The Tenement Museum

By Meredith Malloy

The Tenement Museum offers a multitude of mid 19^th to turn of the century story based experiences of the one thousand plus immigrant residents that have resided at 97 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I participated in the Hard Times tour, which tells the stories of a family that is lead by simply that ‘hard times’. I would say this exhibit is a true depiction of how a woman’s identity is shaped in accordance to that of her husband and never really independent of her husband until she no longer had a choice. The modernist literary pieces displayed how character identities were shaped during the same time that Natalia Gumpertz life in America was created. Here’s what I have found.

The story of Natalia, a young lady from Prussia, immigrated to New York City’s lower east side which at the time is a German-Jewish community. She found her husband, Julius, in this neighborhood, settled in 97 Orchard and the two had four children. The six member family lived in a three room apartment and had their share of troubles. While Julius worked several odd jobs nothing lead to stability and the family needed to rely on religious based charitable assistance several times throughout the years. Eventually the burden of being unable to adequately care for his family began to be too much, Julius up and disappeared, leaving his family behind and having to fend for themselves. With the sudden absence of her husband, unemployed and inexperienced Natalia had to figure out how to survive and keep her children clothed, fed and sheltered. Luckily soon thereafter, Natalia was able to receive enough charitable assistance, that lead her to receive a foot pedal sewing machine allowing her to become a dressmaker, which resulted in a stay at home business for herself making clothes for those in the neighborhood.

The story of Natalia Gumpertz’s family resonated closely to me to the modernist times in literature. The story of a young girl migrating from her homeland to a foreign land, is the epitome of what the modernist movement portrayed. Each piece had to do with the characters finding their place within their community in hopes of building a better life for their family. I would say the story of the Gumpertz family shares elements of Manhattan Transfer for one. Similarly to that of the fictional character Jimmy, husband and father, Julius can’t take the his life in New York and decides to leave. I found it ironic that even though Jimmy and Ellen divorce and there was knowledge amongst all, he seemed to have no shame is traveling far far away from New York leaving his family behind without any further thought or consideration as did Julius. I began to wonder if there was a trend among men at this time that would leave their family behind with no resources due to the pressure of not being successful as they once set out for.

As well, I felt of Natalia as I did Janie from ‘their eyes were watching God”, although Janie did not have the same story of a husband that left, she did want to find her own identity and I wondered if this was the same for that of Natalia. Hearing Natalia’s story, she seemed to have been the one that kept the family together, even when Julius was present, however she was restricted by the identity of her husband as was Janie with Jody. Once Jody died, Janie got to move on a live a life as she truly hoped for, even though she hit a few bumps in the road in the end she seemed well at peace. Even though Natalia’s husband disappeared, she was able to make a fulfilling life for herself and her family even able to leave her family an inheritance upon her death. No longer overshadowed by her husband’s identity or even lack of achievement, Natalia was able to go on and give her family a life that many would have hoped for during this time.