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Guide to the Angel Island State Park Photographic Collection
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Title: Angel Island State Park Photographic Collection
Dates: 1775-2010
Bulk Dates: 1900-1940, 1949-1995, 2010
Collection number: Consult repository
Creator:
California State Parks
Collector:
California State Parks
Collection Size:
1,636 images
Repository:
Photographic Archives.
California State Parks
California State Parks
McClellan, CA 92262
Abstract: The Angel Island State Park Photographic Collection contains 1,636 cataloged images that date from 1775 through 2010. Images
depict the property as a military installation, a quarantine station, an immigration station, and finally, a state park.
Physical location: For current information on the physical location of these materials, please consult the Guide to the California State Parks
Photographic Archives, available online.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection is open for research by appointment.
Property rights reside with the repository. Copyrights are retained by the creators of the records. For permission to reproduce
or to publish, please contact the Head Curator of the California State Parks Photographic Archives.
[Identification of item including photographer and date when available], Angel Island State Park Photographic Collection,
[Catalog number], California State Parks Photographic Archives, McClellan, California
Images donated by privated parties, generated by California State Parks staff, and transferred from Angel Island State Park
at various times.
Further accruals are expected.
The largest natural island in the San Francisco Bay, Angel Island contains over one square mile of abundant natural and historical
resources. Angel Island State Park encompasses the entirety of the island’s 740 acres except for 3 coastal points—Point Stuart,
Point Knox, and Point Blunt—that are owned and operated by the U. S. Coast Guard. Nestled between Marin and San Francisco
Counties, the park is located approximately 6 miles north of the city of San Francisco and 1.5 miles south and east of the
Tiburon Peninsula. The island is accessible by private boat or public ferry from the cities of San Francisco, Tiburon, and
Vallejo.
Two-thousand years ago, coastal Miwok hunters and fishermen began establishing their presence on the island, enjoying its
abundant natural resources into the late eighteenth century when Europeans first arrived. The Spanish encountered the island
in 1769 as part of an exploring expedition. Six years later, Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala and his pilot, José de Cañizares,
drafting one of the earliest maps of the area, christened the island
Isla de Los Angeles. For the next several decades, Angel Island served as a meeting place for pirates, smugglers, and duelists until, in 1839,
Mexican governor of California Juan Bautista Alvarado granted Antonio Maria Osio title to graze cattle there. But with the
U.S. acquisition of California following the Mexican-American War, Osio, fighting a protracted legal battle, lost his claim
and all ranching rights to the island. In 1850, President Millard Fillmore declared the area a U.S. military reserve and thus
ended Angel Island’s historic uses—fishing, hunting, smuggling, dueling, logging, and ranching—and began its multi-faceted
century-spanning career as a military installation.
During the Civil War, Union General George Wright procured $100,000 from the War Department to fortify the island’s defenses
against a possible Confederate attack on San Francisco. He established Camp Reynolds, named for Major General John Reynolds,
who was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, and built three artillery batteries. Never used during the war, Camp Reynolds
became the army’s general reception and distribution depot for new recruits serving in the West beginning in 1866. During
the Spanish-American War, Angel Island also served as a detention center, not only for Spanish prisoners of war but also for
Native Americans captured during Arizona campaigns. Decades later, the island again housed prisoners taken in both world wars
in addition to “enemy aliens” extracted from the civilian population.
In 1900, the War Department officially designated the island “Fort McDowell” after Major General Irwin McDowell. It also renamed
the camps: Camp Reynolds became “West Garrison” and Fort McDowell (the camp, not the island) became “East Garrison.” By 1939,
Angel Island had become the nation’s most heavily trafficked overseas discharge and replacement depot and claimed a permanent
staff numbering close to 300. To support the employees and their families, officials established a grade school, a library,
a bowling alley, a movie theater, and a Catholic church.
In addition to using the island for prisoner detention and troop distribution, the federal government sought to secure the
west coast from yellow fever, cholera, plague, and other diseases in 1890. The island's quarantine station was constructed
the following year. Every week, the station received scores of ships in Hospital Cove—now named “Ayala Cove”—where medical
personnel inspected passengers and crews for diseases, fumigated ships coming from known disease-harboring ports, and either
quarantined or deported sick individuals. The station was operational until 1946, when the U.S. Public Health Service abandoned
its facilities on the island.
Despite the park’s extensive military history, it is perhaps best known today for the Angel Island Immigration Station. Active
between 1910 and 1940, the station ultimately processed more than one million immigrants arriving via Pacific routes from
various points of origin. In addition to receiving immigrants from all over the world—Eastern Europe, Asia, the Caribbean,
South and Central America—one of the station’s key responsibilities was the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Enacted
in 1882 and renewed until 1943, the law restricted Chinese entry into the United States with exceptions made for residents’
family members, teachers, consular officials, tourists, and merchants. Although some immigrants were only detained for a few
days, others remained at the station for weeks and months; some even languished at the camp for years. Decades later, Ranger
Alex Weiss noticed calligraphy carvings, which officials had ignored: Chinese men and women had carved their stories into
the walls of the detention facility. The station ultimately closed in 1940 after a massive fire destroyed the administration
building.
In 1946, the U.S. Army declared Angel Island “surplus property” and abandoned its outposts. The following year, the War Assets
Administration assumed disposal responsibilities, delegating those duties to the Department of the Interior to be executed
by the National Park Service. In 1953, the California Division of Beaches and Parks acquired Hospital Cove and by 1958, it
also took control of 184 acres of the surrounding area. In 1954, the Secretary of the Interior returned control of the island
to the army for construction of the Nike missile site; however, by 1962, the Army deemed the weapons system obsolete and left
the island for good the following year. That same year, the State of California assumed control of the entire island (except
for the three Coast Guard units) and classified Angel Island a state park.
California State Parks, coordinating with the Angel Island Conservancy and the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation,
has launched a comprehensive campaign to preserve, restore, and interpret the island’s many natural and historical resources.
In addition to restoring historic buildings and structures—including the Angel Island Immigration Station, declared a National
Historic Landmark in 1997—California State Parks has also worked tirelessly as an environmental steward. Park personnel have
replanted native oak, bay, madrone, and other trees and shrubs that had been eliminated during the island’s nineteenth-century
wood-harvesting period. Additionally, they have tended non-native trees like eucalyptus and Monterey pine, deemed historically
significant for their associations with the U.S. Army and the Immigration Service periods. Besides historic and natural tours,
Angel Island State Park offers other forms of recreation to the public, including hiking, bicycling, boating, and kayaking.
The island also contains four camping areas, providing the public with stunning sunrise vistas of the Golden Gate Bridge,
the city of San Francisco, and other nearby attractions.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Angel Island State Park Photographic Collection spans the years 1775-2010, with the bulk of the collection covering the
years 1900-1940, 1949-1995, and 2010. There is a total of 1,636 cataloged images including 1,114 photographic prints, scans,
and negatives, 414 35mm slides, and 108 born-digital images. Of this total, only 643 images have been positively attributed
to any known California State Parks photographers.
Angel Island is best known today for its prominent role in immigration history. Most of the cataloged images pertaining to
this theme have been scanned from the Angel Island Lantern Slides Collection, originally created by the Lantern Slide and
Lecture Department of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City, presumably to document
the organization’s “good works.” Slides show both immigrants and Immigration Service personnel in the course of their daily
activities. Imagery depicts: ships entering San Francisco Bay via the Golden Gate; immigrants disembarking at the Immigration
Station dock; Asian immigrants detained at the Immigration Station; Immigration Service officials interviewing Chinese immigrants;
immigrant adults and children held under hospital quarantine; immigrant babies born on Angel Island; and Christian missionary
Miss Katharine Maurer teaching scripture and handicrafts to immigrants, supervising immigrant workers, and distributing Christmas
presents. Additionally, there are numerous individual and group portraits which include: Japanese “picture brides;” Chinese
men, women, children, and families; Russian refugees from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution; Italian and East Indian men; and
mothers with children from all across the globe.
Supplementing these early twentieth-century images, the collection also contains more recently captured photographs of the
now-famous “Chinese poetry carvings." In 1970, the Angel Island Immigration Station was slated for demolition when Ranger
Alex Weiss noticed the poems and reported them to the park's administrators, who ignored them. Convinced of its historical
significance, Weiss then took the information to nearby San Francisco, where he quickly generated a groundswell of public
interest. Painted over for decades, today these ornate carvings humanize and highlight indefinitely detained immigrants’ historic
struggle with institutional racism as well as their indomitable will to enter America.
Beyond images relating to immigration, the bulk of the collection depicts Angel Island’s multiple installations, the various
buildings and structures on the island, island staff—including military personnel, federal employees, and park rangers—and
the natural scenery of the island itself. Documenting the camps, images include ground and aerial views of Camp Reynolds (West
Garrison), Fort McDowell (East Garrison), Hospital (Ayala) Cove, and Point Knox. Also showcased are myriad buildings and structures
such as docks, wharfs, piers, warehouses, administration buildings, the North Garrison Central Heating Plant, detention barracks,
dormitories, hospitals, water tanks, the Point Knox bell house, the Southside Quarry rock crusher, quartermaster’s stable,
commissaries, guard towers, the Shafter House, and numerous boats, both docked and at sea. The collection also depicts a variety
of workers on the island including Immigration Station employees, Quarantine Station medical personnel, U.S. Army soldiers
at batteries Ledyard and Wallace, and park rangers engaging with visitors. Owing to the generous donations of their descendants,
Immigration Station employee Albert Thau and his family, as well as Power Plant Chief Engineer Henry C. Niemann and his wife,
feature prominently in the collection, often posing in front of Julia Morgan-designed employee cottages. The collection also
offers scenic vistas with its inclusion of aerial and panoramic views of Angel Island, Mount Livermore, the Golden Gate Bridge,
Alcatraz Island, the City of San Francisco, and other locations from various vantages.
Other subjects and activities depicted include: dock repairs and sewer system maintenance; surveys of deer-browsed vegetation
as well as deer-reduction efforts; monuments, interpretive panels, and exhibits distributed throughout the park; and various
ceremonies and events including Governor Goodwin Knight accepting the Angel Island deed transfer in 1954, the 1970 Historical
Landmark dedication ceremony, Governor Ronald Reagan’s visit to promote the 1974 Park Bond Act, and the 2010 Swearing-In Ceremony
for new citizens.
Although the Angel Island State Park Photographic Collection tells a compelling, transformative history spanning over a century,
the story as told currently is incomplete. The collection’s coverage of the twentieth century could be expanded in key areas.
First, the current cataloged collection does not depict the island’s use as a detention facility for captured prisoners of
war and “enemy aliens” during either world war or the Spanish-American War. Second, the decade between 1940 and 1950 is incredibly
sparse. In addition to the island’s World War II POW camp, the 1940s saw the fire that destroyed the North Garrison Administration
Building, compelling the Immigration Station’s closure in 1940; the collection currently has only two images relating to the
fire. Moreover, that decade also saw the Army’s evacuation from the island in 1946, another event only minimally represented
in the collection. Third, the collection’s coverage of the Nike missile site, 1954-1962, is also confined to a small handful
of images. And finally, unlike other state parks with restored historical resources, Angel Island’s photographic holdings
do not include much documentation of the important restoration work performed there, save for images of deteriorated ruins.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
American immigration & ethnicity
Angel Island (Calif.)
Angel Island Association
Angel Island Conservancy
Angel Island Immigration Station (Calif.)
California. Department of Parks and Recreation
Chinese--America--History
Cultural resources
Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.)
Marin County (Calif.)
Maurer, Katherine
Natural resources
Recreational resources
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Oakland and San Francisco, Calif.)
San Francisco Quarantine Station (Angel Island, Calif.)
United States. Army. Camp Reynolds (Angel Island, Marin County, CA)
United States. Army. Fort McDowell (Angel Island, Marin County, CA)
Related Material at California State Parks
Angel Island SP Collection
Related Material at Other Repositories
Angel Island Foundation Committee Records, UC Berkeley: Bancroft Library
Angel Island Oral History Collection, UC Davis: Special Collections
Angel Island Oral History Project, UC Santa Cruz: Special Collections and Archives, and UC Berkeley: Ethnic Studies Library
Angel Island Publications, Inc. Records, Stanford University: Manuscripts Division
Chinese in California Virtual Collection, UC Berkeley: Bancroft Library
Katherine R. Maurer Collection, California State Library: California History Room
Public Health Service Records, National Archives and Records Administration: NARA Pacific Region (San Bruno, CA)