Browse Exhibits (1 total)

Jacob Riis is considered to be one of the most influential figures of the Progressive Era. He championed rights for immigrants, the impoverished, women, and children who resided in urban areas in the Northeast in two ways. First, he established the Jacob A. Riis Settlement House in New York City, which offered direct assistance to the city’s less fortunate populace. Second, he later documented the deplorable conditions of the surrounding slums by writing two books- How the Other Half Lives and The Making of An American-that managed to open the eyes of countless Americans to the suffering and plight these groups experienced on a daily basis. It should be recognized that Jacob Riis’ writings were not only inspired by his experiences as a social reformer but also by his previous years as a foreign vagrant traveling across America for the sole purpose of finding work.

The six documents found in the first section of this exhibit were composed by Riis himself. One of the documents is the introduction to Jacob A. Riis' How the Other Half Lives, and four of the primary sources are lecture notes written at unknown dates during the Progressive Era. The last two documents are derived from two other pieces of literature written by Riis, including The Making of an American.