Visiting the Tenement Museum as a family? While many of our tours and experiences do not permit infants, babies, and children under the age of 6, the Museum has some recommendations for how families with younger children can enjoy their time here and participate in activities and events.
Recommendations for Families
Tours & Experiences
Victoria Confino
This interactive apartment tour is perfect for families with children ages 4 and up! Drop in on 14-year-old Victoria Confino, who lived in 97 Orchard Street in 1916, to hear about her immigrant experience in a more intimate setting. Tour her apartment, ask her questions about her life, and get a unique perspective on adapting to life on the Lower East Side.
Kid's Museum Shop
Whether you are visiting our famed Museum Gift Shop in-person or are looking for curated books and gifts for children in our online shop, we have the best selection of unique and educational items. Check out some of our fan favorites below!
If you Lived 100 Years Ago
Vivid full-color illustrations and a question-and-answer text bring traditional life, customs, and everyday worlds to life in this series covering a rich range of historical events, eras, and peoples from a child’s perspective.
Victoria Confino Doll
Modeled after 97 Orchard Street’s resident, Victoria Confino, this moveable paper doll is a perfect way to bring the Victoria experience home with you. This paper doll comes with a blank card and a matching #11 envelope so that you can share Victoria with friends and pen-pals!
New York Board Book
This dimensional die-cut book is packed with fun facts about New York’s most iconic landmarks, from the Statue of Liberty to Times Square. A gatefold map rounds out the package, making this one souvenir you’ll want to pick up in a New York minute.
Family Activities
Your Story, Our Story
We invite you to explore family stories and upload your own through our crowd sourced digital collection! 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.
FAQs for Visiting Families
Babies, infants, and children under the age of 6 are not allowed on most of our tours. This is for the comfort and convenience of the babies, their families, and all guests.
The Victoria Confino experience is especially appropriate for families with children ages 4 and up.
For all other tours and experiences, children must be at least 6 years of age, and are most suitable for children ages 8 and up.
These age requirements are based on the content and style of delivery and on the experience of visiting families. Please plan to observe them.
The Tenement Museum can be a great shared learning experience for families of all ages. Guides will make an effort to ensure that children are engaged and have a chance to share thoughts with the group and to ask questions. However, please be aware that tours and experiences are guided, timed, and mostly conversation-based. To help with preservation, we ask all of our visitors not to touch objects and surfaces; whenever possible, we will include opportunities to touch select historical objects.
Explore the website ahead of time so you can learn a bit about what you will be seeing and think of some questions to ask.
Arrive 15-30 minutes early in the Visitor Center to leave time for bathrooms, drinking water and lockers. There are no bathrooms in the historic tenement apartments, so it’s best to plan ahead.
On the tour, keep close together, and position the smallest people in front so they can easily see and hear their guide and touch objects offered for exploration.