(IMMIGRATION) George Billings Rago Displayed on the American

Sale 2208 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 1,440

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,400 - $ 1,800

(IMMIGRATION)
"George Billings Rago Displayed on the American Flag." Cyanotype, 4 1/4x3 inches (10.8x7.6 cm.), with a period newspaper article adhered to mount verso. 1905

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Acquired from a Private Ohio collection circa 1995.
The Photograph and the American Dream 1840-1940, 1.
An article with the headline, "NAMES THE BABY AFTER COL. BILLINGS" reads: "Col. George B. Billings has a Portugese namesake. His name is George B. Billings Rego [sic] and he is 7 days old. The child was born on Thanksgiving day in the detention pen on Long wharf, his mother being Roza J. Rego and the father Adel Rego. He was the first child born in the Boston immigration station. . ."
The records show baby Rago was born in Boston on 30 November 1905, the day his parents and older sister arrived in Boston on the S.S. Romanic from the Azores.