Uncovering a Time Capsule at the Tenement Museum, NYC, New York, New York (B)

While Henry Clay Frick and John Pierpont Morgan were amassing their art collections with the millions they made during the industrial revolution and setting the basis for the USA, a different story was taking place in the low income areas of New York City, like the Lower East Side where newcomers to the USA flocked by hundreds and also shaped the country.

The Lower East Side is not yet the trendy area in which bars and restaurants are lined up. Ruth Abram is a historian and social activist, passionate about this immigrant district. She is looking for a space to run her walking tours from. Visiting a store front at 97 Orchard Street, she asks for the restrooms: she has to leave the store at the back to enter the building area to reach the toilets. Amazed, she realizes she has just discovered a time capsule! This building has been empty and untouched since 1935: this is the start of the Tenement Museum that retraces the story of several immigrant families between 1863 and 1935. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).