

Start with an object: an open suitcase holding the five things someone chose, a steamer trunk, a ticket. For a history unit, draw the registry room at Ellis Island or the poems carved into the barracks wall on Angel Island.

When did Ellis Island open and close?

The station formally opened in 1892 and was America's largest immigration station until 1924. The last people held there left in November 1954, and after a restoration the island opened to the public again on September 10, 1990.

What was Angel Island?

An immigration station in San Francisco Bay that opened in 1910. Many people arriving from Asia were held and questioned there, and in 1970 hundreds of Chinese poems were found carved into its wooden walls.

What is written on the Statue of Liberty's tablet?

JULY IV MDCCLXXVI, which is July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals. In 1903 a plaque with words from the poem The New Colossus was added at the base.

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