Your Story, Our Story

Your Story, Our Story is a national initiative of the Tenement Museum in New York City and its partners across the United States. We work with museums, colleges, schools, libraries, and community groups who all contribute stories from their part of the United States.

Participation in Your Story, Our Story is designed to be open to all people in the United States. We invite anyone to share the story of an object or tradition that carries special meaning related to their personal experience. Stories shared on this site should relate in some way to cultural identity, migration, or immigration. Even though we don’t all have direct connections to migration or immigration, don’t know every detail of our family histories, and may not have physical keepsakes to symbolize our stories, cultural identity shapes us all. Your Story, Our Story invites us to express our culture and identity through the objects and traditions in our everyday lives, and to help us explore the evolution of American identity.

Your Story, Our Story contributions come from all kinds of families and all kinds of histories: from people who were adopted, people whose families are indigenous to the Americas; people who were forced to migrate from their home countries; those who are the descendants of enslaved people; and people who are unsure of their cultural heritage. Each story helps to deepen our understanding of this country and its people, and when combined together, highlights complexities, commonalities, and differences, fostering empathy through the power of storytelling.

We hope you’ll explore these stories to learn about others, and contribute your own!