New York City is a fascinating place with a rich history. To start your child on the path to learning about his hometown, there’s no better spot than the newly renovated New-York Historical Society’s mini museum, the DiMenna Children’s History Museum, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
In November, the groundbreaking museum opened its doors and welcomed curious young visitors and their families. The first ever of its kind, the museum provides a unique, multi-dimensional experience, aimed at kids ages 7 to 13. It’s where youngsters can learn about history in a non-traditional, fun way.
It takes parents of younger children to come up with such an innovative concept. The museum is the brainchild of Diana DiMenna and her husband, Joseph, who have two little ones. They helped fund its construction. Their main goal: they didn’t want kids thinking history was just about a bunch of old men.
Through interactive games, a virtual time machine, and a myriad of surprise adventures, kids who visit the museum — which is on the lower level of the New-York Historical Society — can find a connection with children who lived, played, and sometimes worked in New York City a couple of hundred years ago, or more. Here, kids’ imaginations can soar as they enter and explore an amazing new world like no other.
“We have seen grown-ups and children ‘digging’ into the exhibition together. Some are longtime fans of the Historical Society who are happy to have a place to go for their children to learn about history, and some are first-time visitors looking for a new experience,” said Alice Stevenson, director of the museum. “Overall, they really appreciate the hands-on design of the museum — it keeps children of different ages and interests engaged, and brings the past to life.”
As visitors enter the museum, they immediately get a sense — thanks to bright graphics — that this is a child- and family-friendly place. The characters on the stairs will lead you back through time — beginning in the Great Hall with recent history, passing such well-known New Yorkers as Arthur Ashe and the Marx Brothers — and ending at the base of the stairs in a recreated environment devoted to the Lenape people, who lived in the New York area before Europeans arrived.
Families are then welcomed by a dramatic but fanciful recreation of the New-York Historical Society’s new façade, linking this experience to the Historical Society as a whole.
The History Detectives kiosk introduces questions that visitors may never have considered, or may have answered for themselves in a very limited way: How do historians work? How do they draw meaning from the surviving remnants of earlier times? How do we know what we know about the past? This prepares kids and their families to think about the characters they’ll encounter in the museum.
For instance, at the Historical Viewfinder kiosk, visitors can compare current images of neighborhoods in the five boroughs with photographs from the past, and can experience being a part of history at the American Dreamers kiosk, where photographs of New Yorkers from the past and present flash by with their names, birthdates and occupations. Kids can then take their own photos and add what they wish to be when they grow up. Their picture will then join the photo stream, where they can see themselves as part of the narrative of history. That’s pretty powerful stuff!
Your child might ask, “What does it feel like to participate in a democracy?” Future voters can check out the Cast Your Vote and First President pavilions, and find out how voting rights have changed over time; they may also wish to recite the presidential oath of office. (You never know.)
When your kids experience the narrative pavilions, they’ll surely begin to wonder if there are similarities between their everyday lives and those of kids from long ago. The pavilions delve into interesting backgrounds of historical figures, like Alexander Hamilton, who came here from the Caribbean as an orphan around 1700, and who would become the Secretary of the Treasury; a Dutch girl, Cornelia van Varick, who was the daughter of a 17th century textile worker. Her wooden linen chest is an antique treasure trove of artifacts she collected during her childhood, and kids can sift through her stuff to get a sense of how life was during that period of time.
Then there’s James McCune Smith, who became an abolitionist and America’s first African-American doctor; Esteban Bellán, a Cuban immigrant, who grew up to become the first Latino to play pro baseball; and what was it like to be a child on the Orphan Train?
What did these children wear? How did they learn? What might life have been like for the newsies, kids who sold newspapers for a penny on city street corners? Why didn’t they go to school? Why were they allowed to work?
“In particular, Orphan Train riders and newsies have had a real resonance with visitors,” Stevenson said. “At the end of their visit, when we have asked children ‘which was your favorite?’ inevitably, it is one of those two pavilions, and the students can recount the stories with great detail. The idea of childhood throughout the centuries has really emerged as a dominant theme for our visitors.”
Finally, at the adjacent Barbara K. Lipman Children’s Library, children can explore the printed world of New York. Digital images of four rare texts — “Sander’s Pictorial Primer,” “The Story of Dam Trot and her Comical Cat,” the “New York Gazette & Weekly Mercury” newspaper, and the “Hieroglyphic Mother Goose” — are on display, as well as an interactive atlas, maps of old New York, books, and drawers full of artifacts. Plus, every Sunday at 11:30 am, the Lipman Library hosts a free story hour, where kids can hear the stories of New York.
Don’t miss this special adventure that takes place on the lower level of the New-York Historical Society.
DiMenna Children’s History Museum at New-York Historical Society [170 Central Park West at 77th Street in Manhattan, (212) 873-3400]. Open Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday, 10 am–6 pm; Friday 10 am–8 pm; Sunday 11 am–5 pm; closed Monday. Adults, $15; seniors and educators, $12; students, $10; kids (7-13) $5; children under 7, free. Admission is pay-as-you-wish on Fridays, from 6 to 8 pm. For more, visit www.nyhistory.org/childrens-museum.
