Vault #14: A Closer Look
Reexamining Angel Island’s Interrogation Photograph
The interrogation photograph has been featured in numerous books, documentaries, and exhibits about Angel Island. It depicts two uniformed officers and one employee seated at a table with a Chinese immigrant. Note: The image is cropped from the original. Photo credit: NARA, 1923.
“The Interrogation Photo”
One of the Immigration Station’s most recognizable photographs has been used to illustrate the exhaustive interrogations Chinese immigrants faced on Angel Island, but new research has revealed the story behind the image and answered many questions surrounding it.
“Here, a prospective immigrant is fingerprinted before inspectors.”
“Photograph of an interrogation at Angel Island.”
“A Chinese applicant being interrogated at Angel Island.”
“A Chinese immigrant is interrogated by US immigration inspectors on Angel Island.”
Previous explanations concluded the image showed “immigration inspectors interrogating an immigrant.” However, the photo shows Public Health Service officers administering a mental test. Click here for the correct attribution. By investigating the details of the image, new information emerged about who the men were and what they were doing when the picture was taken.
Does the photo show an interrogation?
Not quite. Although the photo shows three officials screening a Chinese man, it would not be considered an interrogation. Historians and scholars have used the term interrogation to describe Angel Island’s Board of Special Inquiry process—more specifically—the questioning of Chinese immigrants and “paper sons.” The Bureau of Immigration’s exhaustive hearings produced hundreds of challenging questions that targeted an immigrant’s family history, hometown, upbringing, and motivation for entering the United States.
AIISF’s Asian and Pacific Islander Animated Histories Project features Fat Pork’s Interrogation from Illegal: A New Musical by Skyler Chin and Sita Sunil. It is based on Skyler’s grandfather’s Board of Special Inquiry experience on Angel Island in 1923.
This is the only known photo of a Board of Special Inquiry on Angel Island. The Methodist Church captured this image around 1920 to show missionary work on the island. The man is testifying on behalf of a Japanese picture bride. The woman holding the bride’s photo is his interpreter. Three inspectors, a stenographer, and another woman are also present. Courtesy: California State Parks, Statewide Museum Collections Center (231-18-40).
Special inquiries were conducted by three immigration inspectors, a stenographer, and an interpreter when needed. These hearings were held in the administration building’s former detention room, as shown in the photo above. While it isn’t clear where the interrogation photo was taken, details of the room closely resemble other rooms in the immigration hospital.
Who are the officers?
On June 4, 1923, the Superintendent of Buildings issued a memo that listed employees living at the Immigration Station. The memo helps identify two of the three men in the interrogation photo. Both men were employed by the Public Health Service.
Two figures in the interrogation photo are identifiable by name, while the third person remains unknown. Mr. DeLaune is also featured in a previous Vault story. Insert photo credits: National Library of Medicine, 1932 (left) and Monica Pagani, 1926 (right).
The man seated on the far left, Dr. Dunlop Moore, was in charge of the immigration hospital from 1920 to 1930. He was born in Vienna, Austria, and earned his degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Before his appointment on Angel Island, he was accused of striking a dying sailor who refused to answer his questions. The case against Dr. Moore was later dismissed.
The man seated between the two uniformed officers is Michel DeLaune, a 2nd-generation French immigrant who lived and worked in the hospital. Besides working as a pharmacist, steward, and hospital superintendent, he was fluent in Chinese, making him an indispensable member of the Public Health Service. He is featured in the interrogation photo as an interpreter. Mr. DeLaune was previously discussed in another Vault post.
What are they doing?
The interrogation photo shows a Chinese immigrant receiving a mental test. Mental testing provided a veneer of scientific legitimacy for discriminatory policies, allowing officials to exclude individuals based on subjective notions of mental fitness.
In 1917, immigration laws prohibited admitting immigrants with cognitive impairments. In response, the Public Health Service devised tests to evaluate a person’s acquired knowledge, problem-solving ability, behavior, and attitude. Dr. Howard Knox, assistant surgeon at Ellis Island, developed puzzle and mimicry tests to detect mental deficiencies. These tests did not require an immigrant to read or write to solve them.
The Knox cube test, for example, required an immigrant to tap a series of cubes in a precise order shown by the doctor. After each sequence, the pattern of touches increased in difficulty.
This image is similar to Angel Island’s interrogation photo. Two uniformed officers conduct a mental exam at Ellis Island (ca. 1923). Testing instruments are laid on the table. Note: The image is cropped from the original. Photo credit: NARA.
What other photo are there?
The other photos from 1923 show Public Health Service employees inspecting immigrants, testing biological samples, and tending to patients in bed. Some immigrants were staged in multiple locations, revealing that the doctors posed them for the photographer.
A closer look at the men’s ward photo shows one patient is the same immigrant featured in the interrogation photo.
Attendants John Kelleher and Robert Stevenson with patients in the hospital, 1923. Photo credit: NARA.
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There are several unanswered questions that require further research.
When was the photo taken?
The photo was most likely taken in the summer of 1923. Quarantine journals from that year recorded a visit from the Surgeon General on June 28 and 29. This was the same week 10,000 doctors attended the American Medical Association’s 74th annual conference in San Francisco and three days before the anticipated arrival of 526 Russian refugees on June 1.
Who is the second officer?
The unnamed doctor could be Dr. Herbert Spencer. He was stationed at Ellis Island from 1922 to 1923 before succeeding Dr. Moore on Angel Island in 1930. If the photo was taken in late June 1923, he may have been at the Immigration Station to assist with the refugees’ arrival.
Who was the immigrant?
The man’s identity remains unknown. His presence in the hospital suggests he arrived within 30 days of the photo being taken. Assuming he arrived the week of June 25th, he would likely be one of the 160 Chinese passengers on the S.S. President Cleveland (arrival: June 27, 1923).
Mullan, E.H. "Mental Examination of Immigrants: Administration and Line Inspection at Ellis Island," Public Health Reports, 1896-1970, Vol. 32, No. 20, May 18, 1917.
NARA, College Park. Record Group 90: Records of the Public Health Service. Public Health Service Historical Photograph File. 1912-7/1/1939.
NARA. Memorandum for the Commissioner from the Superintendent of Buildings, Record Group 85, General Correspondence, June 4, 1923.
National Library of Medicine. HMD Collection; MMS ID 9915402613406676; NLM ID 101540261, 1931.
San Francisco Call. "Sailor Given Brutal Blows by Dr. D. Moore," April 14, 1910.
San Francisco Call. "Justifies Slaps on Dying Sailor," April 20, 1910.