“In 1988, a woman named Ruth Abram found a dilapidated building that had been condemned for over 50 years at 97 orchard street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. A lot of people saw a ruined eyesore; what Ruth saw was a new way to help people understand and appreciate the contributions of immigrants, migrants, and refugees to the creation of our nation. And she began The Tenement Museum.”
Since 1992, The Tenement Museum has grown to share one-of-a-kind tenement apartment tours that “explore historically recreated homes and the immigrant and migrant families who lived in them in the 19th and 20th centuries.”
Two preserved tenement buildings, 97 Orchard Street and 103 Orchard Street, housed thousands of people from over 20 nations.
Learn more about the museum and its mission in the 4.5-minute Tenement Museum video above.
Follow The Tenement Museum on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and at Tenement.org.
• Tenement Museum Virtual Field Trips for students from 1st grade through 12th grade.
• Tenement Museum Lesson Plans: Sort by grade level, unit plan, lesson plan, family stories, or primary source type.
• 103 Orchard: A Digital Storytelling Experience.
• The Tenement Museum Digital Exhibits.
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• The psychology behind ‘Us vs Them’
• What is public life?
• The Fight for Fair Housing in Milwaukee: Vel Phillips and James Groppi
Plus, not to be missed: A day in the Secret Annex, an Anne Frank House video.
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