Slant-top desk

An Immigration Service Inspector’s job was to interview immigrants coming to the United States through Ellis Island. The inspector, sitting at a slanted, rostrum desk in the Registry Room met face-to-face with the immigrant, questioned the newcomer and consulted the official passenger list of the transporting ship called a Manifest of Alien Passengers which was open on the desk before him. The inspector had to verify that the immigrant’s answers were correct and only admit those persons who were clearly entitled to enter the United States under the country’s immigration laws. Barred from entry were contract laborers, polygamists, paupers, convicted criminals, anarchists and any one likely to become a public charge. This desk is an original inspector’s desk used on Ellis Island. The desk is made of wood and has a hinged lid, a drawer and a square inkwell. A single grooved wood block for a writing instrument is fastened near the inkwell with one center nail. “DEC-1949” is scratched into the wood finish.