Images by Riis and Gericault Reveal Visual Clues to the Past

The Tenement Museum derives much of its information from sources that might seem less than glamorous--census data, public records and aging household objects, for example--but visual art also plays a critical role in our research. Here, Development Associate Hilary Whitham explores some images that are relevant to the Museum's work.

Writing about the subjects of photographer and activist Jacob Riis (1849-1914), Ansel Adams once said, “Their comrades in poverty and suppression live here today, in this city – in all the cities of the world." Riis’s pivotal 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives paired documentary photographs with text in an attempt to reveal the living conditions of working class immigrants residing in the tenements of the Lower East Side.  For more than a century, Riis’s images have been a rich source of information for historians, sociologists and anthropologists.

Of course, the Tenement Museum believes that images, objects, and literature can tell us a great deal about the past —so it’s not surprising that our educators regularly employ photographs from Riis’s book in tours of our landmark tenement building at 97 Orchard Street. (For more information about material culture theories and studies, please see Jules Prown’s essay, “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method” in Winterthur Portfolio.)

Bandits' Roost, Jacob A. Riis, 1888

Although they weren’t originally intended to be aesthetically pleasing, Riis’s photographs have also been studied by art historians. As eminent art historian Linda Nochlin has observed, a comparison of one of Riis’s documentary photographs with a print by the French artist Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) reveals how both commercial and fine art were used in the service of public education in the 19th century.  Géricault, like Riis, was astounded at the poverty and degradation of industrializing cities in Britain in the 19th century. Both men drew on shared visual culture to educate the middle and upper classes about the plight of the poor.

 Pity the Sorrows of a Poor Old Man, Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault, 1821

Géricault's Pity the Sorrows of a Poor Old Man from 1821 is a print from the artist’s series of lithographs "Various Subjects Drawn from Life and On Stone", created during his time in London. (For more information on the series and Géricault, see Suzanne Lodge’s essay, “Gericault in England” in The Burlington Magazine.)

Géricault’s images in the series can be characterized as recreations of everyday life, simply because of the process of their creation. Lithographs are printed artworks made by using a press to transfer an image from a stone or metal plate to paper. Similarly, Riis’s photograph entitled Street Arabs in Night Quarters is a recreation of nocturnal activities of tenement residents. Scholars have shown that Riis staged some of the scenes during the day because of the limitations of flash technology at that time. (Bonnie Yochelson discusses 19th century flash technology in the book Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-century New York.)

Street Arabs in Night Quarters, Jacob A. Riis, c. 1880's

In both images, the old man and the young children are positioned outside of buildings and away from other figures, indicating how the city's everyday life goes on without regard to their plight. The slumped or horizontal postures of the children and the old man are associated with abjection and dejection. For Nochlin, the image of the kneeling or leaning figure has antecedents in religious imagery beginning in the Renaissance, such as Filippo Lippi’s Madonna of Humility (1420s). While the figure of the Virgin Mary or Madonna low to the ground suggests humility and piety, the image of the slumped man and boys suggests degradation and poverty. Both images draw on an iconography meant to elicit an emotional reaction, specifically pity.

Madonna of Humility, Filippo Lippi, c.1420

Another recurring theme in both Riis’ photographs and Géricault's lithographs is the brick of the cobblestoned streets and new multi-family buildings. In this instance, brick serves as a visual signifier for the urban environment and specifically the tenements which housed the urban poor and recent immigrants. While these sights would have been part of everyday life for the residents of 97 Orchard Street, these images were intended for a more affluent audience that lived further uptown, far away from the tenements.

Drawing on popular knowledge as well as artistic traditions, Riis and Géricault utilized print media to disseminate images meant to educate the 19th century public. More than a century later, their work continues to yield new insights for historians of art and others. Here at the Tenement Museum, we still refer to the rich catalogue of images created by fine and commercial artists to tell the stories of the immigrants who made their lives on the Lower East Side.

--Development Associate Hilary Whitham

More reading on this subject:

Adams, Ansel. Preface in Jacob Riis: Photographer and Citizen. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 1993.

Alland, Alexander ed. Jacob A. Riis: Photographer & Citizen. New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 1993.

Lodge, Suzanne. “Géricault in England” in The Burlington Magazine Vol. 107, No. 753 (Dec., 1965), pp. 616-627

Nochlin, Linda. “Géricault, Goya and Misery” lecture given at the School of Visual Arts. 8 December 2011.

Prown, Jules David. Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method. Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring, 1982), pp. 1-19

Riis, Jacob.  How The Other Half Lives. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1971.

Yochelson, Bonnie. “Jacob A. Riis, Photographer ‘After a Fashion’” in Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-century New York. New York: The New Press, 2007.

Visitors of the Week: Steve and Linda Pautz from Norfolk, Virginia

We're always looking to learn about the many, diverse visitors who stop by the Tenement Museum each week. Planning a visit? Send us an email to be our next Visitor of the Week.

Our latest Visitors of the Week come to us from Norfolk, Virginia. Steve and Linda Pautz demonstrate that you can take a person out of New York, but you can’t take New York out of a person. After uprooting from New York City in the mid-1970s, the couple relocated to Virginia. Visiting the Tenement Museum has the Pautzes reminiscing on their own histories here in the Lower East Side.

Steve: We like the TV show “Cash Cab” on the Discovery Channel. It’s a game show in a cab. We were watching it, and a customer got in the cab and said ‘take me to the Tenement Museum.’ We had never heard of the museum before that, but my parents both grew up in tenements. My Dad went to Seward Park High School, which is just a couple of blocks away from here. This is where my roots are, so to speak.

Did you see any connections in our tenement versus the spaces that you remember from your childhood?

S: Absolutely. Not only do I remember parts of the tenement building itself, but we also used to shop here on Orchard Street.

Linda: My mother and I used to come down here when I was growing up. She’d do all her big shopping on Orchard because back then it was mostly run by local Jewish people. They were wonderful storekeepers, and they also had a great tradition. If you were the first customer of the day they had to make that sale. If they didn’t it was bad luck for the rest of the day. My mother knew that, and she would be camping out at the storefront. She was usually shopping for ladies’ undergarments. She would argue and say, “No, I’m not paying you $10, I’ll give you $5.” When they declined she’d take her things and leave, but then they would drag her back in and say, “Okay, we’ll give it to you for $5.”

Has it changed a lot from what you remember?

L: You know, it has and it hasn’t. It doesn’t look all that different.

S: As the neighborhood has changed from different groups moving in – German, Jewish, Latino, and etcetera, we come back to the city fairly often and see that things have changed but at heart it’s still the same.

Definitely. So which tour did you go on today?

L: “Getting By.” It was great.

S: A lot of the stories from the Italian family are ones that my wife remembers hearing from her grandmother growing up.

L: And just even the photos up in the apartments. Our Lady of Mount Carmel was very popular in Italy, and they would have a feast as they now have throughout the city of New York. I remember going to that and enjoying all of the wonderful food. My mother came from a small town in Italy where they celebrated, so it brought back lots of memories.

S: And my family is German, so…

How funny. Considering both groups are represented in that tour, that’s quite a coincidence. Do you have any other plans while you’re in town?

L: We’re seeing some plays. We’re seeing “Memphis” tonight, and we saw “The Addams Family” last night, which was fun.

Posted by Amy Ganser

Photo Database: Back to School

So after a long, hot summer, September is finally here, and it's time for many children to head back to school. If you were growing up in the Lower East Side 80 or 100 years ago, how was it different dusting off the old notebook and pencil and strapping on your school shoes? Our Photo Database held a few interesting answers.

Here's a group of students being led in the ”Pledge of Allegiance” by one of their classmates at a New York City public school. While one female student is pictured holding the American flag, her classmates are saluting her. The teachers of the class are pictured sitting by a chalkboard in the background:

Class pictures were often taken as they are today. Here's P.S. 188 on E. Houston Street, though this depicts an eighth-grade class graduating in January 1912, not starting the school year:

Here's the grammar school class photo (c. 1905) including Sam Jaffe, who was born in 97 Orchard Street in 1891 and eventually became an actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1951.

Looks like children in the past had at least a few, superficial similarities to today. Keep reading through the month to learn more about school and education in immigrant neighborhoods like the Lower East Side.

Best of luck to all of you heading back to school! I am heading back to school myself - thank you for reading this summer! [Editor: Thanks to intern Devin for working on the blog this summer! We're hiring a new volunteer blogging intern this fall, so email check our website for details if you're interested in applying.]

-posted by Devin

History Hunt with Bowery Boogie starts today!

Do you think you know the Lower East Side? Prove it. Join Bowery Boogie's History Hunt and search for locations around the neighborhood based on photos and clues. Prizes will be awarded! The contest starts this weekend and will run weekends through the summer. Check it out: http://www.boweryboogie.com/2010/07/history-hunt-week-1.html .

It's hot out, you say?

Curious to know how tenement dwellers dealt with the soaring summer temperatures? Check out some images from the museum's photo database to find out how residents attempted to beat the heat.

1. To get some fresh air, families ventured to tenement rooftops to sleep.



2. Ventilation before the days of central air and electric fans. This air shaft is still the primary cooling system at 97 Orchard Street.



3. The water stream from fire hydrants provided some relief for children playing on the streets of the Lower East Side.



4. While adults attempted to cool off outdoors.

Fireworks on the Lower East Side

Yesterday we posted about how Lower East Side tenement dwellers may have celebrated the Fourth of July. You may be wondering—what about the fireworks? Here's my research on the history of fireworks in New York City.


An image of New York City lit up by fireworks, 1876.
Courtesy New York Public Library.

Firecrackers are nothing new to Fourth of July celebrations. Early settlers used them to celebrate the signing of Declaration of Independence in 1777, and by 1800 the first advertisements for fireworks were published.


An image from Harper's Weekly, July 4, 1857
Courtesy New York Public Library.

The opinion about fireworks has changed drastically over the years. In a July 1871 issue of Harper’s Weekly, one writer proclaimed, “there is no use in protesting against the good old orthodox fashion of celebrating the fourth of July with bonfires, cannon, guns, pistols, rockets, fire-crackers, snakes, Roman candles, fire-balloons, and every other possible contrivance for making a blaze and a noise.” In July of 1894, just 23 years later, an anti-fireworks Harper’s Weekly article stated that these “methods of celebration are obsolete and barbarous.”

Fireworks were very hazardous when not properly handled (as they are today). On July 5, 1900 the New York Times recounted the previous day’s celebrations, noting several injuries due to fireworks. One article detailed how three women were riding in a horse-driven coach at Coney Island when boys startled the horse with firecrackers. The scared animal ran crazily on Surf Avenue, causing pedestrians to run out of the way, until the coachman caught the horse’s bridle and calmed it down. Thankfully no one was injured.

Unfortunately, some sad events happened did on this day. Nine-year-old Henry Schneider of Second Avenue was holding a firecracker when it randomly went off. His right hand was shattered and he lost his right eye, as it was “blown out.” Another article reported how seven-year-old Gustave Rosmarin of 70 First Street fell out of a window and died instantly. He was shooting off firecrackers on the window ledge when some boys on the street threw more up at him to set off. He was frightened, lost his balance and fell. [Read more.]

In a 1910 Harper’s Weekly article titled “Our Murderous Patriotism,” the writer detailed the injuries and deaths on or shortly after the Fourth of July. Here are the recorded numbers from 1903-1909:

901 deaths from tetanus
630 deaths from other causes, including fireworks
114 cases of complete blindness
518 losses of one eye
406 losses of legs, hands or arms
1,420 losses of one or more fingers
30,606 other various injuries

A grand total of 34,603 were either injured or dead in seven years of Fourth of July celebrations. The article did not say whether these figures were specific to the New York area, so they are probably national statistics. In a July 5, 1912 New York Times article, one orator proclaimed that “on one Fourth of July there were more people killed in New York than there were in the Battle of Lexington.”

By 1911 New York City was starting to change the way the holiday was celebrated. In a June 1911 Harper’s Weekly edition, an article titled “A Sane Fourth makes a Happy Fourth” detailed how the celebration would run that year. It read, “To assure an old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration in New York City, with a minimum of fireworks and a maximum of patriotic enthusiasm,” the city would focus on the “procession of the nations.” The article claimed that “every nationality in the borough will be represented” by one family marching and holding their homeland’s flag. It is interesting to see how the definition of “old-fashioned” changed from 1871 (when they felt it patriotic to use all kinds of explosives) to 1911.


This ad would never be published today...
Courtesy New York Public Library

In the late 20th century fireworks become illegal in many counties and states, usually because of safety concerns. But in 2007 New York City repealed its ban of firecrackers, and people enjoyed seeing 300,000 set off in Chinatown’s Chatham Square. 

A happy and safe Fourth to all our readers!

-posted by Devin, with thanks to Mary Brown, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and the New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Fourth of July on the Lower East Side

The Fourth of July is this Sunday, and you're probably excited to relax by the pool, be with family and friends, and watch fireworks light up the night sky. I, on the other hand, have been immersed in Tenement Museum World for the last month. I couldn't help but wonder how nineteenth and early twentieth century tenement dwellers and recent immigrants would have celebrated the country’s Independence Day. Everyday life was tough for the working class, from working long hours to overcoming diseases. Would these obstacles have stymied a celebration of our nation’s holiday?

 

New York's Union Square on July 4, 1876. Collection of the New York Public Library.

After careful research, I found documents that explained how the tenement dwellers may have celebrated the Fourth of July.

One intriguing artifact was the “Souvenir Program, July 4, 1912, East Side Celebration, City of New York” by the East Side General Committee. The introduction to the souvenir program says that in 1911 (when over 10,000 marched in the parade) Mayor Gaynor first invited the East Side, through the Central Committee, to take part in the celebration of the Fourth of July. According to the pamphlet, “the East Side was aflame with patriotism.”

From a New York Times article on July 5, 1912, I gathered that the East Side General Committee might have received direction from “the Mayor’s Fourth of July Committee for the patriotic expression of New York” when drafting their ceremonies. Apparently the mayor had written one essay about having a safe and sane Fourth of July that was supposed to be read at all the ceremonies occurring all over the city.

The pamphlet also reflected on the difficulties of tenement and immigrant life. It read, “We to-day are proud to point to the large and powerful labor movement of the East Side, consisting of brave men and women who have suffered and starved for an American standard of living.” Even though they probably felt conflicting emotions, between missing the old country and trying to create a better life in the new, they took the Fourth of July as a day to celebrate their hard work.

From the activities listed on the itinerary, there appears to have been a strong sense of pride on the Lower East Side. There were morning, afternoon and evening celebrations at several different locations in the area. Beginning at “9:30 am sharp” there were celebrations at both Seward Park (at Essex Street and East Broadway) and Hamilton Fish Park (at Stanton and Pitt Streets). The afternoon celebrations took place at various New York public schools on the Lower East Side, and the evening festivities ended at the morning locales.

I wondered about the likelihood of tenement dwellers participating if the activities were in English and they were not fluent speakers. East Siders solved this problem by making many aspects bilingual. At PS 91 at Stanton and Forsyth Streets, the Declaration of Independence was recited in both English and Yiddish. Similarly, at the People’s Theatre at Bowery and Rivington Streets, participants read essays in both Hebrew and English. Included in the program was the Jewish community’s unique pledge to the American flag, written in English and Hebrew. It was a reflection on their ancestors’ oppressed past and a promise to uphold the United States’ ideals of freedom and liberty.

A boat race in New York City on July 4, 1860

Patriotic activities were plentiful on the Lower East Side. At various public schools, presentations included “Meaning of Our Flag,” “Boy’s and Girl’s Civic Creed,” “Who Patriots Are,” a “dramatization of Betsy Ross and the Flag,” a “morality play,” and many readings of the Declaration of Independence. They were also proud of their heritage, as indicated by a “Russian dance” performed at PS 12. At the night celebration in Hamilton Fish Park, there was music and a “moving picture show,” with “Fighting the Iroquois in Canada” as the feature film. At no point in the program was price of admission indicated, so we can surmise that all of these events were free to the public. There was also no mention of fireworks.

The New York Times reported on July 5, 1912 about the celebrations on the Lower East Side. One reporter wrote, “It was evident that it was an event in the lives of the dwellers in the crowded tenement districts and in Rutgers and Mulberry Bend Parks on the lower east side…it was hardly possible to move about at all. But perhaps the prettiest display of all was given right in front of the Settlement House. There Arthur Williams of the New York Edison Company had, at its own expense, erected strings of lights from side to side of the street and the Settlement workers had provided a programme of folk dancing by the girls of the neighborhood. Part of the street had been roped off for the event, and every window of the tenement houses on each side of the street was used as a grand stand to see the dances.” The Henry Street Settlement was established in 1893 as a provider of social services and arts programming.

Two years prior, the New York Times reported on the quietness and lack of casualties and injuries on July 4, 1910 and focused on the success of the city’s parade. (Read tomorrow about the dangers of fireworks in New York City!) The parade route wound from 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue down to City Hall Park. According to Hopstop.com, the walking would have taken 42 minutes. As the map shows, at least the end portion of the parade would have been accessible for Lower East Siders.

Be sure to read tomorrow’s blog about the history of fireworks in New York City!

-posted by Devin, with thanks to Mary Brown, Dave Favaloro, the Dorot Jewish Division of the New York Public Library and the New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Questions for Curatorial: High and Low

Curatorial Director Dave answers your questions. To submit a question, leave it in the comments or on our Facebook page.

Were there ever height regulations placed on buildings in New York City, especially tenements on the Lower East Side?

Height regulations were first placed on buildings in New York City by the 1916 Zoning Resolution. As the first comprehensive effort at regulating the height, area, and use of structures built in an urban environment, the resolution proved influential to other U.S. cities that enacted zoning legislation after 1916.

While the 1916 Zoning Regulation was in a sense formulated as a reaction to the ways in which a new building form, the “skyscraper,” blocked sunlight to the surrounding streets (resulting in the setback, pyramid-style designs typical of New York City high-rises,) it applied to the entire city. Neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side were divided into height districts where limitations were formulated in relation to the width of the street. The Lower East Side was deemed a 1½ times district, meaning that no building was to be erected to a height in excess of 1½ times the width of the street. However, for each foot that the building or a portion of it was set back from the street line, three feet could be added to the height limit of the structure.

Although many of the tenements on the Lower East Side were erected prior to 1916, the height of those constructed after were subject to the limitations imposed by the 1916 Zoning Resolution.

The streets of New York

What were New York's streets made of, pre-asphalt? Well, on some Lower East Side streets, at least, they were made of Belgian block. Read more in our Bowery Boogie post.

Public Housing Projects

The La Guardia and Wagner Archives at CUNY have a wonderful database of information about the city, especially during the 1930s and 1940s. If you haven't checked it out before, it's highly recommended.

They recently put some photos from their collection on Flickr, and they're fascinating. I was particularly interested in the NY Public House set, which includes images relating to the public housing projects constructed in NYC in the mid-20th century. Many of those projects displaced tenants from their homes, which the government considered sub-standard.

The archive includes a number of pre-development site photos, which are pretty interesting if you never saw the former buildings in person. There are also images of the new construction which provide a good counterpoint to the empty-lot photos and, I think, complicate our notions of what public housing and "slum clearance" projects meant to the city and to the people who lived here then.

Here are some of my favorites from the set:

Here's an arial shot showing the new Lillian Wald and Jacob Riis projects on the East River, along with Sty-Town to the north, from 1949:



Here's a woman in her tenement apartment building in Chelsea, summer 1941. This apartment looks so much like our restored Baldizzi apartment. We probably have the same model washtub (cheapest available):



Here's another tenement kitchen, this one on the Lower East Side, in 1945:



Here's a look at Orchard and Rivington in 1936. Thankfully this street was never razed:



But, these tenements on 4th and D were - they were on the site of the present-day Wald Houses:



These also met the wrecking ball (Baruch Houses, 1950):



Stores like this one, on the site of the future Lincoln Center, lost their spaces and the neighborhood clientele who shopped there:



On the other hand, couples like this one found promise in new, clean homes with modern technology, which were in short supply after the war. So much of the city's housing stock was old and deteriorating that new buildings were much appreciated (1947):



Housing projects like the Red Hook Houses also provided classrooms for immigrants to learn English, like this one below (1940):




Have a look through the La Guardia and Wagner Archives' Flickr set and let us know which photos strike you the most.

 - posted by kate

More from the Berenice Abbott Collection

A roast corn man, at the corner of Orchard and Hester (courtesy NYPL). May 3, 1938.

As of December 1, 1938, most forms of street vending were outlawed in New York City. Along the lines of Abbott's other photos, this was part of the "changing" city. Two vendors are clearly seen street peddling, despite the ban.

Read more (pdf) from Suzanne Wasserman, head of the Gotham Center for New York City History.

55-57 Allen Street

55-57 Allen Street, between Grand and Hester. These buildings are gone now. The El was torn down not long after the photo was taken.

The photo is by Berenice Abbott, February 11, 1937. It's part of the "Changing New York" collection at the New York Public Library.

A terrific book for anyone who loves photography and New York history/architecture is New York Changing, which revisits these classic Abbott photos at the turn of the 21st century. Like Abbott, Douglas Levere finds many things changed, but many vestiges of the old days remaining. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Recent Press

A great look into the Museum from WCBS Morning News...

Watch this at WCBS News Radio 880

More from around the web

Immigration reporter Nina Bernstein on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show, discussing deaths in immigrant detention centers.
[WNYC]

The Museum of the American Gangster has opened on St. Mark’s! Visit during the soft launch in March and receive $10 admission.
[moagnyc.org]

The students at Cooperstown Graduate Program continue their interesting discussion on immigration.
[CRG@CGP]

Corner of Houston and Ludlow in the 1970s, where the gym and Duane Reade are now.
[Flickr]

See some other old pics of the corner, back when it housed Bunnies, a kids' store.
[Bowery Boogie]

The Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago has genealogy classes, poetry readings, and a pub.
[Irish American Heritage Center]

News from around the web

“We are more than just objects and artifacts. We’re the sum of our stories. Our museum is about making the walls talk.”
[The National Public Housing Museum’s founder on Lemons to Llamas blog]

“When asked that question - What are you? - Americans typically answer with their heritage. Why is that?”
[CRG@CGP]

“Few who pine for the pushcart days have noted that change is nothing new for the Lower East Side.”
[TM Education Associate Sarah Litvin for The Jewish Week]

The Mysterious History of the Ridley Department Store

The Inside the Apple blog has a fascinating history of the former E. Ridley & Sons department store at the corner of Orchard and Grand.

Apparently the building is up for sale and can be yours for a mere $25 mil! Let's hope the purchaser keeps this historic building intact.

Read the history - full of eccentrics, fraud, and murder - here. Then come back October 5 when we host the authors of the Inside the Apple book for a Tenement Talk.

- Posted by Kate Stober

Neighborhood Tea Houses & Cafes

The Lebanon Club, New York working men's coffee house, 1880. Courtesy NYPL. (Click for larger image.)


Syrian coffee-house, by Jay Hambridge & engraved by Henry Davidson. NYC, August 1901. Courtesy NYPL. (Click for larger image.)

In his 1905 account of social life on the Lower East Side, journalist A.H. Fromenson wrote, "What saloons there are on the East Side do but an impoverished business and are dependent to a large extent upon the chance passerby."

However, he was quick to point out that social life thrived on the East Side--if not in beer saloons, but "coffee saloons." These cafes--totalling close to 300--offered places to discuss socialism, play chess, critique the theater, and listen to music. What united them was their elevation of tea as the social drink.

Tea was sometimes accompanied by lemon, or imbibed while clenching a sugar cube in the teeth. "And where the cigarette smoke is the thickest and the denunciation of the present forms of government loudest, there you find women!" In a neighborhood in which most women and men were crammed into tenements, to social spaces offered by cafes were all the more important.

Cafes also served as box-offices for local theater productions, as this 1899 poster diplays:


Courtesy NYPL. Click for larger image.

Partial translation reads: 'Bizet's world-famous opera will be performed for the first time [in Yiddish] with Miss Guttman as Carmen, Miss E. Siebert as Micaela, Miss Elkas as Frasquita, Mr. Cantari as Escamillo, Mr. Harti as Remendado, Mr. Steinhof as Zuniga, and Mr. M. E. Medvedieff as Don Jose. A special choir of 20 children, together with full chorus, orchestra, scenery, and costumes.

Tickets available at the box office, at Herrick Brothers, at Schinkman's Cafe, 126½ Canal Street, at Schmuckler's Cafe, 167 East Broadway, at Schreiber's Cafe, 256 Grand Street, and at Rosenberg's Sausage Store, 200 Broome Street. Children under five years of age positively not admitted.'

- Posted by Kate Stober, with special thanks to Annie Polland

A Tour of Neighborhood Bookstores

Museum shop manager Katherine Broadway guest blogs about her favorite places to browse for books on the Lower East Side.

Book lovers worldwide have heard of The Strand and its 18 miles of used and new books up near Union Square, but the Lower East Side still has some bookstore gems that haven’t fallen victim to the recession. Our bookstore at the Tenement Museum has a wide selection of books on New York history and immigration, including a fantastic (if I do say so myself) children and young adult section. For a taste of New York bookselling at its finest, check out some of my other downtown favorites.



Just blocks from the Tenement Museum on Allen Street (just south of Houston) is Bluestockings, one of the last radical bookstores left in the city. A haven for socialists, hipsters, and all those who don’t fit in elsewhere, Bluestockings combines a wide selection of queer and feminist theory, radical political tomes, and homemade zines with a diverse fiction section. Check out their calendar of events, packed with happenings almost every night, and be sure to pick up a vegan treat from the café.


The first time I set foot inside St. Mark’s Bookshop(on 3rd Ave between 8th and 9th Streets), I fell in love. The high ceilings, bookshelves reaching far above my head, and old-fashioned rolling ladders made me feel like I was in the private library of some rich old aristocrat. This is the kind of bookstore where you can spend hours tucked into a nook, dipping into as many books as you please. And they are open until midnight, so you won’t be rushed out.

Great Summer Eats on the Lower East Side

The Tenement Museum staff sometimes feel as though our lives revolve around the Lower East Side. We give directions to anyone who's carrying a guidebook or looks lost. We offer advice on what to see and do and how long it takes to walk there. And, of course, we tell people where to eat.


Here are our staff picks for best summertime noshes in the neighborhood:

"Quickly on Grand between Chrystie and the Bowery has great bubble tea. I like milk black tea with coffee. They also have fruit-flavored slushies." - Kate, public affairs


"Bario Chino on Broome Street - they open all the windows in the summer." - Amanda, programs & events


"Castillo! Essex!" - Jeff, web/IT


"My favorite cool summer food - hummus and salad for $5.00 from the Kebab place on Orchard and Rivington. Ideal take-out." – Arnhild, buildings & operations


"The new Vietnamese sandwich place on Orchard is great. And of course, Il Laboratorio del Gelato right next door to the Museum." - David, public affairs


"All people must go to Lula's Sweet Apothicary on 6th and A. They serve all manner of vegan frozen treats, and I usually go every Sunday (for Sundaes!)" - Jeffrey, education


"Tiny's is a great sandwich place, good summer food. Sarah Roosevelt Park north of Grand Street is a nice place to go eat your sandwich. There are people selling ices on Delancey Street walking towards the East River, cheap and delicious. And Sixth Ward and Lucky Jack's are favorite happy hour places for a cold beer after work." - Pedro, education








An ice seller on the LES last century

-posted by Kate Stober

Questions for Curatorial - How Immigrants Handled Finances

When it comes to depositing money and taking out loans, many recent immigrants in New York avoid big banks in favor of local credit unions like the Affordable Loans for Immigrants Campaign and the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union, which support small businesses and allow undocumented workers to open accounts. (Many don't require social security numbers, using other methods to validate customers' identities.) Curatorial Director Dave discusses how immigrants dealt with finances back when 97 Orchard was still occupied.

Was it common for 19th Century Irish immigrants in New York to deposit their money in banks?

In 1873, former 97 Orchard Street resident and Irish immigrant Joseph Moore opened an account with the Emigrant Savings Bank. Given their relatively impoverished condition upon arrival, Irish immigrants appear to have had a surprising propensity to deposit their savings in banks.

The historian of Irish America Joseph J. Lee has written that, “The extraordinary savings surge on which so many immigrants embarked almost immediately upon arrival in New York City – depositing savings, however humble the amounts, on a regular basis for years—and which was presumably replicated wherever comparable institutions where available, may have reflected something of a search for security among people who had seen the price of insecurity paid through eviction and death. In fact, they quite possibly over saved, stinting themselves in order to help bring other family members out through remittances and to build up some protections against what they saw as a callous and unpredictable world.”

Source: J.J. Lee, “Introduction: Interpreting Irish America” in J.J. Lee and Marion Casey, eds., Making the Irish American: History and Heritage of the Irish in the United States (New York University Press, 2006).


Built in 1908, the Emigrant Savings Bank on Chambers Street served New York's Irish population. Click here for more photos.