Lower East Side Tenement Museum

From the restored apartments of garment workers to the living spaces of Italian and Jewish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum presents and interprets the experience of real immigrants who lived in the 1863 brick building at 97 Orchard Street. The museum maintains a permanent collection of more than 2,000 artifacts discovered in 97 Orchard Street and items donated by former residents and neighbors, as well as an archive of papers and oral histories that document Lower East Side history. Museum programs strive to teach lessons of tolerance and civic engagement and address today's social issues.

On-site programs: Educators and costumed interpreters lead tours of apartments that incorporate hands-on, sensory interaction with artifacts and re-create what tenement life was like for a 1916 Jewish family or a household of garment workers in 1897 and address subjects such as surviving economic depressions, tenement conditions and housing reform, assimilation, cultural identity, and the role of community. Walking tours of the Lower East Side examine the impact of immigrant groups on the community. The Shared Journeys program, a workshop series for ESOL classes, offers apartment tours specifically crafted for English-language learners. Pre- and postvisit materials include suggested activities, an annotated bibliography, and historic background information. (Grades K–12; call for information on grade specific programs; $)

In-school programs: For students who cannot physically visit the museum, educators are available to present slide shows, music, and artifacts from the Getting By and Piecing It Together tours, which address issues of social welfare and the experiences of workers in the garment industry. Teachers may arrange a distance-learning version of the Confino Family Apartment program, which explores the life of Sephardic Jewish immigrants. A costumed interpreter portraying teenager Victoria Confino will also visit classrooms. (Grades K–12; $)

Classroom materials: Teachers can download the Confino Primary Document Activity from the museum website. The packet includes materials such as a postcard, passport, family photograph, a report card, and ship manifest, and challenges students to describe Victoria Confino's life based on this evidence. (Grades 4–6)

Professional development: Training workshops share constructivist educational philosophy and methods, incorporate the history of 97 Orchard Street into subjects including math and theater, and emphasize the use of primary source documents, artifacts, architecture, and personal narratives in the classroom. New teacher credit is available. (Math workshops for teachers of Grades 3–5, all others K–12; $)

Additional resources: The online Lower East Side Tenement Museum Encyclopedia covers topics related to museum apartments, including each family whose flat is interpreted, immigration, disease in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the garment industry, economic depressions, history of the Lower East Side, and sweatshops. The annual publication Tenement Times explores historical issues that relate to museum exhibitions.

General information: Address: 108 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002; Phone: (212) 431-0233; Web: www.tenement.org.

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