Response 3 of 5: Museum of the City of New York
By: Mariam Esa
Visiting the Museum of the City of New York was like receiving a crash course on the history of New York City. We encountered relics from as far back as the 1600s (when it was still New Amsterdam) and saw into the different time periods that each played a crucial role in making this city what it is.
From the Revolution to the Progressive Era to the Great Depression and beyond, this exhibit successfully displays important aspects of every decade since the land was first settled on. At the very beginning of the tour, we were introduced to the four terms used to describe what makes New York, New York: “Money, Diversity, Density, Creativity”. Of these four words, diversity stood out the most to me because it is both the focus of our class and a given fact to every New Yorker. We’ve discussed immigration a lot in our class and in our classes we’ve discussed it from multiple point of views. However the museum seemed to just focus on when certain immigrants arrive and the ethnic environment they created. This is of course true, but there was no mention of their reasons for coming or of the hardships they faced. We were provided this information from our tour guide, but I can’t help but think that others that visit the museum may not be getting the full story. In addition to struggling in a foreign land, immigrants faced persecution for a very long time.
Immigrants contribute to each category of money, diversity, density, and creativity- maybe even more so than the native-born. They contribute immensely to the economy and create the density of the city. The city would not be renowned for its diversity had there been no immigrants and there can be no doubt that a lot of creative expression came from them as well. Immigrants make the city of New York what it is; then shouldn’t there story be properly told?
Questions:
Do you think that MCNY was intentionally leaving out the hardships and persecution faced by immigrants?
Are there still immigrants that aren’t well represented in present day?
Would NYC still be described with the same terms-money, diversity, density, and creativity- if there weren’t many immigrants?
