The Tenement Museum in New York City welcomes in-person and virtual visitors into the historically recreated homes of immigrant, migrant, and refugee families to inspire connections between past and present and promote an inclusive and expansive American society.
The museum tells the stories of working-class tenement residents who moved to New York City from other countries and other parts of this country. Their work helped build the city and nation, and their stories help us understand our history.
While textbooks often overlook the stories of ordinary people, the museum’s in-person and virtual tours immerse visitors in the tenement hallways, kitchens, and parlors where families carved out new lives. The museum shares primary sources and research that help us explore the stories of tenement families. Free public programs (in-person and on YouTube), curricula, and the Your Story, Our Story website continue the conversation, using the stories as points of departure to connect the past to the present.
The museum aims to build an inclusive and expansive American identity. Exploration of the nation’s complex history—one with moments of both inclusion and exclusion—helps prepare students to recognize and discuss today’s complex issues with empathy and nuance.