Immigration to Northampton: A Walking Tour
with Elizabeth Sacktor, Museum Educator, Historic Northampton
Photograph of Marcus Cohn, Carrie Cohn, Sarah Cohn, and Rose Cohn, children of Simon Cohn and Augusta Seiler Cohn. In 1866, Simon Cohn emigrated from Poland where he made a living as a tailor. He established a clothing store on Main Street, Northampton in the 1860s. The business passed to Marcus in 1912. Sarah and Rose ran a millinery shop on the second floor of the store. Photograph by A.J. Schillare of Northampton.
Event Details
Historic Northampton’s Elizabeth Sacktor will lead a walking tour of downtown Northampton as seen through the theme of immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries. The tour will be a non-chronological exploration of how Northampton’s many immigrant populations worked and built community amid changing sentiments and discrimination.
-Hear the stories of two Irish men executed for a crime they did not commit.
-See the former home of a successful Jewish family who turned their clothing business into a Northampton staple.
-Learn about the ways Puerto Rican women made a name for themselves for their fine needlework.
-Visit the site of a former Chinese Laundry and learn about the U.S.’s first laws limiting immigration based on race.
Together, we will ask questions about what it means to be American, what it means to be from Northampton, and how our home is shaped by the communities with whom we share it.