Jacob August Riis was a Danish American
social reformerA reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...
, "
muckrakingThe term muckraker is closely associated with reform-oriented journalists who wrote largely for popular magazines, continued a tradition of investigative journalism reporting, and emerged in the United States after 1900 and continued to be influential until World War I, when through a combination...
"
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and
social documentary photographerSocial documentary photography may be defined as the act of recording, with a camera, human beings in their natural condition. Often is also refers to a socially critical genre of photography dedicated to showing the life of underprivileged or disadvantaged people.-Origin of social documentary...
. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. He endorsed the implementation of "model tenements" in New York with the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller. Additionally, as one of the most famous proponents of the newly practicable casual photography, he is considered one of the fathers of photography due to his discovery the use of
flashA flash is a device used in photography producing a flash of artificial light at a color temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene. A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a dark scene. Other uses are capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light...
in
photographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
. While living in New York, Riis experienced poverty and became a police reporter writing about the quality of life in the slums. He attempted to alleviate the bad living conditions of poor people by exposing their traditionalism to middle class ridicule.
Early life
Jacob Riis was the third of the 13 children (one of whom, an orphaned niece, was fostered) of Niels Edward Riis, a schoolteacher and occasional writer for the local
RibeRibe , the oldest extant Danish town, is in southwest Jutland and has a population of 8,192 . Until 1 January 2007, it was the seat of both the surrounding municipality, and county...
newspaper, and Carolina Riis (
née Bendsine Lundholme), a homemaker. Among the 13, only Jacob, one sister and the foster sister survived into the twentieth century. Riis was influenced by his father, whose school Riis delighted in disrupting, and who persuaded him to read (and improve his English via)
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's magazine
All the Year RoundAll the Year Round was a Victorian periodical, being a British weekly literary magazine founded and owned by Charles Dickens, published between 1859 and 1895 throughout the United Kingdom. Edited by Dickens, it was the direct successor to his previous publication Household Words, abandoned due to...
and the novels of
James Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
.
Jacob had a happy childhood, but experienced tragedy at the age of eleven when his brother Theodor, a year younger than he, drowned. He never forgot his mother's grief.
At age eleven or twelve years, he donated all the money he had and gave it to a poor Ribe family living in a squalid house, but on condition that they cleaned it. The tenants took the money and obliged; when he told his mother, she went to help.
Although his father had hoped that Jacob would have a literary career, Jacob wanted to be a carpenter. When he was 16 years old, he became fond of Elisabeth Gjortz, the 12-year-old adopted daughter of the owner of the company for which he worked as an apprentice carpenter. The father disapproved of the boy's blundering attentions, and Riis was forced to complete his carpentry apprenticeship in
CopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. Riis returned to Ribe in 1868 at age 19. Discouraged by poor job availability in the region and by Gjortz's disfavor of his marriage proposal, Riis decided to emigrate to the United States.
Migration to the United States
Riis emigrated to America in 1870, when he was 21 years old, seeking employment as a carpenter. He first traveled in a small boat from
CopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
to
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, where on May 18 he boarded the steamer
IowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, traveling in
steerageSteerage is the act of steering a ship. "Steerage" also refers to the lowest decks of a ship.-Steerage and steerage way:The rudder of a vessel can only steer the ship when water is passing over it...
. He carried $40 donated by friends (he had paid $50 for the passage himself); a gold locket with a strand of Elisabeth's hair, presented by her mother; and letters of introduction to the Danish Consul, Mr. Goodall (later president of the
American Bank Note CompanyThe American Bank Note Company was a major worldwide engraver of national currency and postage stamps. Currently it engraves and prints stock and bond certificates.-History:Robert Scot, the first official engraver of the young U.S...
), a friend of the family since his rescue from a shipwreck at Ribe.
Riis disembarked in New York on June 5, on that day spending half the $40 his friends had given him on a revolver for defense against human or animal predators.
The demographics of American urban areas became significantly more heterogeneous as many immigrants arrived, creating ethnic enclaves often more populous than many of the cities of their homelands. Large groups of migrants and immigrants, seeking prosperity in a more industrialized environment, came to urban areas during the years after the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Twenty-four million people relocated to urban areas, causing their population to increase eightfold. "In the 1880s 334,000 people were crammed into a single square mile of the
Lower East SideThe Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, making it the most densely populated place on earth. They were packed into filthy, disease-ridden tenements, 10 or 15 to a room, and the well-off knew nothing about them and cared less."
After five days, during which he used almost all his money, Riis found work as a carpenter at Brady's Bend Iron Works on the
Allegheny RiverThe Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
. After a few days of that he began mining for increased pay, but quickly resumed carpentry. Learning on July 19, 1870, that France had declared war on Germany, he expected that Denmark would join France to avenge the Prussian seizure of Schleswig, and determined to fight for France. He returned to New York, and, having pawned most of his possessions and without money, attempted to enlist at the French consulate, but was told that there was no plan to send a volunteer army from America. Pawning his revolver, he walked out of New York until he collapsed from exhaustion; on waking, he walked to Fordham College where a Catholic priest served him breakfast.
After a brief period of farmworking and odd jobs at
Mount VernonThe name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States...
, Riis returned to New York, where he read in the newspaper New York
Sun that the newspaper was recruiting soldiers for the war. Riis rushed there to enlist, but the editor (whom he later realized was
Charles Anderson DanaCharles Anderson Dana was an American journalist, author, and government official, best known for his association with Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War and his aggressive political advocacy after the war....
) claimed or affected ignorance but offered the famished Riis a dollar for breakfast; Riis indignantly refused. Riis was destitute, at one time sleeping on a tombstone and surviving on windfall apples. Still, he found work at a brickyard at
Little WashingtonThe town is located southwest of New York City and 48 miles northeast of Philadelphia.Lawrence Brook, a tributary of the Raritan River, runs along the western border of the township...
in New Jersey, and was there for six weeks until he heard that a group of volunteers was going to the war. Thereupon he left for New York.
On arrival, Riis found that the rumor was true but that he had arrived too late. He pleaded with the French consul, who expelled him. He made various other attempts to enlist, none successful. As autumn began, Riis was destitute, without a job. He survived on scavenged food and handouts from
Delmonico's RestaurantDelmonico's is the name of series of restaurants of varying duration, quality, and fame located in New York City. The original and most famous was operated by the Delmonico family during the 19th and early 20th centuries, closing due to a Prohibition-era slowdown in 1923...
and slept in public areas or in a foul-smelling police lodging-house. At one time Riis's only companion was a stray dog. One morning he awoke in a lodging-house to find that his gold locket (with its strand of Elisabeth's hair) had been stolen. He complained to the sergeant, who, enraged, expelled him and also beat the dog to death. Riis was devastated. The story became a favorite of Riis's. One of his personal victories, he later confessed, was not using his eventual fame to ruin the career of the offending officer. Disgusted, he left New York, buying a passage on a ferry with the silk handkerchief that was his last possession. By doing odd jobs and stowing away on freight trains, Riis eventually reached Philadelphia, where he appealed to the Danish Consul, Ferdinand Myhlertz, for help and was cared for two weeks by the Consul and his wife.
Myhlertz sent Riis, now dressed properly in a suit, to the home of an old classmate in
JamestownJamestown is a city in Chautauqua County, New York in the United States. The population was 31,146 at the 2010 census.The City of Jamestown is adjacent to Town of Ellicott and is at the southern tip of Chautauqua Lake...
. Riis worked as a carpenter in Scandinavian communities in the western part of the state, also working a variety of other jobs. He achieved sufficient financial stability to find the time to experiment as a writer, in both Danish and English, although his attempt to get a job at a
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, New York newspaper was unsuccessful, and magazines rejected his submissions.
Riis was in much demand as a carpenter, a major reason being the low prices he charged. However, his employers exploited his efficiency and low prices, and Riis returned to New York City. He was most successful as a salesman, particularly of
flatironsIroning is the use of a heated tool to remove wrinkles from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of 180-220 °Celsius, depending on the fabric. Ironing works by loosening the bonds between the long-chain polymer molecules in the fibers of the material...
and
fluting ironIroning is the use of a heated tool to remove wrinkles from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of 180-220 °Celsius, depending on the fabric. Ironing works by loosening the bonds between the long-chain polymer molecules in the fibers of the material...
s, becoming promoted to sales representative of them for
IllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. However, in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
he was cheated of both his money and his stock, and had to return to an earlier base in Pittsburgh. There he found that his subordinates he had left to sell in
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
had cheated him in the same manner. He again had little money, and while bedridden with a fever learned from a letter that Elisabeth, the former object of his affection, was engaged to a cavalry officer. Riis then returned to New York by selling flatirons along the way.
Early journalism
Riis oticed an advertisement by a
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
newspaper for an editor, applied for and was appointed city editor. He quickly realized why the job had been available: the editor in chief was dishonest and indebted. Riis left in two weeks.
Again unemployed, Riis returned to the
Five PointsFive Points was a neighborhood in central lower Manhattan in New York City. The neighborhood was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street in the west, The Bowery in the east, Canal Street in the north and Park Row in the south...
neighborhood. He was sitting outside the Cooper Union one day when the principal of the school where he had earlier learned
telegraphyTelegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
happened to notice him. He said that if Riis had nothing better to do, then the New York News Association was looking for a trainee. After one more night and a hurried wash in a horse trough, Riis went for an interview. Despite his disheveled appearance he was sent for a test assignment: to observe and write about a luncheon at the
Astor HouseThe Astor House was a fine hotel in New York City, that opened in 1836 and soon became the most famous hotel in America.-History:The Astor House was originally built by John Jacob Astor, who assembled the building lots around his former house until he had purchased the full block in the heart of...
. Riis wrote this competently and got the job.
Riis was able to write about the rich and also life in impoverished immigrant communities. He did his job well and was able to become editor of a weekly newspaper, the
News. However, this newspaper, the periodical of a political group, soon became bankrupt. Simultaneously, and unusually, Riis got a letter from home which related that both his older brothers, an aunt and Elisabeth Gjortz's fiançé had died. Riis wrote to Elisabeth to propose, and with $75 of his savings and promissory notes, he bought the
News company.
Riis worked hard at his newspaper and soon paid his debts. Newly independent, he was able to target the politicians who had previously been his employers. Meanwhile, he received a provisional acceptance from Elisabeth, who asked him to come to Denmark for her, saying "We will strive together for all that is noble and good". Conveniently, the politicians offered to buy back the newspaper for five times the price Riis had paid; he was thus able to arrive in Denmark with a substantial amount of money.
After some months in Denmark, the newly married couple arrived in New York. Riis worked briefly as editor of a south Brooklyn newspaper, the
Brooklyn News. To supplement his income, he used a "
magic lanternThe magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and...
" projector to advertise in Brooklyn, projecting either onto a sheet hung between two trees or onto a screen behind a window. The novelty was a success, and Riis and a friend relocated to upstate New York and Pennsylvania as itinerant advertisers. However, this enterprise ended when the pair became involved with an armed dispute between striking railroad workers and the police. Riis quickly returned to New York City.
Years at the Tribune
A neighbor of Riis, who was the city editor of the
New York TribuneThe New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
, recommended Riis for a short-term contract. Riis did well, and was offered the job of police reporter. He was based in a press office across from police headquarters on
Mulberry StreetMulberry Street is a principal thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York. The street was listed on maps of the area since at least 1755. The "Bend" in Mulberry in which the street changes direction from southwest to northeast to a northerly direction was to avoid the wetlands surrounding the Collect Pond...
. "Nicknamed 'Death's Thoroughfare'", Riis's biographer Alexander Alland writes, "It was here, where the street crooks its elbow at the Five Points, that the streets and numerous alleys radiated in all directions, forming the foul core of the New York slums."
During these stints as a police reporter, Riis worked the most crime-ridden and impoverished slums of the city. Through his own experiences in the poorhouses, and witnessing the conditions of the poor in the city slums, he decided to make a difference for them. Working night-shift duty in the immigrant communities of Manhattan's Lower East Side, Riis developed a tersely melodramatic writing style and he became one of the earliest reformist journalists.
Photography
Riis had for some time been wondering how to show the squalor of which he wrote more vividly than his words could express. He tried sketching, but was incompetent at this. Camera lenses of the 1880s were slow—necessarily, for
depth of fieldIn optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image...
despite their considerable
focal lengthThe focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light. For an optical system in air, it is the distance over which initially collimated rays are brought to a focus...
—as was the
emulsionPhotographic emulsion is a light-sensitive colloid, such as gelatin, coated onto a substrate. In silver-gelatin photography, the emulsion consists of silver halide crystals suspended in gelatin, and the substrate may be glass, plastic film, paper or fabric....
of
photographic platePhotographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile...
s; photography thus did not seem to be of any use for reporting about conditions of life in dark interiors. In early 1887, however, Riis was startled to read that "a way had been discovered [. . .] to take pictures by flashlight. The darkest corner might be photographed that way." The German innovation, by Adolf Miethe and Johannes Gaedicke, was to mix
magnesiumMagnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
with
potassium chloratePotassium chlorate is a compound containing potassium, chlorine and oxygen atoms, with the molecular formula KClO3. In its pure form, it is a white crystalline substance. It is the most common chlorate in industrial use...
and
antimony sulfideStibnite, sometimes called antimonite, is a sulfide mineral with the formula Sb2S3. This soft grey material crystallizes in an orthorhombic space group. It is the most important source for the metalloid antimony...
for more stability; the powder was used in a pistol-like device that fired cartridges. This was the introduction of flash photography.
Recognizing the potential of the flash, Riis informed a friend, Dr John Nagle, chief of the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the City Health Department who was also a keen amateur photographer. Nagle found two more photographer friends, Henry Piffard and Richard Hoe Lawrence, and the four of them began to photograph the slums. Their first report was published in the New York newspaper
The Sun on February 12, 1888; it was an unsigned article by Riis which described its author as "an energetic gentleman, who combines in his person, though not in practice, the two dignities of deacon in a Long Island church and a police reporter in New York". The "pictures of Gotham's crime and misery by night and day" are described as "a foundation for a lecture called 'The Other Half: How It Lives and Dies in New York.' to give at church and Sunday school exhibitions, and the like." The article was illustrated by twelve line drawings based on the photographs.
Riis and his photographers were among the first Americans to use flash photography. Pistol lamps were dangerous and looked threatening, and would soon be replaced by another method for which Riis lit
magnesium powderFlash powder is a pyrotechnic composition, a mixture of oxidizer and metallic fuel, which burns quickly and if confined produces a loud report. It is widely used in theatrical pyrotechnics and fireworks and was once used for flashes in photography.Different varieties of flash powder are made from...
on a frying pan. The process involved removing the
lens capA lens cover or lens cap provides protection from scratches and minor collisions for camera and camcorder lenses. Lens covers come standard with most cameras and lenses...
, igniting the flash powder and replacing the lens cap; the time taken to ignite the flash powder sometimes allowed a visible image blurring created by the flash.
Riis's first team soon tired of the late hours, and Riis had to find other help. Both his assistants were lazy and one was dishonest, selling plates for which Riis had paid. Riis sued him in court successfully. Nagle suggested that Riis should become self-sufficient, so in January 1888 Riis paid $25 for a
4×5Large format refers to any imaging format of 4×5 inches or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the 6×6 cm or 6×9 cm size of Hasselblad, Rollei, Kowa, Pentax etc cameras , and much larger than the 24×36 mm frame of 35 mm format.The main advantage...
box cameraThe box camera is, with the exception of the pin hole camera, a camera in its simplest form. The form of the classic box camera is no more than a cardboard or plastic box with a lens in one end and film at the other. A simple box camera has only a single element meniscus fixed focus lens and...
, plateholders, a tripod and equipment for
developingPhotographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image...
and
printingPhotographic printing is the process of producing a final image on paper for viewing, using chemically sensitized paper. The paper is exposed to a photographic negative, a positive transparency , or a digital image file projected using an enlarger or digital exposure unit such as a LightJet printer...
. He took the equipment to the potter's field cemetery on Hart Island to practice, making two exposures. The result was seriously
overexposedIn photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.In photographic jargon, an exposure...
but successful.
For some three years Riis combined his own photographs with others commissioned of professionals, donations by amateurs and purchased lantern slides, all of which formed the basis for his photographic archive.
Because so much of the work was done at night, he was able to photograph the worst elements of the New York slums, the dark streets, tenement apartments, and "stale-beer" dives, and documented the hardships faced by the poor and criminal, especially in the vicinity of notorious
Mulberry StreetMulberry Street is a principal thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York. The street was listed on maps of the area since at least 1755. The "Bend" in Mulberry in which the street changes direction from southwest to northeast to a northerly direction was to avoid the wetlands surrounding the Collect Pond...
.
Public speaking
Riis accumulated a supply of photographs and attempted to submit illustrated essays to magazines. But when an editor at
Harper's New MonthlyHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
Magazine said that he liked the photographs but not the writing, and would find another writer, Riis was despondent about magazine publication and instead thought of speaking directly to the public.
This was not easy. The obvious venue would be a church, but several churches—including Riis's own—demurred, fearing either that the talks would offend the churchgoers' sensibilities or that they would offend rich and powerful landlords. However, Adolph Schauffler (of the
City Mission SocietyThe City Mission Society, is a social justice agency founded in 1816 by the congregations of Old South Church and Park Street Church with a mission to serve the urban poor of metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts....
) and
Josiah StrongJosiah Strong was an American Protestant clergyman, organizer, editor and author.-Overview:Josiah Strong was one of the founders of the Social Gospel movement that sought to apply Protestant religious principles to solve the social ills brought on by industrialization, urbanization and immigration...
arranged to sponsor Riis's lecture at the
Broadway TabernacleBroadway United Church of Christ is a Congregationalist Church at Broadway and 93rd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.- Finney's Broadway Tabernacle :...
church. Lacking money, Riis partnered with W. L. Craig, a Health Department clerk.
Riis and Craig's lectures, illustrated with lantern slides, made little money for the pair, but they both greatly increased the number of people exposed to what Riis had to say and also enabled him to meet people who had the power to effect change, notably
Charles Henry ParkhurstCharles Henry Parkhurst was an American clergyman and social reformer, born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Although scholarly and reserved, he preached two sermons in 1892 in which he attacked the political corruption of New York City government...
and an editor of
Scribner's MagazineScribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...
, who invited him to submit an illustrated article.
Books
An eighteen-page article by Riis,
How the Other Half LivesHow the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s...
, appeared in the Christmas 1889 edition of
Scribner's Magazine. It included nineteen of his photographs rendered as line drawings. Its publication brought an invitation to expand the material into an entire book.
Riis had already been thinking of writing a book, and began writing it during nights. (Days were for reporting for the
New York SunThe New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
, evenings for public speaking.)
How the Other Half Lives, subtitled "Studies Among the Tenements of New York", was published in 1890. The book reused the eighteen line drawings that had appeared in the
Scribner's article and also seventeen reproductions using the
halftoneHalftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size, in shape or in spacing...
method, and thus "[representing] the first extensive use of halftone photographic reproductions in a book". (The magazine
Sun and Shade had done the same during a year or so beginning 1888.)
How the Other Half Lives sold well and was much quoted. Reviews were generally good, although some reviewers criticized it for oversimplifying and exaggerating. Riis attributed the success to a popular interest in social amelioration stmulated by
William BoothWilliam Booth was a British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General...
's
In Darkest England and the Way Out, and also to
Ward McAllisterSamuel Ward McAllister was the self-appointed arbiter of New York society from the 1860s to the early 1890s.-Life and career:...
's
Society as I Have Found It, a portrait of the moneyed class. The book encouraged imitations such as
Darkness and Daylight; or, Lights and Shadows of New York Life (1892), which somehow appropriated Riis's own photographs.
Children of the Poor (1892) was a sequel in which Riis wrote of particular children that he had encountered.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
introduced himself to Riis, offering to help his efforts somehow. Upon his 1895 appointment to the presidency of the Board of Commissioners of the
New York City Police DepartmentThe New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
, Roosevelt asked Riis to show him nighttime police work. During their first tour, the pair found that nine out of ten patrolmen were missing. Riis wrote about this for the next day's newspaper, and for the rest of Roosevelt's term the force was more attentive.
Roosevelt closed the police-managed lodging rooms in which Riis had suffered during his first years in New York. After reading the exposés, Roosevelt was so deeply affected by Riis's sense of justice that Roosevelt met and befriended Riis for life, later remarking about:
"Jacob Riis, whom I am tempted to call the best American I ever knew, although he was already a young man when he came hither from Denmark".
After Roosevelt became President, he wrote a tribute to Riis that started:
For his part, Riis wrote a campaign biography of Roosevelt that praised him.
Public works
A particularly important effort by Riis was his exposure of the state of New York's water supply. His five-column story "Some Things We Drink", in the 21 August 1891 edition of the New York
Evening Sun, included six photographs (later lost). Riis wrote:
The story resulted in the purchase by New York City of areas around the
New Croton ReservoirThe New Croton reservoir is a narrow reservoir in Westchester County, New York, lying approximately north of New York City, for which the reservoir supplies water. It is the collecting point for water from all reservoirs in the Croton Watershed....
, and may well have saved New Yorkers from an epidemic of
choleraCholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
.
Riis tried hard to have the slums around
Five PointsFive Points was a neighborhood in central lower Manhattan in New York City. The neighborhood was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street in the west, The Bowery in the east, Canal Street in the north and Park Row in the south...
demolished and replaced with a park. His writings resulted in the Drexel Committee investigation of unsafe tenements; this resulted in the Small Park Act of 1887. Riis was not invited to the eventual opening of the park on 15 June 1897, but went all the same, together with
Lincoln Steffens-Biography:Steffens was born April 6, 1866, in San Francisco. He grew up in a wealthy family and attended a military academy. He studied in France and Germany after graduating from the University of California....
. In the last speech, the street cleaning commissioner credited Riis for the park and led the public in giving him three cheers of "Hooray, Jacob Riis!" Other parks also were created, and Riis was popularly credited with them as well.
Later life
Riis wrote his autobiography,
The Making of an American, in 1901. His daughter, Clara C. Riis, married Dr. William Clarence Fiske. His son, John Riis (1882–1946), served in Gifford Pinchot’s new
United States Forest ServiceThe United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
from 1907 to 1913 as a ranger and forest supervisor on national forests in Utah, California and Oregon. He chronicled his time in the Forest Service in his 1937 book,
Ranger Trails. Another son, Edward V. Riis, was appointed US
Director of Public InformationThe Committee on Public Information, also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American participation in World War I...
in Copenhagen toward the end of World War I; he is known to have spoken publicly against antisemitism. In 1905, Jacob Riis's wife Elisabeth became ill and died. Riis remarried in 1907, and with his new wife, Mary Phillips, relocated to a farm in
Barre, MassachusettsBarre is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,398 at the 2010 census.-History:Originally called the Northwest District of Rutland, it was first settled in 1720. The town was incorporated on June 17, 1774, as Hutchinson after Thomas Hutchinson, colonial...
. Riis died at the farm on May 26, 1914. His second wife lived until 1967, continuing work on the farm, working on
Wall StreetWall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
and teaching classes at
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Social attitudes
Riis's concern for the poor and destitute often caused people to assume he disliked the rich. However, Riis showed no sign of discomfort among the affluent, often asking them for their support. Although seldom involved with party politics, Riis was sufficiently disgusted by the corruption of
Tammany HallTammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
to change from being an endorser of the
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
to endorse the
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Party. The period just before to the Spanish–American War was difficult for Riis. He was approached by liberals who suspected that protests of alleged Spanish mistreatment of the Cubans was merely a ruse intended to provide a pretext for US expansionism; perhaps in order not to offend his friend Roosevelt, Riis refused the offer of good payment to investigate this, and made nationalist statements.
Criticism
Riis's sincerity for social reform has seldom been questioned, though critics have questioned his right to interfere with the lives and choices of others. His audience comprised middle class reformers, and critics say that he had no love for the traditional life styles of the people he portrayed. Stange (1989) argues that Riis "recoiled from workers and working-class culture" and appealed primarily to the anxieties and fears of his middle class audience. Swienty (2008) says "Riis was quite impatient with most of his fellow immigrants; he was quick to judge and condemn those who failed to assimilate, and he did not refrain from expressing his contempt." Gurock (1981) says Riis was insensitive to the needs and fears of East European Jewish immigrants who flooded into New York at this time. Conservative economist
Thomas SowellThomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
(2001) argues that immigrants during Riis's time were typically willing to live in cramped, unpleasant circumstances as a deliberate short-term strategy that allowed them to save more than half their earnings to help family members come to America, with every intention of relocating to more comfortable lodgings eventually. Many tenement renters physically resisted the well-intentioned relocation efforts of reformers like Riis, states Sowell, because other lodgings were too costly to allow for the high rate of savings possible in the tenements. Moreover, according to Sowell, Riis's own personal experiences were the rule rather than the exception during his era: like most immigrants and low-income persons, he lived in the tenements only temporarily before gradually earning more income and relocating to different lodgings.
Riis depictions can be harsh. As portrayed in Riis's books, "The Jews are nervous and inquisitive, the Orientals are sinister, the Italians are unsanitary." In his autobiography,
The Making of an American, Riis decided to allow his wife to add a chapter examining her own life. After letting her begin an honest and evocative biographical sketch over several pages titled "Elizabeth Tells Her Story," Riis decided his wife had had enough: "I cut the rest of it off, because I am the editor and want to begin again here myself, and what is the use of being an editor unless you can cut 'copy?' Also, it is not good for a woman to allow her to say too much."
Books
- How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s...
. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890.
- The Children of the Poor. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892. (Harvard University Library
The Harvard University Library system comprises about 90 libraries, with more than 16 million volumes. It is the oldest library system in the United States, the largest academic and the largest private library system in the world...
scan of a copy of the 1902 imprint here.)
- Nibsy's Christmas. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893. Fiction for younger readers. (Here at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
.)
- Out of Mulberry Street: Stories of Tenement Life in New York City. New York: Century, 1896. (Harvard University Library scan of a copy of the 1898 imprint available here.)
- A Ten Years' War: An Account of the Battle with the Slum in New York. New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1900. (Harvard University Library scan of a copy available here.)
- The Making of an American. New York: Macmillan, 1902. (Here at Project Gutenberg. Harvard University Library scan of a copy of the 1904 imprint available here.)
- The Battle with the Slum. New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1901. (Here at Project Gutenberg. Harvard University Library scan here.)
- Children of the Tenements. New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1903. (Here at Project Gutenberg. Harvard University Library scan here.)
- The Peril and the Preservation of the Home: Being the William L. Bull Lectures for the Year 1903. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs, 1903. (Harvard University Library scan here.)
- Is There a Santa Claus? New York: Macmillan, 1904.
- Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. New York: Outlook, 1904. (Scan at the University of Michigan library.)
- The Old Town. New York: Macmillan, 1909. (Harvard University Library scan here.)
- Hero Tales of the Far North. New York: Macmillan, 1910. (Here at Project Gutenberg.)
- Neighbors: Life Stories of the Other Half. New York: Macmillan, 1914. (Harvard University Library scan of a copy of the 1919 imprint available here.)
- Christmas Stories. New York: Macmillan, 1923. An anthology of fiction for younger readers.
Other
- "How We Found Our Farm". The World's Work: A History of Our Time
World's Work was a monthly magazine which celebrated the American way of life and its expanded role on the world stage. In 1932 it was purchased by and merged into the journal Review of Reviews. It was founded in 1900 and edited by Walter Hines Page until 1913 when his son Arthur W...
23 (February 1912), pp. 475–479. (Here at Google Books.)
Memorials
- Jacob Riis Park
Jacob Riis Park in the New York City borough of Queens, is part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and is managed by the National Park Service . It lies at the foot of the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, toward the southwestern end the Rockaway Peninsula,...
, on Rockaway PeninsulaThe Rockaway Peninsula, informally The Rockaways, is the name of a peninsula of Long Island, all of which is located within the New York City borough of Queens. A popular summer resort area since the 1830s, Rockaway has become a mixture of lower, middle, and upper-class neighborhoods...
in the Gateway National Recreation AreaGateway National Recreation Area is a National Recreation Area in the Port of New York and New Jersey. Scattered over Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, New York and Monmouth County, New Jersey, it provides recreational opportunities that are rare for a dense urban environment, including ocean...
, QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
- Jacob Riis Triangle, in Richmond Hill
Richmond Hill is a neighborhood in central-southern Queens, New York City, USA. It is bordered by Kew Gardens to the north, Woodhaven and Ozone Park to the west, South Ozone Park to the south and South Jamaica to the east...
, QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
- Jacob Riis Playground, at Babbage and 116 Streets, 85 Ave, Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
- P.S. 126 The Jacob Riis Community School, on Catherine Street in New York City, is a public PK-5 school
- From 1915 until 2002, Jacob Riis Public School on South Throop Street in Chicago was a high school operated by the Chicago School Board.
- Jacob Riis Settlement House, a multi-service community based organization, is in the Queensbridge Houses
Queensbridge Houses is the largest public housing development in North America. It is located in Long Island City in Queens, and opened in 1939. The 3,142-unit complex is owned by the New York City Housing Authority. The complex is located in Community Board 1...
, in Long Island CityLong Island City is the westernmost neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City. L.I.C. is notable for its rapid and ongoing gentrification, its waterfront parks, and its thriving arts community. L.I.C. has among the highest concentration of art galleries, art institutions, and studio...
, QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, NY.
- Jacob Riis Houses
Jacob Riis Houses are a public housing project in the East Village, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The project is located between Avenue D and the Franklin D Roosevelt Drive, spanning two superblocks from 6th Street to 13th Street....
of NYCHAThe New York City Housing Authority provides public housing for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments...
at Avenue D (Manhattan)Avenue D is the easternmost named avenue in the East Village neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, though several thoroughfares are closer to the East River. This area is also known as Alphabet City. Avenue D runs between East 12th Street and Houston Street, and continues south...
- Jacob Riis Park Historic District
Jacob Riis Park Historic District is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.Jacob Riis Park is administered by the National Park Service and is part of Gateway National Recreation Area....
is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
- Riis Park on Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
's Northwest Side in the GalewoodGalewood is a neighborhood in the city of Chicago, Illinois. Its borders are North Avenue between Harlem and Narragansett and the Metra Track . It is historically an Italian neighborhood where residents of Taylor Street and Grand and Ogden moved to....
-MontclareMontclare is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located on the Northwest Side of the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is served by Metra's Milwaukee District/West Line via Mont Clare station.-External links:*...
neighborhood.
Veneration
Riis is honored together with
Walter RauschenbuschWalter Rauschenbusch was a Christian theologian and Baptist minister. He was a key figure in the Social Gospel movement in the United States of America.-Evolution of Thought:...
and
Washington GladdenWashington Gladden was a leading American Congregational church pastor and early leader of the Social Gospel movement. He was a leading member of the Progressive Movement, serving for two years as a member of the Columbus, Ohio, City Council and campaigning against Boss Tweed as acting editor of...
with a feast day on the
liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA)The veneration of saints in the Episcopal Church is a continuation of an ancient tradition from the early Church which honors important people of the Christian faith. The usage of the term "saint" is similar to Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Those in the Anglo-Catholic tradition may...
on July 2.
External links