HIST 1302

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HistoricalChallengeJacobRiisandTenements.ppt

Jacob Riis’s Photographs

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Immigration & Urbanization (1880-1920)

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New York City in 1902

Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97501086/

Information from the Library of Congress

Title: Landing at Ellis Island

Date Created/Published: [1902]

Medium: 1 photomechanical print : halftone.

Summary: Emigrants coming up the board-walk from the barge, which has taken them off the steamship company's docks, and transported them to Ellis Island. The big building in the background is the new hospital just opened. The ferry-boat seen in the middle of the picture, runs from New York to Ellis Island.

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Immigration & Urbanization (1880-1920)

Immigration patterns to the United States changed significantly in the late 19th century. Until the 1880s, a majority of immigrants to the United States came from Northern and Western Europe and were Protestant Christians. (The main exception was a large influx Irish Catholic immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s.) This changed in the early 1880s, with large numbers of Catholic and Jewish immigrants arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe. The settlement patterns of immigrants also shifted in the 1880s, with recent arrivals more likely to settle in the cities of the Northeast and Midwest than earlier generations of immigrants, who were more likely to settle in rural areas.

The settlement pattern of immigrants was part of a larger trend of urbanization in the United States. Not only were new immigrants settling in urban areas, Americans from rural areas were also increasingly moving to cities in search of economic opportunities, and in some cases, an escape from the boredom and isolation of rural life. The influx of people caused the size of American cities to grow rapidly in the late 19th century, and high demand for housing meant that there were few good options for new arrivals.

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Tenements

Tenements in New York City around 1900

Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/pictures/item/det1994001492/PP/

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Tenements

Many poor immigrants (and migrants from the country) settled in tenements, which were small rental units that often consisting of only one room. Life in the tenements varied from city to city (and from building to building), but the conditions were often unsanitary and overcrowded. The tenements of New York City were especially infamous for their terrible living conditions. Single rooms were commonly occupied by multiple families (or as many as a dozen single occupants) and did not have private bathrooms. Many units also lacked running water and electricity, and some lacked windows for ventilation or natural light.

These living conditions had serious consequences for residents. Tenement dwellers in New York suffered from much higher rates of infectious diseases, infant mortality, and crime than those living in less densely populated and impoverished areas of the city.

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Jacob Riis

Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.40755/

Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952), photographer. Jacob August Riis, ca. 1895. Toned gelatin silver photograph. Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (046.00.00)

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Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1870, when he was 20 years old. He arrived in New York City nearly penniless and worked a variety of odd jobs before entering the newspaper business. In 1877, Riis took a job as a police reporter for the New York Tribune. As part of his job, Riis would often accompany the police to some of New York City’s most impoverished and crime-ridden neighborhoods, which gave him a first-hand look at the living conditions in the tenements. His experiences convinced him that something needed to be done to improve the living conditions of the poor, and he became a housing reformer in New York City, supporting efforts to change the city’s housing laws and policies.

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Riis & Flash Photography

Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/riis-and-reform.html#obj027

Jacob Riis. Bohemian Cigar Makers at Work, 1889–1890. Modern gelatin printing out paper. Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Roger William Riis (90.13.4.149) (027.00.00)

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Riis & Flash Photography

In 1887, Riis learned that German inventors had created a new type of “flashlight powder,” which could be used to photograph dark spaces. The flash powder—a combination of magnesium and potassium chlorate—was ignited with a spark, sending a cloud of fire and sparks into the air that would illuminate a space long enough for a photograph to be taken. Riis saw the potential of this innovation for photographing the windowless interiors of the tenements and the dark alleyways that surrounded them. Over the next decade, Riis used this new flash technology and a small “detective camera” to take hundreds of photographs of New York’s poorest neighborhoods and those who lived in them. Some of Riis’s photographs were posed, with the participants sitting for portraits. Others were candid, with his subjects unaware that they were being photographed. Riis would sometimes enter tenements and surprise tenants with a blinding flash, fleeing before they knew what had happened.

This photograph shows a family of Eastern European immigrants in their one-room tenement. The room served as both their home and work place. Riis reported that members of this family worked 17 hours a day, seven days a week making cigars in the room, and that the cramped space reeked of toxic fumes. (Notice the flash from Riis’s flashlight powder in the window on the left.)

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Riis & Advocacy for the Poor

Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/riis-and-reform.html#obj018

Jacob Riis, Richard Hoe Lawrence, and Henry G. Piffard, photographers. Bandits’ Roost, 1887–1888. Modern gelatin printing out paper. Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Roger William Riis (90.13.4.104 & .105) (018.00.00)

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Riis & Advocacy for the Poor

Riis hoped to use his photographs to convince others to support housing reform. In 1888, he created a slideshow lecture called The Other Half: How it Lives and Dies in New York. The presentation included about one hundred images on glass slides that he showed with a “magic lantern,” an early type of projector. Riis narrated the slides as he displayed them, and he was an excellent story teller, blending humor, sympathy, and hard data about the effects of poverty in New York. His presentation received rave reviews, and his lecture was soon in high demand. In the coming years, Riis would travel for months at a time delivering the lecture across the country, charging around $150 per lecture.

Much of the popularity of Riis’s lecture stemmed from the power of the images that he selected. Riis chose photos that were compelling and troubling to his middle class audiences, few of whom had seen urban poverty up close. The photograph shown here—which Riis titled “Bandit’s Roost”—shows an alley between tenement buildings in Mulberry Bend, one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. On the left is a young mother with her children. On the right is a group of “toughs” staring warily at the camera. Riis likely knew that this image would have played to his audiences’ concerns about children living in poverty and stoked their fears of crime and violence in poor immigrant neighborhoods.

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How the Other Half Lives

Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/images/jr0063_enlarge.jpg

Jacob Riis. How the Other Half Lives, Studies Among the Tenements of New York. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (063.00.00) 

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How the Other Half Lives

In 1889, an editor from Scribner’s attended Riis’s lecture and offered him $150 to write an article for the widely-read magazine. The article eventually led to a book deal in 1890 for How the Other Half Lives. In this influential book, Riis described the squalid conditions in the tenements and the lifestyles of poor immigrants who lived in New York’s poorest slums. Riis also argued that the problems of the poor were caused by bad housing conditions, not heredity, and that the worst effects of urban poverty could be alleviated by better housing and good government policies.

How the Other Half Lives was widely read and helped spawn the Progressive Era movement for more effective urban government and better housing for the poor. Even more broadly, Riis’s groundbreaking work served as an inspiration for generations of progressive photographers and journalists who have sought to promote change and advocate for the poor.

Central Historical Question

What were conditions like in New York City tenements in the late 19th century?

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Central Historical Question. For this activity you are going to analyze three photographs and one passage by Jacob Riis that portray poor immigrants living in New York City from 1887-1892. Think of the following question as you review each image and read the passage. What were conditions like in New York City tenements in the late 19th century?

Next, open the Historical Challenge Assignment document and respond to each of the questions. Submit using the assignment upload link. Message Mrs. Litz with any questions prior to submitting.

Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97501086/

Information from the Library of Congress

Title: Landing at Ellis Island

Date Created/Published: [1902]

Medium: 1 photomechanical print : halftone.

Summary: Emigrants coming up the board-walk from the barge, which has taken them off the steamship company's docks, and transported them to Ellis Island. The big building in the background is the new hospital just opened. The ferry-boat seen in the middle of the picture, runs from New York to Ellis Island.

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Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/pictures/item/det1994001492/PP/

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Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.40755/

Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952), photographer. Jacob August Riis, ca. 1895. Toned gelatin silver photograph. Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (046.00.00)

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Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/riis-and-reform.html#obj027

Jacob Riis. Bohemian Cigar Makers at Work, 1889–1890. Modern gelatin printing out paper. Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Roger William Riis (90.13.4.149) (027.00.00)

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Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/riis-and-reform.html#obj018

Jacob Riis, Richard Hoe Lawrence, and Henry G. Piffard, photographers. Bandits’ Roost, 1887–1888. Modern gelatin printing out paper. Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Roger William Riis (90.13.4.104 & .105) (018.00.00)

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Image retrieved from the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/images/jr0063_enlarge.jpg

Jacob Riis. How the Other Half Lives, Studies Among the Tenements of New York. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (063.00.00) 

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