Your Story, Our Story

Objects help us remember and tell our stories. In museums, objects illustrate the past and help us imagine the experiences of those who went before. Families, too, often save special mementos that remind us of our family stories. With Your Story, Our Story, the Tenement Museum invites people across the country to share those stories in our online digital storytelling exhibit.

Your Story, Our Story highlights stories of immigration, migration, and cultural identity, past and present, through objects and traditions. Each story reveals one individual’s experience. Together, our stories help us see how our unique histories shape the nation, and the patterns that bind us together.

View Digital Experience

Who Can Use Your Story, Our Story?

Individuals

Do you have an object or tradition that represents a special story for you and your family? Upload your own story with our easy-to-use interactive form. You can add photos of your chosen object and your family, and even upload an audio file such as a song, prayer, or description of your object. Your page will be accessible using your own unique URL, so you can always find it online and share it with friends and family.

Families

Participating in Your Story, Our Story as a family is a great way to explore, honor, and preserve family memories and cultural heritage. With Your Story, Our Story, families can:

  • Explore the important stories that reside in everyday objects and traditions
  • Take time for family conversations about migration and identity
  • Connect family stories to American history and explore how families change over time
  • Preserve family stories for future generations in a digital collection

 
Families can participate from anywhere on their own by collaborating to submit individual stories together. Or, come to the Tenement Museum to host a family reunion or join a family storytelling workshop, where our educators will guide you through the process of choosing, developing, and sharing your stories. Contact [email protected] to learn more.

Groups and Organizations

Your Story, Our Story can foster connection and team-building. Neighborhood groups, cultural and social organizations, businesses, and non-profits have participated in Your Story, Our Story to bring the power of personal storytelling into their work, to deepen relationships, and to build group identity by finding the common threads that unite different stories. Contact [email protected] to learn more.

Your Story, Our Story offers groups a chance to:

  • Explore the history and identity of your organization
  • Appreciate the unique knowledge and perspective each person brings to the group
  • Provide meaningful storytelling experiences at retreats, meetings, and events
  • Explore commonalities and differences in a positive group setting
  • Document and preserve participants’ stories as part of American history

Teachers

Your Story, Our Story can make history relevant and personal, bringing students’ own identities and experiences into the classroom. Teachers can use the site to explore common themes in immigration and migration stories; have students research, write, and publish their own stories and/or create a classroom exhibit.

Your Story, Our Story gives students the opportunity to:

  • Select an object or tradition that tells a family story
  • Document their objects in art, photography, and/or writing
  • Interview family members about their history and cultural identity
  • Practice literacy skills, including writing a personal essay
  • Learn about the diversity of cultures and experiences in their classroom community
  • See their work preserved in a digital museum exhibit
  • Explore how their personal history connects to larger historical trends

 

Visit the Your Story, Our Story resources page for educator guides and lesson plans.

Elementary students raising their hands in classroom

Virtual Field Trips

Your Story, Our Story works perfectly in conjunction with the Tenement Museum’s virtual field trips. Our newest virtual initiative allows students to “visit” our recreated apartments and learn the stories of the families who lived there. Together, both programs offer students a chance to become historians and connect their experiences to others, to better understand the role of ordinary people in shaping our past, present, and future.

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