Life as a House

Last week I got the chance to take one of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum Tours: "Piecing It Together: Immigrants in the Garment Industry." Throughout the hour-long tour, the docent really provided a unique glimpse into the lives of some of the people who lived and worked in what were the nineteenth century versions of "the projects," sweat shops where clothes were made, tailored, and pressed in sweltering apartments with little ventilation. Most of the immigrants in that particular tenement in the late 1800s and throughout the early twentieth were Jews from Russia, Germany, and (I think) Lithuania. Although my family were Irish, Scottish, and British Protestants and Catholics who arrived sometime before the Civil War and prior to Ellis Island being the entry point, just seeing firsthand how hard immigrants worked to survive was quite moving. It's a striking reminder of how important the immigrant population has been and continues to be. In fact, according to the docent, 75% of the NYC garment industry is still illegal or "sweat shop" status.