My first artifact is a poster created by Howard Chandler Christy in 1919. Titled “Americans All,” the banner is intended to address hostility and nativism sentiments regarding the immigration influx at the start of the 20th century. With uncertainty and anxiety on the rise thanks to the start of the First World War, foreign-born refugees were mistreated and ostracized from American society. Despite this discrimination, many still fought for their place in the United States. Howard Christy demonstrated this through his depiction of Columbia and a list of honored names, all historically ethnic names from various countries including France, Italy, Ireland and more. I believe the poster was implying others to handle immigration differently between the title and its relationship to the list of names. With foreign-born soldiers comprising nearly 20% of the American army of the time, Christy was calling U.S. citizens to welcome immigrants.

My second artifact is a political cartoon published in 1921 by the Funk & Wagnalls Company. In response to the new immigration laws starting in 1917, the caricature implies that the new measures may be ineffective and useless. I believe the cartoon is more representative of the Immigration Act of 1924, in which only 2% of immigrants were granted entry to the United States out of each nationality. With America being involved in the war at the time, the portrayal of Uncle Sam and the substantial amount of immigrants going through a funnel seems time-consuming and futile. I believe the cartoon is intending to imply that focusing our country’s resources and energy toward a purposeless cause while in the midst of war was pointless.

I chose this issue because of my ancestral connections. My Great-Grandfather was an Irish immigrant in the early 20th century, and later went on to fight in the war. I believe these artifacts help demonstrate that discrimination towards foreign-born people is often unfounded and wrong. Furthermore, it is an issue that is still prevalent nearly a century later, and something I am quite passionate about.

The reason for comparing these two artifacts is for their differing perspectives on the issue. The first identifies how immigrants contribute considerably to America and deserve to be recognized as citizens, while the second shows what was actually happening at the time. Together, both prove that the stereotypes surrounding other ethnicities created an issue of discrimination and intolerance that was unjustified. While posters may have not made a huge impact on how immigration was handled at the time, I think that analyzing them could also give insight into current issues with immigration as well.