From a brand-new kitchen for a kosher family in 1938 to the steps Puerto Rican residents descended for the promise of mixed-income housing in 2002, the Jane Addams Homes have witnessed the full range of human experiences. These stories make public housing a powerful lens for thinking about the intersection of public responsibility and the creation of home. In 2014, NPHM begins the work to curate these histories led by the input of public housing communities of today from across Chicago.

Stories, the creation of them and the preservation of them, are about legacy. Stories live when we tell them. Through oral history collection, the National Public Housing Museum seeks to not only tell the stories of public housing, but to give them life by sharing them. Since 2007, NPHM has been collecting stories from current and former residents of public housing, youth, seniors, and adults. Through first collecting and archiving, NPHM is working to make these stories available to the general public in its programming and eventually through the Museum’s curated collection.