quick facts
2007
   

Summary of findings from preliminary research of Baltimore immigration history:

A far from exhaustive search for published works detailing Baltimore’s history as an important historic port of entry for immigrants suggests that the subject has received very little in the way of scholarly attention.

Perhaps two examples provide clear evidence that the city’s central role in one of humankind’s most compelling stories—the mass relocation of tens of millions of people—needs and deserves to be more widely known and more completely understood.

First, Baltimore does not even rate an entry in the reference “Dictionary of Immigration History.” Second, the most comprehensive work that has been identified to date, is an eleven- page chapter about Baltimore in the book “Forgotten Doors: The Other Ports of Entry to the United States” authored by Dean R. Esslinger of Towson University.

The Baltimore Immigration Project was founded in part to address this history of neglect. The Project is committed to encourage, commission and support original scholarly research. Highlights of that research will then be presented in ways that make the information accessible and compelling for the general public.

A central question this preliminary research has attempted to answer is “Did Baltimore, in fact, rank as the number two port of entry after Ellis Island?” Multiple sources make note of the fact that truly accurate immigrant counts cannot be determined.

Despite that, a number do make reference to Baltimore as the number two port of entry. Obviously, the existence of multiple references does suggest a basis for the claim, but in some cases qualifying statements make them less than conclusive.

For example, The Baltimore City Heritage Area Management Action Plan, prepared by a consultant team, makes the claim outright, without qualification. Other sources, however, refer to the claim as a widely held belief or that the number two ranking applies to a specific time interval, such as “throughout most of the 19th century.”

Therefore, it seems reasonable for the Baltimore Immigration Memorial Foundation to adopt the claim for number two ranking, but with an appropriate qualifier. Future research may at some time provide clarification.

One source makes a different claim that may even more effectively signify Baltimore’s importance in the nation’s immigration story. It states that the city was the most popular port of entry for those immigrants who continued their journeys overland to settle the American west.

This trend was greatly accelerated with the completion in 1818 of the National Road to Wheeling. That turnpike from Baltimore served for a number of years as the nation’s primary route to the heartland. The completion in 1853 of the B&O Railroad’s line to Wheeling, and later beyond, further enhanced the city’s position as an immigration port.

In addition to its advanced transportation links, other reasons for Baltimore’s popularity as a port of entry include jobs provided by rapidly expanding industry, active immigrant aid societies and strongly developed patterns of trade with European cities.

Other facts about the city’s immigration history:

• Nearly two million immigrants landed in Baltimore, approximately one million at the B&O Railroad’s Locust Point immigration piers.

• Before the Civil War, most immigrants arrived at Fell’s Point piers, notably Henderson’s Wharf.

• By 1830, Baltimore had established firm trading links to Liverpool and Bremen, through its port of Bremerhaven, the leading port for the import of Maryland tobacco.

• Bremerhaven was Europe’s number one port of embarkation, with more than seven million immigrants boarding ships at its docks. This number included not only many Germans, but virtually all of those who emigrated from Eastern Europe passed through either Bremerhaven or Hamburg.

• On January 21, 1867 the B&O Railroad signed an agreement with the North German Lloyd Steamship Company to jointly recruit and transport immigrants from Bremerhaven to Baltimore.

• A successful Baltimore businessman, German immigrant Albert Schumacher was instrumental in arranging the partnership between railroad and steamship company. The son of a Bremen city counselor, he became a consul general for Bremen and Hamburg while on the board of the railroad.

• The first steamship to land at the B&O Railroad’s Locust Point piers was the North German Lloyd Line’s “Baltimore” on March 24, 1868.

• The Pennsylvania Railroad established immigration facilities several miles east of Fell’s Point.

• Germans formed the largest immigrant group to arrive in Baltimore followed by the Irish. There was no direct steamship service from Mediterranean ports to Baltimore, so most Southern Europeans, such as Italians and Greeks came to Baltimore via other ports of entry.

• In 1869, several steamship lines contracted a Mrs. Koether to run a large boarding house for arriving immigrants on Pier 9. For the next 50 years she received as many as 40,000 passengers a year.

• Only steerage class passengers were required to undergo health and customs examinations.

• The examinations were carried out on board the incoming ships, with doctors and customs agents boarding at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

• Examinations were generally quite casual since health and customs screening was rigorous in the North German ports of departure. The facilities for care of outbound immigrants in those ports were as good as any in Europe.

• Passengers who were detained or delayed upon arrival in Baltimore for health reasons or suspected violations were provided adequate food and a large yard for air and exercise. Many enjoyed fishing from the pier during detainment.

• The B&O Railroad had built special immigration passenger cars by 1873.