NEW YORK (Press Release) – A Jamaican family’s Christmas pudding, a grandmother’s menorah from Ukraine, a 10-pound waffle iron brought to the U.S. by great-grandparents who escaped Nazi Germany, and a Chinese immigrant’s treasured Christmas card from a friend are among the over 3,000 objects crowd-sourced for an online project launching today dedicated to telling the story of American immigration and migration.
Created by the Tenement Museum in New York City, Your Story, Our Story allows anyone to share their own families’ immigration and migration stories t by uploading photos of family artifacts, short essays, and audio to the collection. Visitors can also explore the collection by categories (religion, work, food), relationships (first generation, second generation), and themes (holiday, arrival, immigration process).
Founded in 1988, the Tenement Museum tells the story of American immigration through the personal accounts of immigrant families, allowing visitors to encounter immigration as a vital force in shaping the nation’s culture, economy, and society. In 2016, the Tenement Museum welcomed more than 238,000 visitors, including 55,000 students.
The Museum’s tour guides have long invited visitors to share anecdotes from their own family histories. Inspired by this informal practice, Your Story, Our Story was developed to give people the opportunity to tell the stories of their immigrant ancestors through artifacts that carry personal meaning.
Thousands of more objects are now expected to be added to the exhibited thanks to new partnerships with Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum of the American Asian Experience, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C., which will also collect Your Story Our Story submissions.
“Your Story Our Story takes the message of the Tenement Museum beyond the physical walls of the museum, inspiring Americans throughout the country to discover the shared immigration and migration experiences that bind us, no matter where we came from or how long we’ve been here,” said Kevin Jennings, President of The Tenement Museum. “Whether your family is first-generation American or fifth, whether you know a lot or very little about your forebears, anyone can contribute and help us put together a more complete picture of American immigration and migration.”
New features of the expanded initiative include:
- Feature stories use specific contributions to highlight seasonal themes, immigration history, and newsworthy issues such as How Do Families Preserve and Pass Down Their Culture?
- Group pages allow community organizations, families, and school classes to create their own galleries on the website, such as the dozens of stories submitted by students from PS 130 in Brooklyn, NY. Educators can also download a curriculum to help students compose and publish their own stories, host a classroom exhibit, and explore other immigration and migration stories on the site.
The Tenement Museum tells the story of American immigration, the core of our continually evolving American identity and a central part of today’s national conversation. Personal stories of immigrant families allow visitors to encounter immigration as an essential force in shaping this country and to absorb how much our open society, democratic institutions, cultural creativity, and economic vitality owe to our experience as a nation of immigrants.
Established in 1988, the Tenement Museum has become one of New York City’s preeminent cultural and educational institutions, welcoming more than 238,000 visitors, including 55,000 students, in 2016. Its two historic tenements on Orchard Street were home to an estimated 15,000 people from more than 20 nations between 1863 and 2000, and represent the heart of the Museum. Educators guide visitors through restored apartments and retail spaces in the buildings and the surrounding neighborhood, and help them understand how immigrants weathered hard times and built new lives. For more information, visit www.tenement.org.
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Preceding provided by the Tenement Museum