Shown here is an excerpt from the Immigration Report for March, April, and May of 1886 for the Port
Shown here is an excerpt from the Immigration Report for March, April, and May of 1886 for the Port of Philadelphia. Unusual to other report documents examined, this page features a newspaper clipping from, presumably, a local paper highlighting an immigration story attached within the report. The story itself, titled “Happy Arabians” by the newspaper describes a boat mishap that sees a group of Palestinian men accidentally end up on the shores of Philadelphia. Their original intent was to immigrate to Brazil. The men originally traveled to Gibraltar, and after speaking with a captain at the port there, were under the impression that the boat they were boarding was to head to Brazil. On reaching the Port of Philadelphia, the men attempted to explain themselves, and the Secretary of the Board of Emigration Commissioners summoned United States Interpreter Moses Klein, who articulated the mishap. Klein, then an agent of the Hebrew Emigrants Association, took heartfelt interest in the stranded Palestinians. Upon launching an investigation into the incident, it was learned that there were crew members aboard the ship that spoke Arabic, and also that it had been reiterated throughout the process and voyage that the ship was headed for Philadelphia. Mr. Klein eventually decided to take all of the passengers in, where he housed them for 14 days until the arrangements were set for the men to travel to Brazil. On leaving aboard a steamship, Colorado, the men expressed deep thanks to Mr. Klein and also thanked the Philadelphia Port authorities for their assistance.This report, along with 19 other reports covering 1882 to 1890, are digitized and available for review in the National Archives Catalog. You can review the reports here: https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=*:*&f.parentNaId=566733&f.level=item&sort=naIdSort%20asc.Today’s post was written by Paul Clifton, former Metadata and Digitization intern at the National Archives at Philadelphia. Paul also digitized and made these records available in the National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/566733. -- source link
#immigration#national archives#philadelphia