The exhibition called "MERIKA - Emigration from Central Europe to America 1880 – 1914" will be put on display on Ellis Island as more than 90 percent of all immigrants into the United States passed through the island on their way to America.
The exhibition includes photographs, documents and other pieces of evidence about emigrants from Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, Romania and Croatia who embarked on their journey to the United States in the Adriatic seaport of Rijeka.
The author of the show is the Rijeka Museum director Ervin Dubrovic.
"At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, more than 3 million people emigrated from Austria-Hungary to the United States, and most of them passed through Ellis Island. The aim of this exhibition is to show the background of this great exodus, how the emigrants traveled, and their new lives in America - as well as focus on individual stories of a few chosen immigrants. Short films of interviews with emigrants who left Austria-Hungary in the 20th century will be included in the exhibit," the Ellis Island Immigration Museum said in its announcement of the exhibition.
This exhibition was staged in the Rijeka museum from December 2008 to June 2009 and won the annual museological award in Croatia in 2009.
The preparation of the project involved experts and institutions from central and southeastern countries as well as from the United States.