Curate Your Own Adventure

The final museum I’d like to review in New York is the Tenement Museum. As well as the Gilder Center (American Museum of Natural History), Tenement Museum, Ellis Island, and New York Historical Society, we visited the Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of the Dog, and the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I’m glad we got to visit so many museums in New York. I cannot wait to visit more in the future! This post will focus on the Tenement Museum. This museum is located in the Lower East Side and, according to their website, shares the stories of immigrants, migrants, and refugees who settled in New York. It achieves this through guided tours of recreated apartments that are situated across two tenement buildings.

The museum has a little something for everyone. If you enjoy house museums, social history, abandoned buildings, or even fascinating stories of New York’s past, you’ll enjoy your visit. The only way to explore the museum is on a guided tour. There are quite a few tours on offer that focus on different rooms and stories. As I read on many review sites – it’s impossible to pick a bad tour. We selected two tours – one for the morning and one for the afternoon. The following is an overview of both tours.

After the Famine: 1869

Our first tour of the day was After the Famine: 1869. On this tour, you hear the story of Joseph and Bridget Moore, Irish Catholic immigrants who moved to New York post-Civil War. Joseph and Bridget both came from farm/rural backgrounds and lived in Ireland during the Irish famine. It is assumed that they met after moving to New York. In the late 1860s they moved into a tenement building on 97 Orchard Street (now the museum).

The tour is jam-packed with information about the residents and their context. It also provides insight into how these stories were uncovered. When the museum purchased the tenement buildings, they had no idea who lived there and what history could be told. Uncovering these stories has taken massive amounts of research and community engagement.

For this tour, you start by climbing approximately 68 stairs and heading into an abandoned-looking tenement apartment. Standing here, you get a real sense of the history of the building and how many stories can be found within its walls. For example, in the photograph below you can see the layers of wallpaper found in one room.

Before seeing the reconstructed apartment, we learnt about Irish immigration to New York and where the Moore family lived prior to this building. We then visited the Moore’s apartment and spent some time exploring the three rooms. One room was designated as a bedroom, one a kitchen, and one a living room. With up to nine residents per apartment, all rooms would have functioned as bedrooms. We continued to hear their story throughout. Finally, to conclude the tour, we discussed the Saint Patrick’s Day parade origins and how residents of New York viewed the Irish immigrants. Overall, a great tour to start our museum experience.

100 Years Apart

Our second tour of the day was 100 Years Apart. It poses the question, what do a 19th century German-Jewish immigrant family, and a 20th century Chinese immigrant family have in common? In short, more than you think. Throughout this tour you hear the stories of the Wong family and Gumpertz family. In both cases, the women thrived in the garment industry either being the sole contributors or major contributors to their family’s financial situation.

To start the tour, we visited the museum’s new building housing the garment shop of Mrs Wong. This is a very interactive space as you can hear stories direct from the family by activating sewing machines, toys, and cooking utensils. We had about half an hour in this room to explore.

We then visited the original building to learn about Julius and Natalie Gumpertz. The Gumpertz family immigrated from modern-day Germany in the 1880s and lived in this building. During the Panic of 1873, Julius left the family, and Natalie was suddenly forced to provide for her three daughters. She started a garment shop and guided her family through financial hardship. This was my favourite story from the tour.

Visitor Information

The Tenement Museum shares critical stories about New York’s past in an engaging and interactive way. You can book your tours online prior to visiting which will guarantee you a space. I’d recommend making a day of it and going on at least two tours. Plenty of delicious lunch options around! There is an accessible tour available that bypasses the stairs.

My next blog post is going to focus on all the historic cemeteries we have visited in New York, Atlanta, Charleston, and Savannah.