Constructing the Past

Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 6

2004

The Photographs of Jacob Riis: History in Relation to Truth

Lauren Jensen Wesleyan University

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Recommended Citation Jensen, Lauren (2004) "The Photographs of Jacob Riis: History in Relation to Truth," Constructing the Past: Vol. 5 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing/vol5/iss1/6

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Abstract This article discusses the photographs and writing of Jacob Riis, who was instrumental in informing middle and upperclass people in the 1870's about the poverty and conditions in the . It suggests that Riis may have staged some of his photographs, and that he was not without bias in his reporting, but that his pictures and writing did help in charging the social reform movements.

This article is available in Constructing the Past: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing/vol5/iss1/6 "Arbuckle Relates His Story to Jury." New York Times. 29 November 1921,5. The Photographs of Jacob Riis: History in Relation to Truth I "Arbuckle Unnamed in Rappe Statement." New York Times. 26 November 1921, II. "Charges Blackmail at Arbuckle Trial." New York Times. 27 Septcmber 1921,8. By Lauren Jensen "Five Women Named on Arbuckle Jury." New York Times. 16 November 1921, 14. 'The Ordeal of Fatty Arbuckle." New York Times. 27 August 1976,62. said "[I]f I were asked to name a fellow-man who came "Promises to Press Arbuckle's Trial." New York Times. 16 September 1921, 3. nearest to being the ideal American citizen, I should name Jacob Riis." I In the "Put Miss Rappe in Tub, Fischback Testifies." New York Times. 24 Novcmber 1921,25. mid I870s, Jacob Riis was the first social reformer to effectively address the mid­ "Sherman Aids Arbuckle." New York Times. 2 November 1921, 15. dle and upper classes of New York regarding the problems of the slums and tene­ 'Tattered Clothes in Arbuckle Trial." New York Times. 25 September 1921, 14. ments in the city, His first hand explorations into the dwellings of the poor, "Testify to Bruises on Virginia Rappe." New York Times. 23 September 1921,5. accompanied by new capabilities of photography, helped to create an awareness "Zeb Provost Tells ofArbuckle's Party." New York Times. 22 November 1921, 20. in the city that previously had not existed.lfRiis was the ideal American citizen, Secondary Sources and an immigrant himself, what did he think of the immigrants still in poverty? Brazil, John R. "Murder Trials, Murder, and Twcnties America," American Quarterly 33, no. 2 (Summer, 1981): 163-184. Jacob Riis's photographs, and portions of his texts, will be evaluated for their Edmonds, Andy. Frame-Up!: The Untold Story ofRoscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. New York: William truthfulness as a judge of the and the poor immigrants of New York Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991. from the late 1870s to the beginning of the 1900s, Historical truth will also be Grant, Robert, and Joseph Katz. The Great Trials ofthe Twenties: The Watershed Decade in America s examined as it applies to my research and the case study of Riis. Courtrooms. Rockville Centre, NY: Sarpedon, 1998. In 1870, Riis arrived in New York from Denmark with little money to his Lewis; Jerry M. and Linda Powell. "Comedy and Deviance: The Fatty Arbuckle Case." In Marginal Conventions: Popular Culture. Mass Media and Social Deviance, ed. Clinton R. Sanders, 18-28. name. He said that his experiences as an immigrant were similar to the people he Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1990. photographed: "I reached New York with just one cent in my pocket, and put up at Oderman, Stuart. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle: A Biography ofthe Silent Film Comedian. 1887-1933. a boarding-house where the charge was one dollar a day." 2 After years of odd Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 1994. jobs, wandering, and nights in lodging houses, Riis finally found a career in jour­ Stoloff, Sam. "Fatty Arbuckle and the Black Sox: The Paranoid Style ofAmerican Popular Culture, nalism. He was first an editor and owner of the South Brooklyn News, and then 1919-1922." In Headline Hollywood: A Century ofFilm Scanda, eds. Adrienne L. McLean and David A. Cook, 52-82. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. found employment as a police reporter with the New York Tribune in 1877, in Vaughn, Stephen. "Morality and Entertainment: The Origins of the Motion Picture Production Code," between working for other news agencies on Newspaper Row. Riis recalled his Journal ofAmerican History 77, no. I (n.d.): 39-65. time on Mulberry Street: "[A]ccordingly, I went poking about among the foul Yallop, David A. The Day the Laughter Stopped: The True Story ofFatty Arbuckle. New York: St. alleys and fouler tenements ofthe Bend when they [immigrants] slept in their filth, Martin's Press, 1976. sometimes with the policemen on the beat, more often alone, sounding the misery Young, Robert Jr. Roscoe "Fat~v" Arbuckle: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. and the depravity of it to their depth." 3 He lived in the neighborhood that he worked in and quickly recognized that the problems of the tenements, inadequate housing standards and poor ventilation and sanitation, needed to be addressed and remedied. Riis's position as a newspaper editor and his personal views on poverty led to the beginning of his quest to expose the truth about life. Historians have not documented and criticized Riis's photographs extensively. In photography for example, information and evaluations of the images are in short supply. However, there are many critiques of Riis's texts. Inevitably, a histo­ rian's choice of information will be selective, and he or she will have to leave some information out but it does not mean that they exclude it entirely. In this case, the focus is on the photographs in relation to his texts. How did Riis take the photographs though? Did he assume the identity of someone living in the tenements? One idea introduced by Eric Schocket was that of the "class transvestite" where "a number of white middle-class writers, journal-

I Jacob Riis, The Making OfAn American, with an introduction by Theodore Roosevelt (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1925), xi. 2 Ibid., 31. 3 Ibid., 153. $$ I..t ·1'

ists, and social researchers 'dressed down' in order to traverse with their bodies difficult situation or family to photograph, but it certainly helped his case ifwhen what they saw as a growing gulf between the middle class ... and lower classes." 4 they solicited pity and sympathy from the readers who viewed them. Schocket also conceived the notion that the authors used their bodies as a means Despite this idea, Riis's photographs are valuable historical evidence that can to acquire knowledge and they used the experiences to make their experiment or lead to the detection ofhistorical truth. Apparently, Riis was not the most profes­ adventure more authentic. 5 Moreover, once the authors underwent their excursion sional or the best photographer. He explained how his interest in photography into the world of the "other," they made the realization that there is a common came to be. "It was never that [it was a pastime] with me.... I am downright humanity among them all. 6 Riis realized this to some extent and furiously took sorry to confess here that I am no good at all as a photographer, for I would like up the cross of the suffering poor. to be. The thing is a constant marvel to me, and an unending delight." 11 Scholar Discussing the stories of the lives of the people he encountered, Riis wrote: Peter Hales disagreed and he suggested that the texts Riis wrote to complement "[F]or it is as pictures from the life in which they and we, you and 1, are partners, his photographs were part of "rhetorical games with his audience, in order to that 1 wish them to make their appeal to the neighbor who lives but around the intensifY the power of his photos ... [and made] Riis' self-portrayal as the clumsy comer and does not know it." 7 This was one of the causes that Riis championed; amateur photographer ... highly effective ...." 12 Riis continued to say, "I wrote, he wanted the rest ofNew York to know about the people living in the tenements. but it seemed to make no impression," 13 so he turned to photography to convey In 1890, Riis published his first book, How The Other HalfLives: Studies Among his message. He valued his photographs as a means to an end and most of the The Tenements o/New York, with stories of the "other half' 8 which led to a time did not pay attention to subtleties. 14 Dan Gilgoff called him an amateur, per­ career where he wrote about and documented the slums in books, lectures, and haps because he set two buildings on fire and almost blinded himself in another newspaper exposes. His personality inspired him to work towards progress, and incident 15, while others, like James Dougherty and Roger Hall, interpret Riis's he accomplished the building of parks, playgrounds, and eventually, the Jacob A. pictures today as "art." 16 Here again is another dilemma of historical truth - the Riis House. He stressed the need for health codes, clean water, sanitation, social fact that there is room for interpretation. Just as one may see a photograph or legislation, and other community ordinances. Since Riis was an early , block of text as one thing, someone else can see it as another. i he thought what better way to show the upper and middle classes poverty than As a police reporter, Riis had the opportunity to accompany law enforcement with photographs. 9 I and members of the Health Department on raids of the tenements at night. Riis An old saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words," but the question was surprised and content with the results of the switch from night to day: "The with Riis's photographs is, "what do the pictures say about the situation in a thou­ time came at length when I exchanged night work for day work, and I was not sand words?" If his photographs of , Bandit's Roost, and lodging sorry." 17 From this point, Riis gathered a lot of his information on the immigrant rooms could talk, historians today could learn more from them. However, they can groups during the day and proceeded to take pictures at night once the technology not. A historical problem arises because Riis was a historian too. Are his pictures was made available with flashlights. 18 Riis, sometimes accompanied by members unbiased and completely truthful? It is highly unlikely. Riis' purpose or an agenda ofthe police force, made late night expeditions into tenements so that he could was to persuade the middle and upper classes ofNew York that reform was need­ capture photographs of the poor. Recalling the experience of one such raid he ed. We will never see the "photos" that Riis passed up and did not take. He simply said: "In one instance two rooms that should at most have held four or five sleep­ wanted to document the slums and expose people to them: "'I had use for it,' Riis ers were found to contain fifteen, a week-old baby among them. Most of them wrote of the camera, 'and beyond that I never went.' ... What mattered was not were lodgers and slept there for "five cents a spo.t"" 19 Riis illustrated this and aesthetics but what the pictures showed. Riis had a similar use for words and sta­ tistics.... They were merely tools to persuade New Yorkers to witness what was right in front oftheir eyes." 10 It is not that he always chose the "worst" or most 11 Riis, Making American, 172. 12 Bill Hug, "Walking the Ethnic Tightwire: Ethnicity and Dialectic in Jacob Riis' ," Journal of American Culture 20, issue 4 (Winter 1997): [4). 13 Riis, Making American, 173. 4 Eric Schocket, "Undercover Explorations of the 'Other Half,' Or the Writer as Class Transvestite," Representations 64 (fall 1998): 110. 14 Bonnie Yochelson, "The Masked Image: Recapturing the Work of Reformer Jacob Riis," Humanities 19, issue 3 (May/Jun 1998): 17. 5 Ibid. 15 Dan Gilgoff, "Shedding Light On Dark Comers," U.S. News & World Report, 9/7/2001-16/7/2001, 53. 6 Ibid., Ill. 16 James Dougherty and Roger Hall, "Jacob Riis: Citizenship and Art," Canadian Review ofAmerican 7 Jacob Riis, Neighbors: Life Stories Of The Other Half (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1919), v-vi. Studies 22, issue 3 (Winter 1991): [3). 8 James B. Lane, "Jacob A. Riis and Scientific Philanthropy during the ," Social Service 17 Riis, Making American, 157. Review 47, no. I (March 1973): 32. This phrase was coined by his good friend in , Theodore Roosevelt. 18 Ibid., 174 and 176. In those days, flashlights were enclosed in cartridges that were fired from a revolver 9 Ibid. To prevent dwellers from running away, even though many did, Riis substituted a frying pan for a revolver and then proceeded to the light on that. 10 Verlyn Klinkenborg, "Where The Other Half Lived," Mother Jones 26, issue 4 (.lui/Aug 2001): [2]. 19 Ibid., In : \ .$ ; - $ - 1"

ists, and social researchers 'dressed down' in order to traverse with their bodies difficult situation or family to photograph, but it certainly helped his case ifwhen I what they saw as a growing gulf between the middle class ... and lower classes." 4 they solicited pity and sympathy from the readers who viewed them. Schocket also conceived the notion that the authors used their bodies as a means Despite this idea, Riis's photographs are valuable historical evidence that can to acquire knowledge and they used the experiences to make their experiment or lead to the detection of historical truth. Apparently, Riis was not the most profes­ adventure more authentic. 5 Moreover, once the authors underwent their excursion sional or the best photographer. He explained how his interest in photography into the world of the "other," they made the realization that there is a common came to be. "It was never that [it was a pastime] with me.... I am downright humanity among them all. 6 Riis realized this to some extent and furiously took sorry to confess here that I am no good at all as a photographer, for I would like up the cross of the suffering poor. to be. The thing is a constant marvel to me, and an unending delight." 11 Scholar Discussing the stories of the lives of the people he encountered, Riis wrote: Peter Hales disagreed and he suggested that the texts Riis wrote to complement "[F]or it is as pictures from the life in which they and we, you and I, are partners, his photographs were part of "rhetorical games with his audience, in order to that I wish them to make their appeal to the neighbor who lives but around the intensify the power of his photos ... [and made] Riis' self-portrayal as the clumsy comer and does not know it." 7 This was one of the causes that Riis championed; amateur photographer ... highly effective ...." 12 Riis continued to say, "I wrote, he wanted the rest ofNew York to know about the people living in the tenements. but it seemed to make no impression," I3 so he turned to photography to convey In 1890, Riis published his first book, How The Other HalfLives: Studies Among his message. He valued his photographs as a means to an end and most ofthe The Tenements ofNew York, with stories of the "other half' 8 which led to a time did not pay attention to subtleties. 14 Dan Gilgoff called him an amateur, per­ career where he wrote about and documented the slums in books, lectures, and haps because he set two buildings on fire and almost blinded himself in another newspaper exposes. His personality inspired him to work towards progress, and incident 15, while others, like James Dougherty and Roger Hall, interpret Riis's he accomplished the building of parks, playgrounds, and eventually, the Jacob A. pictures today as "art." 16 Here again is another dilemma of historical truth - the Riis House. He stressed the need for health codes, clean water, sanitation, social fact that there is room for interpretation. Just as one may see a photograph or legislation, and other community ordinances. Since Riis was an early muckraker, block oftext as one thing, someone else can see it as another. he thought what better way to show the upper and middle classes poverty than As a police reporter, Riis had the opportunity to accompany law enforcement with photographs. 9 and members of the Health Department on raids of the tenements at night. Riis An old saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words," but the question was surprised and content with the results of the switch from night to day: "The with Riis's photographs is, "what do the pictures say about the situation in a thou­ time came at length when I exchanged night work for day work, and I was not sand words?" If his photographs of Mulberry Bend, Bandit's Roost, and lodging sorry." 17 From this point, Riis gathered a lot of his information on the immigrant rooms could talk, historians today could learn more from them. However, they can groups during the day and proceeded to take pictures at night once the technology not. A historical problem arises because Riis was a historian too. Are his pictures was made available with flashlights. \8 Riis, sometimes accompanied by members unbiased and completely truthful? It is highly unlikely. Riis' purpose or an agenda of the police force, made late night expeditions into tenements so that he could was to persuade the middle and upper classes ofNew York that reform was need­ capture photographs of the poor. Recalling the experience of one such raid he ed. We will never see the "photos" that Riis passed up and did not take. He simply said: "In one instance two rooms that should at most have held four or five sleep­ wanted to document the slums and expose people to them: "'I had use for it,' Riis ers were found to contain fifteen, a week-old baby among them. Most of them wrote ofthe camera, 'and beyond that I never went.' ... What mattered was not were lodgers and slept there for "five cents a spo.t"" 19 Riis illustrated this and aesthetics but what the pictures showed. Riis had a similar use for words and sta­ tistics.... They were merely tools to persuade New Yorkers to witness what was right in front oftheir eyes." 10 It is not that he always chose the "worst" or most II Riis, Making American, 172. 12 Bill Hug, "Walking the Ethnic Tightwire: Ethnicity and Dialectic in Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives," Journal of American Culture 20, issue 4 (Winter 1997): [4]. 13 Riis, Making American, 173. 4 Eric Schocket, "Undercover Explorations of the 'Other Half,' Or the Writer as Class Transvestite," Representations 64 (Fall 1998): 110. 14 Bonnie Yochelson, "The Masked Image: Recapturing the Work of Reformer Jacob Riis," Humanities 19, issue 3 (May/Jun 1998): 17. 5 Ibid. 15 Dan Gilgoff, "Shedding Light On Dark Comers," U.S. News & World Report, 91712001-161712001, 53. 6 Ibid., III. 16 James Dougherty and Roger Hall, "Jacob Riis: Citizenship and Art," Canadian Review of American 7 Jacob Riis, Neighbors: Life Stories Of The Other Half(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1919). v-vi. Studies 22, issue 3 (Winter 1991): [3]. 8 James B. Lane, "Jacob A. Riis and Scientific Philanthropy during the Progressive Era," Social Service 17 Riis, Making American, 157. Review 47, no. I (March 1973): 32. This phrase was coined by his good friend in Tammany Hall, Theodore Roosevelt. 18 Ibid., 174 and 176. In those days, flashlights were enclosed in cartridges that were fired from a revolver. To prevent tenement dwellers from running away, even though many did, Riis substituted a frying pan for 9 Ibid. a revolver and then proceeded to flash the light on that. 10 Verlyn KJinkenborg, "Where The Other Half Lived," Mother Jones 26, issue 4 (.lullAug 200 I): [2]. \9 Ibid.. 177. other experiences in his books. How The Other HalfLives and The Battle With images, but as a virtual reality that transported the New York slum world directly The Slum both contained photographs and illustrations that were the result of his into the lecture hall." 25 In effect, he followed the post-modernists and wrote his­ forays into the alleys of . Riis lived in and mainly worked in tory so that it applied to his argument. Mulberry Street where "The Bend is a mass of wreck, a dumping-ground for all Other critics of Riis do not like the way that he acquired his photographs. manner of filth from the surrounding tenements.... The numerous old cellars are Dougherty and Hall argue that "The photograph is 'taken', not requested, from a a source of danger to the children that swarm over the block. Water stagnating in person whose unpreparedness is a condition of the picture's claim to authencity the holes will shortly add the peril of epidemic disease." 20 It is not surprising that [sic]. And that person is thereby reduced to an object, an 'other' over whom the many of his photographs and stories document the area. photographer has asserted his priority." 26 They would agree that pictures, like David Jacobs, an art professor at the University of Houston, said that "Riis's "Five Cents a Spot," reduce the humans in the image to mere victims. images are so powerful becalise they are so ugly." 21 This is true. Not until The Interpreting his pictures as art allows them to say that this is a "rupture of the Battle OfThe Slum was published were there simple photographs which showed relation between subject and artist." 27 Riis used tactics like these so that readers children playing in Kindergarten, or on roof gardens while receiving some, if not would identify with the people in the pictures, and the prints would trigger "more the best, education. However, most of Riis's pictures where not simple affairs. unsettling feelings - repugnance, fear, anger, [and] an urge to intervene." 28 This They were aimed at conveying the Bend and other alleys as places full of corrup­ was one of Riis's goals; he wanted to upset the everyday life ofa member of the tion and crime, where they lacked sanitation and clean air and water. Verlyn upper or middle class and make them change the way they saw New York City. Klinkenborg said that "Even the grimmest ofRiis's photographs show only a few Despite this, many still admire Riis for his subtle eye. Peter Conrad wrote, people, at most, in the back alleys and basement dives. Powerful as they are, "[0]bjects which to the painter are images are to Riis evidence: an ash barrel on a these pictures fail to convey the simple tonnage of human flesh in those dead-end sidewalk, dingy bedding draped on a fire escape, punctured sacks of refuse in blocks." 22 In "It costs a Dollar a Month to Sleep in these Sheds," Riis exhibited Bottle Alley. These things ... have not been pictorially composed, and their very this criticism. The mother with child is standing in front ofthe sheds in the alley, randomness" makes them worthy photographs and pieces of art. 29 Riis wanted to with three men sitting on her right, but plenty of space is shown in the forefront appeal to the mind and the heart of his readers, instilling a moral response to the of the photograph. The reader wonders how crowded the area is, but it clearly images. James Lane described Riis's philosophy: "Riis's fundamental concern illustrated the inadequate living conditions. was for the individual, the human being's moral, ethical, physical, and intellectu­ "If Riis - or his persona - seems at first glance to be simple, straightforward, al development. He emphasized the overwhelming effect that an individual's even ingenuous," Bill Hug contends that "his stance becomes, upon closer inves­ [poor] surroundings had in forming his personality and values." 30 Appealing to tigation, ambiguous contradictory, [and] ultimately dialectical." 23 Even though , readers' hearts, Riis's personal values could have conflicted with the history he Riis's pictures served to document the foul conditions of the slums and were wrote, and therefore, his writings present his biases, which is inconsistent with praised at the time of their publication, today many historians and writers criticize the goals of historical truth. "Viewers trained to aestheticize and sentimentalize the work he did. Some charged that he manipulated his pictures by having the the poor were inveigled into Riis's pictures by the touching figures of mothers, poor pose for him. In an article in USA Today, Leslie Nolan wrote: "In some of children and families, or accosted by the stare of young toughs," said Dougherty his photographs, for example, young boys huddle over a ventilation grate as and Hall. Viewers also found "litter, paraphernalia, activity, and human presence" though it is their only refuge against the cold. A few can be seen smiling slyly at in every photograph. 31 When Riis appealed to a person's mind with inadequate the camera, knowing that the picture is posed." 24 If the alleged pictures were living conditions, a heart-felt response was also invoked out of pity for the sub­ posed, how historically accurate are they? The atrocious circumstances did exist, ject of the picture. His pictures "defeated the mechanism by which viewers could but in some cases, Riis may have exaggerated the image in the photograph to pro­ keep these human beings at any comfortable distance" and, because of his work, duce the support that he needed for his cause. Nolan continued to describe Riis's "reforms followed: slum clearance, building codes, sanitary requirements." 32 The lectures: "local newspapers reported that his viewers moaned, shuddered, fainted, and even talked to the photographs he projected, reacting to the slides not as

25 Ibid. 26 Dougherry and Hall, Jacob Riis, [3]. 20 Ibid., 181. 27 Ibid. 21 Gilgoff, Shedding Light, 53. 28 Ibid., [5]. 22 K1inkenborg, Where Other Half, [3]. 29 Ibid. 23 Hug, "Ethnic Tightwire," [8]. 30 Lane, "Jacob A. Riis," 39. 24 Leslie Nolan, "The Impoverished: A Century Apart In Pictures," USA Today Magazine 124, issue 2602 31 Dougherry and Hall, Jacob Riis, [6]. (July 1995), 85. 32 Ibid.

.~,...... _. ~ other experiences in his books. How The Other HalfLives and The Battle With images, but as a virtual reality that transported the New York slum world directly The Slum both contained photographs and illustrations that were the result of his into the lecture hall." 25 In effect, he fol1owed the post-modernists and wrote his­ forays into the al1eys of New York City. Riis lived in and mainly worked in tory so that it applied to his argument. Mulberry Street where "The Bend is a mass of wreck, a dumping-ground for al1 Other critics of Riis do not like the way that he acquired his photographs. manner of filth from the surrounding tenements.... The numerous old cel1ars are Dougherty and Hal1 argue that "The photograph is 'taken', not requested, from a a source of danger to the children that swarm over the block. Water stagnating in person whose unpreparedness is a condition of the picture's claim to authencity the holes wil1 shortly add the peril of epidemic disease." 20 It is not surprising that [sic]. And that person is thereby reduced to an object, an 'other' over whom the many of his photographs and stories document the area. photographer has asserted his priority." 26 They would agree that pictures, like David Jacobs, an art professor at the University of Houston, said that "Riis's "Five Cents a Spot," reduce the humans in the image to mere victims. images are so powerful becalise they are so ugly." 21 This is true. Not until The Interpreting his pictures as art al10ws them to say that this is a "rupture of the Battle OfThe Slum was published were there simple photographs which showed relation between subject and artist." 27 Riis used tactics like these so that readers children playing in Kindergarten, or on roof gardens while receiving some, if not would identifY with the people in the pictures, and the prints would trigger "more the best, education. However, most of Riis 's pictures where not simple affairs. unsettling feelings - repugnance, fear, anger, [and] an urge to intervene." 28 This They were aimed at conveying the Bend and other alleys as places ful1 of corrup­ was one of Riis's goals; he wanted to upset the everyday life of a member of the tion and crime, where they lacked sanitation and clean air and water. Verlyn upper or middle class and make them change the way they saw New York City. Klinkenborg said that "Even the grimmest ofRiis's photographs show only a few Despite this, many still admire Riis for his subtle eye. Peter Conrad wrote, people, at most, in the back al1eys and basement dives. Powerful as they are, "[0]bjects which to the painter are images are to Riis evidence: an ash barrel on a these pictures fail to convey the simple tonnage of human flesh in those dead-end sidewalk, dingy bedding draped on a fire escape, punctured sacks of refuse in blocks." 22 In "It costs a Dol1ar a Month to Sleep in these Sheds," Riis exhibited Bottle Al1ey. These things ... have not been pictorial1y composed, and their very this criticism. The mother with child is standing in front of the sheds in the alley, randomness" makes them worthy photographs and pieces of art. 29 Riis wanted to with three men sitting on her right, but plenty of space is shown in the forefront appeal to the mind and the heart of his readers, instil1ing a moral response to the of the photograph. The reader wonders how crowded the area is, but it clearly images. James Lane described Riis's philosophy: "Riis's fundamental concern il1ustrated the inadequate living conditions. was for the individual, the human being's moral, ethical, physical, and intellectu­ "If Riis - or his persona - seems at first glance to be simple, straightforward, al development. He emphasized the overwhelming effect that an individual's even ingenuous," Bill Hug contends that "his stance becomes, upon closer inves­ [poor] surroundings had in forming his personality and values." 30 Appealing to tigation, ambiguous contradictory, [and] ultimately dialectical." 23 Even though readers' hearts, Riis's personal values could have conflicted with the history he Riis's pictures served to document the foul conditions of the slums and were wrote, and therefore, his writings present his biases, which is inconsistent with praised at the time of their publication, today many historians and writers criticize the goals of historical truth. "Viewers trained to aestheticize and sentimentalize the work he did. Some charged that he manipulated his pictures by having the the poor were inveigled into Riis's pictures by the touching figures of mothers, poor pose for him. In an article in USA Today, Leslie Nolan wrote: "In some of children and families, or accosted by the stare of young toughs," said Dougherty his photographs, for example, young boys huddle over a ventilation grate as and Hall. Viewers also found "litter, paraphernalia, activity, and human presence" though it is their only refuge against the cold. A few can be seen smiling slyly at in every photograph. 31 When Riis appealed to a person's mind with inadequate the camera, knowing that the picture is posed." 24 If the al1eged pictures were living conditions, a heart-felt response was also invoked out of pity for the sub­ posed, how historical1y accurate are they? The atrocious circumstances did exist, ject of the picture. His pictures "defeated the mechanism by which viewers could but in some cases, Riis may have exaggerated the image in the photograph to pro­ keep these human beings at any comfortable distance" and, because of his work, duce the support that he needed for his cause. Nolan continued to describe Riis's "reforms fol1owed: slum clearance, building codes, sanitary requirements." 32 The lectures: "local newspapers reported that his viewers moaned, shuddered, fainted, and even talked to the photographs he projected, reacting to the slides not as

25 Ibid. 26 Dougherty and Hall, Jacob Riis, [3]. 20 Ibid., 181. 27 Ibid. 21 Gilgotf, Shedding Light, 53. 28 Ibid., [5). 22 Klinkenborg, Where Other Halt; [3). 29 Ibid. 23 Hug, "Ethnic Tightwire," [8]. 30 Lane, "Jacob A. Riis," 39. 24 Leslie Nolan, "The Impoverished: A Century Apart In Pictures," USA Today Magazine 124, issue 2602 31 Dougherty and Hall, Jacob Riis, [6]. (July 1995),85. 32 Ibid.

I _..•~...... ~' ~ !"""""""

viewers' moral certainties are called in question with the discomfort and appre­ take some photographs to show how each immigrant group lived in their own ten­

~ hension they feel while looking at the photographs. Therefore, Riis can either be ement community. In all, praised for his avid work as a social reformer or criticized for the methods he fol­ Riis's photographs, effacing physical depth lowed and used to achieve success. while encouraging his viewers to recognize Riis effectively used his pictures as evidence, but many historians criticize the complexity of their own relationship to him for the way that he wrote about, not so much the photographs, but the immi­ poverty, found a way to compel his viewers grants in them. Today he has been called ethnocentric and racially prejudiced. Is out ofthe comfort of their presumed other­ this because the times have changed, or do his writings really reflect this charge? ness and to set them in the presence of the To clarify this point, one must take into consideration that at the time he was writ­ victimized: 'This is how our fellow citizens ing, the late l870s to the 1900s, racial stereotypes and ethnic language were not live .... This is how we live." 36 part of a society that understood the values of diversity. In regard to the ethnicity of the people that Riis was documenting, he seemed When Riis was asked to write more books and to remain on staff at newspa­ to accept ethnic stereotypes as true and then used the stereotypes to write about pers, he replied in his autobiography, "I shall do neither, for the good reason that I immigrants and their cultures, assuming that all Italians, Blacks, Jews, Irish, and am neither poet, philosopher, nor, I was going to say, philanthropist; but leave me other groups were the same. One example is Riis's photograph "In the home of an that. I would love my fellow-man. For the rest I am a reporter of facts. And that I Italian Rag-picker." He captured "a picture that [was a] ... reminiscence of would remain." 37 In effect, he aimed for the same goal that most historians have, Renaissance paintings of the Virgin and child." 33 Bill Hug recognized that Riis to stick to the facts and keep the biases and prejudices of being a human being accompanied the photograph "with his blatantly condescending comment on out of the way of writing history. Riis, however, fell short of this goal and his nar­ Italian immigrant character." Riis said, "the Italian is gay, lighthearted and, ifhis row-mindedness appeared in his writings. Unfortunately, writing history based on fur is not stroked the wrong way, inoffensive as a child?" 34. Riis used an Italian the facts, without personal biases, is a difficult task to accomplish but neverthe­ stereotype, and the photograph accentuates the dignity of the person but degrades less, a superb goal to strive for. the woman with the animal reference. 35 How The Other HalfLives has numerous *Due to copyright laws, we could not publish any ofJacob Riis' Photographs which were originally part references to racial and ethnic stereotypes, and Riis seemed ignorant of them, but of Lauren's Paper. Please visit The Photographs of Jacob Riis, Masters of Photography: hltp://www.mas­ used the stereotypes regardless. The text in his books contradicts any objective­ ters-of-photography.comlR/riis/riis.html, for pictorial examples ofRiis' work. ness that he had as a reporter, photographer, and activist. In addition to the Italians, Riis wrote in the same manner about Blacks and other immigrant groups. With this bit of evidence, it is recognizable that Riis had biases which appeared in his writings, whether he was aware of them or not.. No one knows if he was conscious of the stereotypes that he developed in his texts, but it does prove how historians are challenged to present the truth based on facts. Historians strive to leave their own interpretations and biases out of the history they produce, but in Riis's case stereotypes and prejudices found their way into his writings. In relation to historical truth, the photographs do transmit a sense.ofurgency I'll to remedy the situations of people living in the tenements as well as accurately document the savage living conditions of immigrants in New York City. They vividly document the conditions. Riis's texts do include racially prejudiced lan­ guage towards other ethnicities, for example the case of the Italian rag-picker, but the true strength of his prejudices remains speculation. On the other hand, he did

33 Hug, "Ethnic Tightwire," [2]. 34 Ibid. 36 Dougherty and Hall, Jacob Riis, [7]. 35 Ibid. 37 Riis, Making American, 273 .

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viewers' moral certainties are called in question with the discomfort and appre­ take some photographs to show how each immigrant group lived in their own ten­ ;h hension they feel while looking at the photographs. Therefore, Riis can either be ement community. In all, praised for his avid work as a social reformer or criticized for the methods he fol­ Riis's photographs, effacing physical depth lowed and used to achieve success. while encouraging his viewers to recognize Riis effectively used his pictures as evidence, but many historians criticize the complexity of their own relationship to him for the way that he wrote about, not so much the photographs, but the immi­ poverty, found a way to compel his viewers grants in them. Today he has been called ethnocentric and racially prejudiced. Is out of the comfort of their presumed other­ this because the times have changed, or do his writings really reflect this charge? ness and to set them in the presence of the To clarify this point, one must take into consideration that at the time he was writ­ victimized: "This is how our fellow citizens ing, the late l870s to the 1900s, racial stereotypes and ethnic language were not live .... This is how we live." 36 part of a society that understood the values of diversity. In regard to the ethnicity of the people that Riis was documenting, he seemed When Riis was asked to write more books and to remain on staff at newspa­ to accept ethnic stereotypes as true and then used the stereotypes to write about pers, he replied in his autobiography, "I shall do neither, for the good reason that I immigrants and their cultures, assuming that all Italians, Blacks, Jews, Irish, and am neither poet, philosopher, nor, I was going to say, philanthropist; but leave me other groups were the same. One example is Riis's photograph "In the home of an that. I would love my fellow-man. For the rest I am a reporter of facts. And that I Italian Rag-picker." He captured "a picture that [was a] ... reminiscence of would remain." 37 In effect, he aimed for the same goal that most historians have, Renaissance paintings of the Virgin and child." 33 Bill Hug recognized that Riis to stick to the facts and keep the biases and prejudices of being a human being accompanied the photograph "with his blatantly condescending comment on out of the way of writing history. Riis, however, fell short of this goal and his nar­ , row-mindedness appeared in his writings. Unfortunately, writing history based on I Italian immigrant character." Riis said, "the Italian is gay, lighthearted and, ifhis fur is not stroked the wrong way, inoffensive as a child?" 34. Riis used an Italian the facts, without personal biases, is a difficult task to accomplish but neverthe­ stereotype, and the photograph accentuates the dignity of the person but degrades less, a superb goal to strive for. the woman with the animal reference. 35 How The Other HalfLives has numerous *Due to copyright laws, we could not publish any of Jacob Riis' Photographs which were originally part references to racial and ethnic stereotypes, and Riis seemed ignorant of them, but of Lauren's Paper. Please visit The Photographs of Jacob Riis, Masters of Photography: http://www.mas­ used the stereotypes regardless. The text in his books contradicts any objective­ ters-of-photography.comlR/riis/riis.html, for pictorial examples of Riis' work. ness that he had as a reporter, photographer, and activist. In addition to the Italians, Riis wrote in the same manner about Blacks and other immigrant groups. With this bit of evidence, it is recognizable that Riis had biases which appeared in his writings, whether he was aware of them or not.. No one knows if he was conscious of the stereotypes that he developed in his texts, but it does prove how historians are challenged to present the truth based on facts. Historians strive to leave their own interpretations and biases out of the history they produce, but in Riis's case stereotypes and prejudices found their way into his writings. In relation to historical truth, the photographs do transmit a sense.ofurgency to remedy the situations of people living in the tenements as well as accurately document the savage living conditions of immigrants in New York City. They vividly document the conditions. Riis's texts do include racially prejudiced lan­ guage towards other ethnicities, for example the case of the Italian rag-picker, but the true strength of his prejudices remains speculation. On the other hand, he did

33 Hug, "Ethnic Tightwire," [2]. 34 Ibid. 36 Dougherty and Hall, Jacob Riis, [7]. 35 Ibid. 37 Riis, Making American, 273.

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Bibliography Conservative Christianity. the Military. ~ Primary Sources and American War Culture Riis, Jacob A. How the Other HalfLil'es. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903. By Anna Deters ____. Neighbors, Life Stories a/the Other Half New York: The Macmillan Company, 1919. ____. The Battle With the Slum. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1998. In March 2003, the foreign minister of Belgium, Louis Michel, expressed a ____. The Making a/An American. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1925. concem that Christian fundamentalism was an increasingly influential force in ____. The Photographs of Jacob Riis. Masters of Photography. http://www.masters-of- Washington, D.C. In early April, German President Johannes Rau reacted with dis­ photography.comlR!riis/riis.html ____. The Photographs of Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis Gallery: Boise State University by Dan Huff. pleasure to press reports that George W, Bush, an evangelical Protestant, believed http://www.boisestate.edulsocworkldhufflhistory/gallery/Gallery-JRlwelcome-R.htm that "Operation Iraqi Freedom" was willed by God and that the overthrow ofIraqi ____. The Photographs of Jacob Riis. University of Virginia by Kay Davis, President Saddam Hussein was part of a divine plan, I Invoking guidance from "the 2000.hlip://xroads.virginia.edul-MAO IIDavis/photographyIhomelriis4.html loving God behind all oflife and all of history" and notifying Americans that "we Secondary Sources are in a conflict between good and evil," Bush was not original in his reasoning or Dougherty, James, and Roger Hall. "Jacob Riis: Citizenship and Art." Canadian Review ofAmerican his rhetoric.2 Rather, his sense of holy military might and divine justification was Studies 22, issue 3 (Winter 1991): [1-9]. merely a perpetuation of Christian fundamentalism and its cultural influence on the Gilgoff, Dan. "Shedding Light On Dark Comers." u.s. News & World Report, 91712001-16/7/2001, 53. armed forces and the history of war in America, Hug, Bill. "Walking the Ethnic Tightwire: Ethnicity and Dialectic in Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Even before Christian fundamentalism became known under that term, it was ,1 Lives." Journal ofAmerican Culture 20, issue 4 (Winter 1997), [1-10]. 111'li ; I': Kizis, Sarah. "One Writer Who Made A Difference." Writing 22, no. 6 (2000): 21. insinuating a relationship with the United States military, The espousal of the two I: I th Il,il Klinkenborg, Verlyn. "Where The Other Half Lived." Mother Jones 26, issue 4 (Jul/Aug 2001): [1-7]. took place in the 19 century, when both institutions established their roots, While Lane, James B. "Jacob A. Riis and Scientific Philanthropy during the Progressive Era." Social Service the armed forces cultivated their traditions in an era of Protestant fervor, the Civil III I! Review 47, no. I (March 1973): 32-48. War provided the perfect conditions for revivalists, As Margaret Bendroth wrote, 1'1 Nolan, Leslie. "The Impoverished: A Century Apart In Pictures." USA Today Maga=ine 124, issue "Young Men's Christian Associations and the United States Christian Commission :1 2602 (July 1995), 78-87. brought evangelical Christianity to the battlefields and launched not a few Schocket, Eric. "Undercover Explorations of the "Other Half," Or the Writer as Class Transvestite. " Representations 64 (Fall 1998): 109-133. careers,,,3 Composed during this period and emblematic of the combination of con­ Yochelson, Bonnie. "The Masked Image: Recapturing the Work of Reformer Jacob Riis." Humanities servative Christianity and military-mindedness was the "Battle Hymn of the 19, issue 3 (May/Jun 1998): 16-21. Republic." The striking lyric, "As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free," resounds as a popular motif throughout American history, No less, the imagery of "His terrible swift sword," "circling camps," and God "marching on" unites the Protestant God with the United States military in a time of war, What further entwined Christian fundamentalism and the United States mili­ tary was an interesting social/religious phenomenon known as the Men and Religion Forward Movement of 1911 and 1912, The movement promoted "Muscular Christianity," the idea that the religion is "essentially masculine, mili­ tant," and "warlike," as Fred B. Smith, an advocate of the movement, described it in 1913.4 Men wanted to regain the moral and religious territory they had lost to women during the 19th century, and to do so, they had to "extend the influence of a manly, vigorous Christianity throughout society."5 The organized movement slowed and was forgotten by mainstream America soon after the number of men involved in the church was at a respectable level, but the ideologies pressed in the 1910s germinated in Christian fundamentalism and have since thrived. "The masculine qualities ofcompetitiveness and aggressiveness, . , play prominent roles in fundamentalist life," wrote one scholar.6 The most famous pro­ ponent-almost to the point of personification---of these qualities was Billy Sunday, the professional baseball player-tumed-evangelist. Sunday preached that Christians should be "militant as well as persuasive" and "fight as well as pray."7 Sunday displayed the fundamentalists' penchant for military me,taphors. His ser­