Social Reformer: Jacob Riis

By: Michelle Cisneros

Jacob August Riis, writer of (1890) has recently died, May 26, ​ ​ 1941. Born on May 3, 1849, in Ribe, Denmark, he was one of 14 siblings and grew up understanding financial struggle. Riis immigrated to the United States at the age of 21 in hopes of starting a new life after a failed marriage proposal. After coming from the steamship Iowa he also found himself working various jobs in : he was a bricklayer, a salesman, and more just to get by. He personally knew the hardships many immigrants felt coming to a new land since he came with hardly anything other than 40 dollars and the clothes he wore. It wasn’t until 1873 when Riis became the police reporter for The New York Tribune witnessing the ​ ​ and of Urban Americans, that Riis felt a personal connection to the immigrants living in horrible conditions and he decided to use what he witnessed at work as a way to create change.

During one of his nights at work, Riis decided to come in contact with a photographer hoping to capture the horrors where the lower class of America lived. In the end, Riis was not pleased with the outcome of the photos and decided to show people the truth himself. He purchased a and learned to create a , which at one point almost blinded him. He compiled the photos of the people living in the slums by their ethnicity but never mentioning their names. His book How the Other Half Lives captured the attention of many including U.S. ​ ​ President . Roosevelt was so moved by the photos that he said, “I have read your book, and I have come to help.” This would lead to the changes he sought. Riis along with other reformers such as Jessie Tarbox Beals and Lewis Hines used photography to shine light on the poor condition of the houses. Soon the Tenement House Law was passed in 1901, which would reinforce city house policies that ordered more sanitation regulation.