This week I am in New York City on vacation.
Yesterday I visited The Tenement House which is a New York City Museum that tells the stories of immigrants who lived in 97 Orchard Street, a tenement building built in 1863 on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Museum have recreated the lives of families who lived and worked in this single tenement building.
I signed up for the 'Piecing it Together' tour where we visited the homes of Jewish Families who lived in the tenement during the 'great wave of immigration' from Europe to the USA.
Our enthusiastic and engaging tour guide, Daryl, took our small group round a floor of the building and made the artefacts come alive. This included one flat where the family had a home workshop for outworking - sewing up pre-cut fabrics into finished garments.
This made me think about the potential of a similar venture in Dundee that celebrated the lives of immigrants to Dundee that came to work in our textile industries. I think this will be worth exploring when I return.
