Researching Augustus Sherman

Sherman was born on July 9, 1865, in Lynn, Pennsylvania, of English stock on both side of his family, he was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His father, Henry Nathaniel Sherman (1832-1887), was a commission merchant; his mother was Estella Theresa Sherman, née Handrick, (1838-1912). Augustus was graduated from high school in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In 1884, he came to New York to join his older brother, Henry Handrick Sherman (1860-1918); both pursued careers as clerks in the Democratic Party's Tammany Hall political machine. In 1887, Augustus was private secretary to John R. Voorhis (1829-1932), a prominent Tammany politician and former New York City Police commissioner. In 1893, Sherman was hired as a clerk under Ellis Island's Democratic immigration commissioner, Dr. Joseph H. Senner, but he left on being appointed private secretary to the NYC Police Commissioner, a position he held from 1893 to December 1894. In January 1895, he entered federal service in the Bureau of Immigration as a senior stenographer at Ellis Island, succeeding his brother there. During his years as chief clerk of Ellis Island he was in charge of the station's large clerical staff as well as its extensive correspondence. He also supervised immigrant appeals to the Commissioner made by those who had been excluded from entry by a board of special inquiry.

Sherman took photographs from about 1904 until 1924. Considering the state of the art of photography in that era, with long exposures and huge box cameras, the fact he was able to capture so many images during his working life is noteworthy.

Sherman took photographs of families, groups, and individuals who were being detained either for medical reasons or for further interrogation. In some cases, such as his images of a gypsy family, the subjects of photographs were deported. Over the course of his career at Ellis Island, Sherman took more than 200 pictures, often encouraging his subjects to open their suitcases and put on their elaborate national costumes or folk dress. He captured images of Romanian shepherds, German stowaways, circus performers and women from Guadeloupe.

Sherman's photographs were not taken in an official capacity, but they were used by immigration officials to promote the work of Ellis Island. They were published in some of the annual reports of the Commissioner General of Immigration and provided by Ellis Island Commissioner William Williams to the New York Times to promote William's work at Ellis Island. Sherman's photograph collections are housed at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and the New York Public Library.

On July 4, 2008, the Minnesota History Center opened a new exhibit celebrating the human story of the more than twelve million immigrants who entered the United States through the federal immigration station. The exhibit features 75 framed black-and-white photographs reflecting the cultural and ethnic diversity of people arriving at the beginning of the 20th century.