Between 1873 and 1934 the shipping company Red Star Line carried over two million emigrants from Antwerp to New York. The port artist Eugeen van Mieghem (1875-1930) painted the penniless voyagers, who came mainly from Central Europe, waiting on the quayside.
Migrants’ stories
Three harbour sheds at the Rhine Quay (Rijnkaai) in Antwerp, in the shadow of the MAS (Museum aan de Stroom or Museum by the River, see earlier post), are the last remaining vestiges of the former shipping company. Here the emigrants underwent the first administrative and medical checks.
By 2012 these sheds are supposed to be turned into a museum and an experience centre for migration, a real “lieu de mémoire” that will bring alive migrants’ stories from the past and now.
Tower and chimney
The American architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle has been selected to supervise the renovation. The firm also renovated Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York, through which all migrants had to pass before they could set foot in the “New World”.
The historic character of the three brick buildings will be preserved as far as possible, but a tower, which will serve as a lookout point over the quays and the bend in the Scheldt, will be added. The tower is supposed to be a reference to the old chimney, the last recognisable point for the many migrants.
The new museum is a not unimportant link in the chain of projects with which the city council wants to reconnect the people of Antwerp to the river Scheldt.
The city of Antwerp, the Flemish Government and private sponsors (including the maritime group, CMB) have invested in the project. Anonymous American families have contributed 1.5 million dollars in total.
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