Through the front door, Mr Monkey found himself in the baggage room. This is where immigrants had to leave their luggage, before they went upstairs to the Registry Room to be processed. Ellis Island staff used to claim they could tell where someone came from without asking, just by looking at their luggage*. Most of the room is empty now, but they have a sample of luggage of the world as an indication of what it might have looked like.
* Presumably without looking at the luggage labels either. That wouldn't actually be very clever.
Copyright Rik Shepherd and Mr Monkey. This page last modified 20 March 2005