Schools and older generations have repeatedly told us about the tough lives of immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Cramped apartments, shortage of money, child labor, disease, and long hours defined immigrant life. Until our visit to the Tenement Museum, we relied on our imaginations and textbook photographs to “see” what life for immigrants was like. Our visit to the Tenement Museum showed us that the lives of immigrants back then were quite different than the lives of immigrants today.

Stepping into the preserved tenement on 97 Orchard Street, we first saw the banister stairway to the rest of the apartments. A trip up the stairs brought us to the apartments of the Levine and Rogarshevsky families. The insides of these apartments mingled with our expectations, both surprising and conforming with them. The rooms were indeed small and cramped. It is hard to imagine people living as they did.  We saw how the rooms were cramped, and each room had to serve at least two purposes–a workplace and kitchen. Children also slept four to one couch. Though they had gas and lighting, the modern concept of a bathroom didn’t exist back then, and even cold running water was a luxury. The immigrants lived rather densely, 7,000 to a block; the photograph of the busy market square was rather alarming. At the same time, the apartments had their own distinct human elements such as books, a hat rack, dolls, and a Sabbath table.

The immigrants’ work was just as inconvenient as their home. Without knowing English and having desirable skills, they had to work long hours just to get by. What surprised us in the Levine household’s case was that he worked in his crowded home, under horrible lighting. Mr. Levine had to work by piece. Children too, were not exempt from work. Contributing as much as 30% of the family’s wages, their effort was necessary for the family’s survival. Often this work was at factories, crowded with other workers without the chance for negotiating better conditions. The Triangle Factory fire best demonstrates the extremes of their working conditions.

Today though, the lives of immigrants are not as unbearably challenging. They still live in neighborhoods among their own people, however their standards of living have improved. Modern apartments have adequate living space as well as both electricity and running water. No longer do they work sixty hour weeks in unhealthy or dangerous conditions. They are have less hours per day and are protected by minimum wage. Children are free to pursue their education without being pressured into the conditions of their parents.

The comfort and economic mobility we experience is unique to our time and we should not take for granted what we have now. At the same time, these immigrants should be admired for being about to make their lot in life seem live-able and homely in spite of their condition.