Name/Title
In Sight of AmericaDescription
When restrictive immigration laws were introduced in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, they included new requirements for photographing and documenting immigrants-regulations for visually inspecting race and health. This work is the first to take a comprehensive look at the history of immigration policy in the United States through the prism of visual culture. Anna Pegler-Gordon considers the role and uses of visual documentation at Angel Island for Chinese immigrants, at Ellis Island for European immigrants, and on the U.S.-Mexico border. In a rich narrative that includes many previously unpublished images, she explores how visual regulations became central in the early development of U.S. immigration policy and in the introduction of racial immigration restrictions. In Sight of America also provides historical context for understanding more recent developments in immigration policy and, at the same time, sheds new light on the cultural history of American photography.