Tenement Museum

1988 - present

The Tenement Museum was opened in 1988 by historian Ruth Abram and activist Anita Jacobson. The Museum intends to show the diverse stories of immigrants living in tenements or "apartment home[s] between the 1860s and 1930s" (Tenement Museum, About, 2024). Abram and Jacobson decided to initially host the Museum at 97 Orchard Street which is described as "a dilapidated tenement building whose upper levels had been shuttered for more than 50 years" in 1988 (Tenement Museum, About, 2024). The Museum offers an alternative and interactive museum tour by offering people to view galleries and exhibits to examine primary sources and artifacts about tenements (Tenement Museum, About, 2024). Currently, the Tenement Museum offers tours of two historic buildings: 97 and 103 Orchard Street, including the Lower East Side neighborhood. The Tenement Museum shares the stories of working-class families that lived as residents in Tenement buildings between the 18th and 19th centuries. The Tenement Museum provides various resources to the public to learn about the stories of families who have lived in Tenement buildings. For instance, they provide Free public programs such as the Storyteller’s Society: 100 Years Apart Tour and Brunch on April 21, 2024, curricula like lesson plans for Social Studies and English classes, and their collaborative project Your Story, Our Story to educate the public on immigration and migration stories.

Photograph of a tour inside a tenement house offered by the Tenement Museum
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Details

Category
Museum
Founder(s)
Ruth Abram & Anita Jacobson
Corporate Body
he Senior Staff and Department Heads of the Tenement Museum are President Annie Polland, Chief Operating Officer Rachel Gygprcewicz, Chief Development Officer Lidy Chu, Chief Officer of Education Steven McIntosh, Vice President of Human Resources Anne Brenner, VP of Retail Operations Mary Kate Cowell, VP of Education Operations Alisa Martin, VP of Marketing & Communications Nate Goehring, VP of Programs & Interpretation Kathryn Lloyd, Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs and Hebrew Technical Institute Research Fellow Dave Favaloro, and there is staff listed on their website working from Visiting Services to Individual Giving. The Board of Trustees consists of 31 individuals, listed at the top beginning with Mohammed H. Badi who is Co-Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, Andrew S. Berkman who is Chair of the Committee on Trustees and Governance, Marco Carrión, Magaret M. Chin, Tom Dye, and many more are listed on the Trustees section of the website.
Tags
Museum, Immigration, Resilience

Location

  • 103 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002, USA
    ? - ?

References

  1. Tenement Museum. (2024). About Us. Tenement Museum. https://www.tenement.org/about-us/
  2. Tenement Museum. (2024). Trustees. Tenement Museum. https://www.tenement.org/about-us/trustees/
  3. Tenement Museum. (2024). Staff. Tenement Museum. https://www.tenement.org/about-us/staff/