Located in the heart of the Lower East Side, which has been an immigrant portal for almost 200 years, the Museum's tenement at 97 Orchard Street was home to an estimated 7,000 immigrants from more than 20 countries between the years of 1863 and 1935. In 1998, President Clinton and Congress designated the Museum a National Historic Site affiliated with the National Park Service. That same year, 97 Orchard Street became the 20th featured property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

"To promote tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a Gateway to America."

The Museum's Strategic Plan, approved by the Museum's Board of Trustees in 2005, explains this mission in the following way:

• To promote tolerance: The Museum's first priority is to foster dialogue and understanding among diverse peoples.
• Historical perspective: The past provides insight on contemporary problems. The Museum wants to make history available for this purpose.
• Presentation and interpretation: The Museum seeks to offer a responsible and multilayered interpretation of the past for its visitors, since there is no singular truth about the past.
• Variety of immigrant and migrant experiences: The Museum is committed to honoring the diversity of ethnicities, religions, and other identities that shaped the Lower East Side; as well as to honoring those who migrated from other parts of the country, including African Americans and Puerto Ricans.
• Manhattan's Lower East Side, a gateway to America: The Museum is rooted in the local story of its neighborhood, providing effective focus for the institution, while establishing its national significance.

The Tenement Museum believes that museums can and should be institutions for civic engagement, which is broadly defined as a public dialogue in which people discuss civic issues, policies, or decisions of consequence to their lives, communities, and society. To quote the American Association of Museum's publication Mastering Civic Engagement: A Challenge to Museums 2002, we believe a museum can and should be "a center where people gather to meet and converse and participate in collaborative problem solving. It is an active, visible player in civic life, a safe haven, and a trusted incubator of change."

This is a new, but growing, idea in the museum field. The Tenement Museum has organized a coalition of like-minded museums called the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. The accredited members of this Coalition have all agreed to interpret history through sites; engage in programs that stimulate dialogue on pressing social issues and promote humanitarian and democratic values as a primary function; and share opportunities for public involvement in issues raised at their sites. The other member sites of the coalition are: District Six Museum in South Africa, Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site in the United States, Gulag Museum in Russia, Liberation War Museum in Bangladesh, Japanese American National Museum in the United States, Maison des Esclaves, Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in the United States, Memoria Abierta in Argentina, National Civil Rights Museum in the United States, Terezin Memorial in the Czech Republic, Women's Rights National Historic Park in the United States, and The Workhouse in England.

Organizations such as the National Trust, National Park Service, Parks Canada, and Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums have asked the Tenement Museum and the International Coalition of Historic Sites of Conscience to help their member museums to become places of civic engagement. Through its Museum Professionals Training Program, the Tenement Museum provides opportunities for other museum professionals to learn from our best practices and to promote civic engagement at their sites.