The Tenement Museum: A Window into Everyday American Lives
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the debate over how best to teach American history intensifies. While traditional narratives focus on the country’s leaders and founding documents, the Tenement Museum in New York City offers a unique perspective by highlighting the lives of ordinary people who shaped the nation’s history.
Kat Lloyd, vice president of programs and interpretation at the museum, leads a group of high school students from Queens on an immersive journey. Standing on the first-floor staircase of a centuries-old tenement, Lloyd sets the scene of the building’s vibrant past, once home to German immigrants in 1863. “I start to imagine, you know, babies crying and people yelling to each other across the hallway,” Lloyd muses, inviting the students to picture life as it once was.
The museum’s mission is to make history accessible by recreating the apartments of immigrant, migrant, and African American families from the 1860s to the 1980s. Lloyd emphasizes the importance of small details, urging students to use the historical banister: “It’s been here since 1863, so everyone who ever lived in this building also used [it].”
Accompanying the students is Mike Agovino, their history teacher, who believes in the museum’s hands-on approach to teaching. “It makes the history more tangible,” Agovino says, highlighting how the museum’s artifacts and stories bring history to life.
As the students explore an apartment filled with artifacts from a Black family in the 1860s, sophomore Raeleah Heusner questions the presence of a small book of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches. Lloyd explains it belonged to Parthenia Lawrence, a teenager from that era, drawing parallels between past and present lives.
Author Clint Smith, who joins the tour, reflects on this alternative way of learning history. “The history that I learned focused only on ostensibly important people, like politicians or kings or generals or presidents,” he notes. The museum, however, tells stories of everyday individuals, asserting that each person is part of the American story, regardless of their role.
In the recreated apartment of Rachel and Joseph Moore, Lloyd shares their story: Rachel, the first in her family born free, and Joseph, a young butcher. Their lives, intertwined with those of an Irish washerwoman and her son, showcase the diverse and complex fabric of American history.
For students like Catherine Brown, the museum resonates deeply. “Growing up in Jamaica, we have that broom, the lamp, and it’s really interesting to see how these things have transcribed over time,” she remarks, connecting her own experiences with those of the past.
Lloyd does not shy away from discussing the harsh realities faced by these families, including poverty and discrimination. The Moores’ marriage in 1864 followed the draft riots, a moment of racial violence in New York City. Yet, the museum balances these hard truths with stories of progress, such as the celebration of the 15th Amendment, which granted Black men the right to vote.
Smith asserts that confronting history honestly is a patriotic act. “I think that the most patriotic thing one can do is to examine your country in the same way we examine ourselves,” he says, advocating for a nuanced understanding of the past.
As the tour concludes, Lloyd expresses hope that visitors leave inspired to explore their own histories. “I always hope that people leave with more questions, and get curious about their communities, their own history, their own family history,” she says, encouraging a deeper connection to the nation’s past.
