Singer sewing machine

2/11/20: We’re highlighting artifacts that survived the fire at our archives at 70 Mulberry St. Today’s story is special because it’s about an artifact that’s a personal favorite of Yue Ma, MOCA’s Director of Collections who has been working tirelessly since the fire to recover our archives.

This is the Singer sewing machine donated to MOCA’s Collections by Sui Ling Tsang. It belonged to her mother Mok Sim Tsang, who worked as a seamstress at a garment factory in Manhattan’s Chinatown from 1968 until she passed away in 1977.

The lives of garment workers such as Mok Sim speak to the many untold stories that are told through our collections.

We were proud to loan the sewing machine to the Museum of the City of New York’s exhibition titled "City of Workers, City of Struggle: How Labor Movements Changed New York." The exhibition ended on December 31, 2019 and the sewing machine was returned to MOCA shortly thereafter.

So when the fire broke out on January 23, 2020, we feared the worst (and for a moment wished we hadn’t taken this priceless artifact back so soon). Fortunately, the sewing machine is safe…and waiting to be shared with the public once again.