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News From The Tenement

 
Did You Know:
While middle-class reformers advocated for clean walls uncluttered by dust-collecting ornaments, working-class tenants adorned their homes with an abundance of images. Residents used free advertising items like calendars to brighten otherwise plain walls. Even after they expired, calendars were kept year after year for their ornamental value.

Tenants also decorated with trade cards, illustrations torn out of magazines, cheap chromolithographs, and engravings. The use of these adornments, argues historian Lizabeth Cohen, reflected both traditional European values, which prized ornate decoration, and the ready availability of inexpensive, mass-produced goods.

Home Decorations from the Museum Shop

New York Easel Calendar New York 2008 Easel Calendar
Brighten up your desk or table with this colorful collection of vintage NYC posters. Buy Now




Magnetic Poetry YiddishMagnetic Poetry Yiddish
Decorate your fridge and make sentences with these Yiddish and English word magnets. Comes with a mini Yiddish dictionary, so everybody can join in the kibitz. Buy Now


Irish Always Welcome PosterIrish Always Welcome
Show your pride and liven up any wall with these 17x11 posters.
Buy Now


Kikkerland Photo MobilePhoto Mobile
Display your photos with this elegant, stainless steel mobile.
Buy Now

  
UPCOMING EVENTS
Nov 27: The Politics of Immigration
Join a moderated discussion about immigration in the US today.

Dec 5: Made in L.A.
Screening of the powerful documentary about immigrant garment workers in Los Angeles.

ON VIEW & OF NOTE
Life’s Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists' Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925
Over 70 paintings by Ashcan School artists focus on working-class leisure activities at the start of the 20th century. From Nov 28 at the New-York Historical Society.

John Sloan’s New York
34 prints by this Ashcan School artist depict life in the city, from sleeping on rooftops to playing in the park. On view at the Museum of the City of New York.

Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side: Photographs by Bruce Davidson
View intimate images of writer I B Singer and Eastern European immigrants from 1957-90. Now at The Jewish Museum.

Flag of the Month
This flag was made by a user named Cosmic, because "I live in the United States, my soulmate is stationed in Japan and I want to visit Australia."
Make your flag today!
Visit We Are Multicolored.

 
Please send us your comments or questionsComments? Questions? Suggestions? Please write to us at lestm(at)tenement.org

Did You Know Source: Lizabeth Cohen, “Embellishing a Life of Labor: An Interpretation of the Material Culture of American Working-Class Homes,” in Thomas J. Schlereth, ed. Material Culture Studies in America: An Anthology (Altamira Press, 1982), p. 289-305.