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Tenement Museum takes students back in time

Kids are kids, whether the calendar says 1890, 1910 or 2019.

So when 4th-graders from Brooklyn’s PS 10 took the “Sweatshop Workers” tour at the Tenement Museum on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, it’s no wonder they were fascinated to learn about the immigrant children who had lived there.

Learning about sacrifice and compromise

A pedal-operated sewing machine, a mannequin and dress parts surround 4th-graders from PS 10 and their teacher, Michele Kertesz (top, right), as Tenement Museum educator Erin Reid (left) describes how an immigrant family shared its living space with a dress “factory” on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1890s.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Century-old photos show the densely populated neighborhood around the building.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

The students pass around an iron featuring a compartment that held hot coals.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Clothes were scrubbed on a washboard and hung up to dry wherever there was room.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

A window that opens onto an air shaft sits beside this bed, where two people slept.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

By the 1910s, there was a sink with running water in every kitchen.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Coal-powered stoves ran all day to heat water, food and the living space itself.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Artifacts from the building include a pattern tracer and other tools used to make clothes.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Museum educator Cara Thomas answers questions about the Rogarshevsky’s “modernized” kitchen.

Miller Photography
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Learning about sacrifice and compromise

A pedal-operated sewing machine, a mannequin and dress parts surround 4th-graders from PS 10 and their teacher, Michele Kertesz (top, right), as Tenement Museum educator Erin Reid (left) describes how an immigrant family shared its living space with a dress “factory” on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1890s.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Century-old photos show the densely populated neighborhood around the building.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

The students pass around an iron featuring a compartment that held hot coals.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Clothes were scrubbed on a washboard and hung up to dry wherever there was room.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

A window that opens onto an air shaft sits beside this bed, where two people slept.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

By the 1910s, there was a sink with running water in every kitchen.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Coal-powered stoves ran all day to heat water, food and the living space itself.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Artifacts from the building include a pattern tracer and other tools used to make clothes.

Miller Photography
Learning about sacrifice and compromise

Museum educator Cara Thomas answers questions about the Rogarshevsky’s “modernized” kitchen.

Miller Photography