New Exhibit!
A Union of Hope: 1869

Our new permanent apartment exhibition in our National Historic Landmark tenement building at 97 Orchard Street tells the story of Joseph and Rachel Moore, Black New Yorkers who made their home in Lower Manhattan in the 1860s and 1870s.

Years in the making, the exhibit traces Joseph’s history from the free Black community of Belvidere, New Jersey to New York City, where he and his wife Rachel built strong networks and communities in their neighborhood, workplaces, and house of worship.

Visitors can experience the exhibit through our new 75-minute guided tenement apartment tour, A Union of Hope: 1869.

Reserve Tickets Now

What visitors are saying

“They were real people. I felt like we were talking about specific people and their specific family, and their story, especially since we were able to look at the census data with the actual names and their ages and everything, where they were from and how they ended up in New York.”

“It just surprised me that there’s still so much work to be done, and there are stories out there of people who are interconnected. I loved that we were journeying with you and the Tenement Museum curators and experts of discovering the stories. It’s still a work in progress.”

“I’ve raved about [the exhibit] to my family and friends. And so, it’s just one of those unforgettable experiences in my trip to New York. It was so memorable and meaningful to me as an educator, as an American, as a person of color.”

What the press is saying

Everyone’s abuzz about the Moores! Check out what’s in the news about our new tenement family.

ABC News

Essence

The New Yorker

Amsterdam News

CBS Saturday Morning

NiemanLab

The Bowery Boys

CBS News

Watch

Time Out

WNYC's All of It

Listen

Black Enterprise

Hyperallergic

Forbes

Broadway World

WNYC & Gothamist

The New York Times

Meet the Moores

Joseph and Rachel lived in a rear tenement at 17 Laurens Street, less than a mile west of 97 Orchard Street in a neighborhood then called the 8th Ward, today’s SoHo. Their building shared a courtyard with two other tenements, and in this yard, the Moores would have crossed paths with their neighbors—Irish, West Indian, Cuban, and French immigrants, migrants from Virginia, Maryland, and Louisiana, and other Northern-born Black New Yorkers.

The diversity of the neighborhood was rare in the city, and in this exhibit, we’ll explore how neighbors formed communities in buildings, businesses, schools and churches in the 8th Ward.

Joseph worked as a waiter and later a coachman, driving other New Yorkers in a horse-drawn carriage, while Rachel “kept house”, cooking and cleaning for their household. In their tenement apartment, they lived with an Irish washerwoman, Rose Brown; Rose’s Irish and Black son, Louis Munday; and Rachel’s sister-in-law from her first marriage, Jane Kennedy, a dressmaker.

The Moores attended Catholic services at St. Anthony’s Church. and likely visited often with Joseph’s mother and brother in their nearby tenement.

Amidst these daily routines, they also discussed the issues of the day—the violence against Black New Yorkers during the 1863 Draft Riots and their decision to stay in the city; the impact of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments in the years after the war. How did they react to emancipation, the arrival of long-fought-for citizenship for Black Americans? What hope did these changes inspire for them?

How did race and racism shape access to opportunity, social mobility, and the “American Dream” for the descendants of these families? What were the hopes they had for their children and grandchildren? How can learning about these hopes, as well as the different paths each family took, and the differing obstacles they faced, help us understand American history better, and our own families’ place within it?

Behind the Scenes of A Union of Hope: 1869

Watch special behind-the-scenes videos on the research and development of our new exhibit! Learn how we used a fire map to research the neighborhood, dive into the headlines of the era, watch a virtual visit hosted by our Curatorial team, and hear from our Lead Exhibit Researcher Marquis Taylor on his work bringing the Moore family’s story to life.

Virtual Tenement Talk
Before Juneteenth: Emancipation Celebrations in the Tenements

Before the Emancipation Proclamation, before Juneteenth, Black New Yorkers celebrated July 5th as Emancipation Day after the abolition of slavery in the state in 1827. How did Black communities use this day to push forward new ideas about freedom and what it meant to be American?

▶ Watch on YouTube

Virtual Visit
Joseph and Rachel Moore’s Apartment

Together with our Vice President of Programs & Interpretation Kat Lloyd and Collections Manager Lana Dubin, explore the Moores’ daily life, work, and community, with an up-close look at key collections objects in the family’s recreated home.

▶ Watch on YouTube

Virtual Behind-the-Scenes
Researching a New Tenement Family: A Union of Hope: 1869

Where did we access 19th-century Black newspapers, and what did they reveal? What was our biggest discovery in the archives? How do historians fill the “gaps” in the archive, and read “between the lines” of white-authored sources when interpreting Black pasts?

▶ Watch on YouTube

Clip
Getting to Know a Neighborhood

Check out some of our research on the Moores as we map out the neighborhood in the 1860s to determine where Black New Yorkers like the Moores might have shopped, socialized, worshipped, banked and more using city fire maps, bank records, and other sources!

▶ Watch on YouTube

Discover More Stories

Over the years, visitors and staff asked about the Black and African American people in the Lower East Side: Where did they live? How do their stories connect to the stories at 97 and 103 Orchard Street? Explore these questions and more on Black identity formation, community development, placemaking, and reimagining Black futures through stories of Black Lower East Siders that span centuries in our neighborhood walking tour, Reclaiming Black Spaces.

4 Historic Portraits for Reclaiming Black Spaces Visual

Featured Tour
Reclaiming Black Spaces

Discover what drew Black New Yorkers to Lower Manhattan, how their experiences were shaped by migration, how they created a sense of home, and how they resisted the racism they faced. From the story of Sebastiaen de Britto, one of the first Black residents of the area in the 1640s, to Studio We, a musicians’ collective in the 1970s, we’ll look through windows of the past that expand the history of today’s Lower East Side.

Book Tickets

Our Supporters

Our new A Union of Hope: 1869 exhibit was made possible by The Hearst Foundations, the Mellon Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, the Zegar Family Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

Support for new educational resources and a virtual tour is being provided by the National Park Service and National Park Foundation.

New Exhibit!
A Union of Hope: 1869

What visitors are saying

What the press is saying

Tenement Museum reimagines life of Black family in 1st exhibit of its kind

This New Exhibit In NYC Is Telling The Story Of A Black Family For The First Time

How the Tenement Museum Got a New Tenant

Tenement Museum exhibiting 3-D view of Black life in 1860s New York

New museum exhibit excavates untold New York City stories

The New York City Tenement Museum used historic Black newspapers to create its latest exhibit

The Moores: A Black Family in 1860s New York

Tenement Museum’s new “A Union of Hope” exhibit tells story of Black family’s history from New Jersey to New York

First Look: The Tenement Museum’s first exhibit about a Black family

Tenement Museum Tells the Story of a Black Family in 1860s New York

NYC Tenement Museum’s Black Migration Exhibit Premieres In February

Tenement Museum Opens First Exhibition About Black New Yorkers

Tenement Museum Adds African American Experience To Its Stories Of Immigration

New Tenement Museum Exhibit Centers Black New Yorkers in Civil War Era NYC

The Tenement Museum has an exhibit of a Black family for the first time

Tenement Museum to Feature a Black Family’s Apartment for the First Time

Meet the Moores

Behind the Scenes of A Union of Hope: 1869

Virtual Tenement Talk
Before Juneteenth: Emancipation Celebrations in the Tenements

Virtual Visit
Joseph and Rachel Moore’s Apartment

Virtual Behind-the-Scenes
Researching a New Tenement Family: A Union of Hope: 1869

Clip
Getting to Know a Neighborhood

Discover More Stories

Featured Tour
Reclaiming Black Spaces

Our Supporters

What visitors are saying

What the press is saying

Tenement Museum reimagines life of Black family in 1st exhibit of its kind

This New Exhibit In NYC Is Telling The Story Of A Black Family For The First Time

How the Tenement Museum Got a New Tenant

Tenement Museum exhibiting 3-D view of Black life in 1860s New York

New museum exhibit excavates untold New York City stories

The New York City Tenement Museum used historic Black newspapers to create its latest exhibit

The Moores: A Black Family in 1860s New York

Tenement Museum’s new “A Union of Hope” exhibit tells story of Black family’s history from New Jersey to New York

First Look: The Tenement Museum’s first exhibit about a Black family

Tenement Museum Tells the Story of a Black Family in 1860s New York

NYC Tenement Museum’s Black Migration Exhibit Premieres In February

Tenement Museum Opens First Exhibition About Black New Yorkers

Tenement Museum Adds African American Experience To Its Stories Of Immigration

New Tenement Museum Exhibit Centers Black New Yorkers in Civil War Era NYC

The Tenement Museum has an exhibit of a Black family for the first time

Tenement Museum to Feature a Black Family’s Apartment for the First Time

Meet the Moores

Behind the Scenes of A Union of Hope: 1869

Virtual Tenement Talk Before Juneteenth: Emancipation Celebrations in the Tenements

Virtual Visit Joseph and Rachel Moore’s Apartment

Virtual Behind-the-Scenes Researching a New Tenement Family: A Union of Hope: 1869

Clip Getting to Know a Neighborhood

Discover More Stories

Featured Tour Reclaiming Black Spaces

Our Supporters

Virtual Tenement Talk
Before Juneteenth: Emancipation Celebrations in the Tenements

Virtual Visit
Joseph and Rachel Moore’s Apartment

Virtual Behind-the-Scenes
Researching a New Tenement Family: A Union of Hope: 1869

Clip
Getting to Know a Neighborhood

Featured Tour
Reclaiming Black Spaces