NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS The Lower East Side STUDY GUIDE : : NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS : : THE LOWER EAST SIDE : : Created by Rebecca Krucoff for the Education, Contents Programming and Exhibitions Department, Teaching & Learning Division, The New York Public Library. Anthony Marx, President Ann Thornton, Acting Andrew W. Mellon Director of The New York Public Libraries Elaine Charnov, Director for Education, Programming and Exhibitions Introduction How to Use Glossary This Guide Lynda Kennedy, Director, Teaching & Learning, Literacy and Outreach section 1 Janna Robin, Manager, Teaching & Learning Thank you to the following individuals: Becky Amato p. 2 p. 3 p. 8 David Callahan Sean Ferguson Thomas Lannon Johanna Lewis section 1 section 2 section 3 Susan Malsbury From Farm to The Great Wave Perceptions of the Abby Tannenbaum Neighborhood of Immigration: Jewish East Side: The William Williams 1880–1940 Special thanks to the Manuscripts and Archives Collection with Division for the text in Section 2 Photographs by Augustus Sherman For information on Teaching & Learning at the Library or to download a PDF of this and other guides: www.teachandlearn.nypl.org p. 9 p. 17 p. 23 The New York Public Library’s Teaching & Learning Program is made possible by a generous grant from The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation. section 4 section 5 section 6 Social Reform and Construction and Changing Design: José A. Contreras, Eliza Cerdeiros Its Impact on the Destruction on the Lower East Side: © The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Lower East Side Lower East Side: New Communities Foundations, 2012 1933–1934 as Seen Through the Eyes of the Library p. 33 p. 41 p. 49 : : NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS : : THE LOWER EAST SIDE : : : : NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS : : THE LOWER EAST SIDE : : The Lower East Side of New itself out on the Lower East Side and created different How To Use This Guide All of the images in this guide can be found on the perspectives on the issue, yielding a variety of results. accompanying CD, which can be displayed on a Smart York City is a neighborhood This was also the case of sanitation and education Essential Questions to Guide a Unit of Study Board or used with an LCD projector. You can also of constant change, within reforms, which many historians argue forced new The artifacts in this guide include a variety of prints, print images from the CD to use with your class. immigrants to Americanize quickly and thus abandon photographs, maps, and excerpts from manuscripts which one can find the their original cultural heritage. all found in the remarkable collections of The New ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS FOR York Public Library. These resources are organized RESOURCE ANALYSIS impact of local, national, and The following guide is meant to aid in a study of the into themes that reflect historical moments associated Observation/Inference Chart nation’s story of immigration, in an examination of with the Lower East Side of New York, as well as This activity helps students practice observations international historical events. New York City history, or as a neighborhood case more general themes in New York City and American before drawing conclusions. It helps students to study. The goal of the guide is to supplement these history. As you go through this guide, it is useful slow down their thinking so that they can base their Located on the southern and eastern side of Manhattan, narratives with the rich collections of The New York to keep the following Essential Questions in mind: opinions on facts. It builds on the observations and close to the East River and Port of New York, the Public Library, and to bring to light new resources • What are the patterns of city growth? analysis of a large group, thus helping students to see neighborhood developed early into an area that for teaching these topics. All of the resources in the • How and why do cities change over time? the benefits of hearing others’ perspectives on a topic. housed new immigrant groups, many of which started guide can be found in the magnificent collections of • How can images and text illuminate the story It can also serve as an excellent jumping off point for their American life there. The story of immigration in The New York Public Library. The guide is organized of city change over time? generating questions. this neighborhood is richly textured, with immigrant thematically to focus on turning points in the history • Are changes that occur in cities consciously groups overlapping, supplanting each other, and of the Lower East Side as they relate to local, national, or unconsciously created? This exercise works best with a visual document. contributing to the character and face of the city. and international events. It is primarily chronological, • What is the most important role of a This immigration story also reveals prejudice and with some thematic sections overlapping in time. Each neighborhood? Project one of the images from the CD onto the Smart obstacles; the creation of social and cultural legacies; thematic section has a short introduction, followed Board or use with the LCD projector. Using a simple the positive and negative impacts of social reform; by a collection of primary sources, their provenances, How to Make the Most of This Guide chart (Graphic Organizer 1, p. 6), ask students to look conflict and cohesion; persistence; hope; and, at times, methods for interpretation, and suggested activities Each section of this guide focuses on a particular at the document and write down their observations. devastating tragedy. and resources. theme associated with the growth of the Lower East They should categorize them into “observations” Side. A historical overview introduces every section; it (facts) and “inferences” (opinions based on what they Although the neighborhood is best known for its links For more information on this or other related topics, is followed by a few suggested activities and a series of observe). Observations are something that all viewers to the immigration story, the Lower East Side has also you can search NYPL collections at www.nypl.org. primary sources from the NYPL collection illustrating can agree on. Inferences are particular to the viewer been influenced by events more common to the city each topic. A sequence of leveled questions is provided and reflect the viewer’s beliefs and experiences. After as a whole. Identified as a “slum” from the start, the for every source in the guide. In a few instances, approximately 10 minutes, ask students to share their neighborhood was often seen as a place that needed Ward, David. “The Victorian Slum: An Enduring Myth?” sources are grouped and share a set of questions observations and inferences in a round-robin manner. improvement. As historian David Ward writes, “the Annals of the Association of American Geographers (see Sections 2, 5, and 6). You can ask students to clarify their inferences by ask- slum has been an evocative and durable description of Vol. 66, No. 2 (June, 1976), pp. 323–336. ing, “What did you see that makes you say that?” After the squalid environs and pathological social conditions Along with the specific suggestions and questions gathering the class’s observations and inferences, you of the residential quarters of the poor.” For this reason, found in each section, we have also provided more can discuss: What more did we see in the document as reforms in housing, education, and health were enthu- general lesson activities that can be used for a critical we went along? What themes were raised? What new siastically applied to the Lower East Side. inquiry of primary sources. These activities include questions were asked? Did hearing other observations methods for making observations and drawing infer- make you see the document differently? Are all of the Housing development greatly changed the face of this ences, comparing and contrasting documents, and observations truly factual? neighborhood in the late-19th and the 20th centuries developing connections between sources. These as New York City struggled to accommodate a growing general activities can be used throughout this guide Compare and Contrast population and contend with “slum clearance” man- and can be adapted for use in groups, by different Choose two or three resources from the guide that you dates. As is true in most urban areas, the demolition age levels, and to differentiate materials for instruc- think lend to an interesting comparison. Students will of old buildings in favor of new development caused tion. These lesson suggestions are included in the compare and contrast these resources using a Venn conflict. For the slums to be cleared and cleaned up, following segment. Diagram (Graphic Organizers 2 and 3, p. 7). Look for populations had to be displaced. This scenario played differences in materials, points of view, representa- 2 3 : : NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS : : THE LOWER EAST SIDE : : : : NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS : : THE LOWER EAST SIDE : : 1.3 History of the Unites States and New York tions of people and places, and ideas represented. Then prints are as much a representation of an artist’s point LINKS TO THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS • classify information by type of activity: social, share students’ responses as a class, or ask students to of view as they are a record of history. It is also interest- FOR LITERACY IN HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES political, economic, technological, scientific, write a short statement reflecting what they learned by ing to consider where the print was published or put on Key Ideas and Details cultural, or religious comparing the two works. view, and for what audience. 1. Read closely to determine what the text • complete well-documented and historically says explicitly and to make logical inferences accurate case studies about individuals Find the Connection Photographs: Photographs capture a moment of life from it; cite specific textual evidence and groups who represent different ethnic, Some of the resources in specific sections clearly as seen by a photographer.