About the DiMenna Children's History Museum

Explore 300 years of New York and American history through the eyes and lives of children of the past! The DiMenna Children's History Museum is a museum-within-a-museum, occupying the New-York Historical Society's entire lower level. It includes character-based pavilions, a the Barbara K. Lipman Children's History Library, a Whiz Bang Quiz Machine, and interactive exhibits and games. The DiMenna Children's History Museum encourages children to identify with the people whose enterprise and creativity changed the course of our history. All ages can enjoy and learn in the DiMenna Children's History Museum, but the exhibits are targeted at age 8-13.

Get to know these historical figures better! Each character pavilion combines objects, games, and information that help tell the story of each person's childhood and adulthood.

Cornelia van Varick (1692-1733)

She was a daughter of the Margrieta van Varick, a textile merchant in seventeenth-century New Amsterdam, and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804)

He was an orphaned and penniless immigrant from the West Indies who helped to make America "modern" as the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

James McCune Smith (1813-1865)

James McCune Smith, later a brilliant doctor and abolitionist, was a student at the African Free School in 1824.

Esteban Bellán (1850-1932)

He was a cuban youngster who came to New York to study at what is now Fordham University, and became the first Latino to play professional baseball in the United States.

Orphan Train Riders (born approximately 1890)

They were late nineteenth-century orphaned children transported by the Children's Aid Society via train to new homes outside New York City.

New York Newsies (born approximately 1890)

They were turn of the century newsboys and newsgirls who endured harsh working environments and fought to better themselves in industrial New York City.

CLICK HERE TO PRINT THE DIMENNA CHILDREN'S HISTORY MUSEUM MAP

Support for education initiatives at the New-York Historical Society is provided, in part, by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource), do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.