Jacob August Riis (1849–1914)
Page from manuscript draft of How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York
1890
Jacob Riis Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division
Page from manuscript draft of How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York
Jacob Riis—journalist, author, social reformer, and photographer—came to the United States from Denmark in 1870. He was hired as a reporter by the New York Tribune in 1877 and was appalled by the squalid living conditions he encountered in New York City’s tenement district. This inspired Riis to begin his lifelong work as a crusader for the reform and improvement of urban life. He depicted the suffering of the poor in the city’s ghettos in numerous articles, books, photographs, and lectures, and his efforts to ameliorate slum conditions included campaigns for safer building codes and effective child-labor laws. This is a manuscript page of the draft of his book How the Other Half Lives, published in 1890, which represents Riis’s pioneering work in photo documentation.
: Jacob Riis Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division
Currently on View at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
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