Jacob Riis in 1906

Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 - May 26, 1914), a Danish-American muckraker journalist, photographer, and social reformer, was born in Ribe, Denmark. He is known for his dedication to using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the less fortunate in New York City, which was the subject of most of his prolific writings and photographic essays. As one of the first photographers to use flash, he is considered a pioneer in photography.^[1] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1018x1416, 266 KB) Jacob Riis. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1018x1416, 266 KB) Jacob Riis. ... is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1849 (MDCCCXLIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 146th day of the year (147th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Bold text McClures Magazine (cover, Jan, 1901) published many early muckraker articles. ... For other uses, see Journalist (disambiguation). ... A photographer at the Calgary Folk Music Festival Paparazzi at the Tribeca Film Festival A photographer is a person who takes a photograph using a camera. ... Ribe (German: Ripen) is the name of the oldest town of Denmark. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Running water frozen by flash. ... Photography [fәtɑgrәfi:],[foʊtɑgrәfi:] is the process of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a film or electronic sensor. ...

Early life

Jacob Riis was the first of fourteen children born to Niels Riis, schoolteacher and editor of the local Ribe newspaper, and Carolina Riis, a homemaker.^[2] Riis was influenced both by his stern father, whose school Riis took delight in disrupting, and by the authors he read, among whom Charles Dickens and James Fenimore Cooper were his favorites. At age eleven, Riis's younger brother drowned. Riis would be haunted for the rest of his life by the images of his drowning brother and of his mother staring at his brother's empty chair at the dinner table. ^[2] At twelve, Riis amazed all who knew him when he donated all the money he received for Christmas to a poor Ribe family, at a time when money was scarce for anyone.^[3] When Riis was sixteen, he fell in love with Elisabeth Gortz. To his dismay, Riis was forced to seek work in Copenhagen as a carpenter without her.^[2] “Dickens” redirects here. ... Cooper portrait by John Wesley Jarvis, 1822 James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ... Carpenter at work in Tennessee, June 1942. ...

Immigration to the United States

Riis went to the United States by steamer in 1870, when he was 21, seeking employment as a carpenter. He arrived during an era of social turmoil. Large groups of migrants and immigrants flooded urban areas in the years following the Civil War seeking prosperity in a more industrialized environment. Twenty-four million people moved to urban centers, causing a population increase of over 700%.^[1] 1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total...

The demographics of American urban centers grew significantly more heterogeneous as immigrant groups arrived in waves, creating ethnic enclaves often more populous than even the largest cities in the homelands.^[1] Riis found himself just another poor immigrant in New York. His only companion was a stray dog he met shortly after his arrival. The dog brought him inspiration and when a police officer mercilessly beat it to death, Riis was devastated. One of his personal victories, he later confessed, was not using his eventual fame to ruin the career of the offending officer.^[2] Riis spent most of his nights in police-run poor houses, whose conditions were so ghastly that Riis dedicated himself to having them shut down.he onced lived on a farm where he killed 5 people because they smelled really bad.. to bad he didn't get any in the barn like he was hopeing to.^[4]

Journalism career

Bandit's Roost by Jacob Riis, 1888, from How the Other Half Lives. This image is Bandit's Roost at 59½ Mulberry Street, considered the most crime-ridden, dangerous part of New York City.

Riis held various jobs before he accepted a position as a police reporter in 1874 with the New York Evening Sun newspaper. In 1874, he joined the news bureau of the Brooklyn News. In 1877 he served as police reporter, this time for the New York Tribune. During these stints as a police reporter, Riis worked the most crime-ridden and impoverished slums of the city. Sometime he also stole from the rich just so he can feed himself.^[2] Through his own experiences in the poor houses, and witnessing the conditions of the poor in the city slums, he decided to make a difference for those who had no voice.^[1] He was one of the first Americans to use flash powder, allowing his documentation of New York City slums to penetrate the dark of night, and helping him capture the hardships faced by the poor and criminal along his police beats, especially on the notorious Mulberry Street. In 1889, Scribner's Magazine published Riis's photographic essay on city life, which Riis later expanded to create his magnum opus How the Other Half Lives.^[4] This work was directly responsible for convincing then-Commissioner of Police Theodore Roosevelt to close the police-run poor houses in which Riis suffered during his first months as an American. After reading it, Roosevelt was so deeply moved by Riis's sense of justice that he met Riis and befriended him for life, calling him "the best American I ever knew."^[4] Roosevelt himself coined the term "muckraking journalism", of which Riis is a recognized example, in 1906.^[2] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For the toll-free telephone number see Toll-free telephone number Year 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant reporter, published in 1890, in which he documented the squalid living conditions in the slums of New York City. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The original New York Sun began publication September 3, 1833, as a morning newspaper, and an evening edition began in 1887. ... Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The New York Tribune building - today the site of Pace Universitys building complex of One Pace Plaza in New York City The New York Tribune was established by Horace Greeley in 1841 and was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States. ... Flash powder is a mixture of oxidizer and metallic fuel which burns quickly and if confined will produce a loud report. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Canal and Mulberry, where Chinatown meets Little Italy. ... Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Scribners Magazine is a magazine. ... Magnum opus (sometimes Opus magnum, plural magna opera), from the Latin meaning great work,[1] refers to the best, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer, and most commonly one who has contributed a very large amount of material. ... How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant reporter, published in 1890, in which he documented the squalid living conditions in the slums of New York City. ... Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. ... Bold text McClures Magazine (cover, Jan, 1901) published many early muckraker articles. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Marriages and later life

At age 25, Riis wrote to Elisabeth Gortz to propose a second time. This time Gortz accepted, and joined Riis in New York City, saying "We will strive together for all that is noble and good".^[5] Indeed, Gortz did support Riis in his work, and he spent the next 25 years using his artistic medium to advance the concerns of the poor. During this time, Riis wrote another twelve works, including his autobiography The Making of an American in 1901.^[4] In 1905, his wife grew ill and died. In 1907, Riis remarried, and with his new wife Mary Phillips, moved to a farm in Barre, Massachusetts. Riis's children came from this marriage, but Riis died on May 26, 1914, at his Massachusetts farm. His second wife would live until 1967, continuing work on the farm, working on Wall Street and teaching classes at Columbia University.^[6] New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see 1905 (disambiguation). ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Barre is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. ... is the 146th day of the year (147th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... Elaborate marble facade of NYSE as seen from the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ... Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ...

Criticism

Contemporary critics have noted that, despite Riis's sense of populist justice, he had a deprecating attitude towards women and people of certain ethnic and racial groups.^[1] 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 "Elisabeth Tells Her Story", Riis decided his wife had had enough of the stage: "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 woman to allow her to say too much."^[7]
Look up Populism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Furthermore, Riis's writings revealed his prejudices against many ethnic groups, cataloguing stereotypes of those with whom he had less in common ethnically. Riis’ middle class and Protestant backgrounds weighed heavily in his presentation of How the Other Half Lives. Both instilled a strong capitalist idealism; while he pitied certain poor examined as worthy, many others he viewed with contempt. According to Riis, certain races were doomed to failure, as certain lifestyles caused families’ hardships.^[1] An example of Riis's ubiquitous ethnic stereotyping is seen in his analysis of how various immigrant groups master the English language: "Unlike the German, who begins learning English the day he lands as a matter of duty, or the Polish Jew, who takes it up as soon as he is able as an investment, the Italian learns slowly, if at all."^[8] Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Works

• How The Other Half Lives (1891)
• The Children of the Poor (1892; new edition, 1902)
• Out of Mulberry street (1896), a collection of fiction
• A Ten Years' War (1900)
• The Making of an American (1901; new edition, 1913), his autobiography
• The Battle with the Slum (1902)
• Children of the Tenements (1902)
• The Peril and the Preservation of the Home (1903)
• Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen (1904)
• The Old Town (his birthplace) (1909)
• Hero Tales of the Far North (1910)
• Neighbors: Life Stories of the Other Half (1914)

Memorials

• Jacob Riis Park, located on Rockaway Peninsula in the Gateway National Recreation Area, Queens, is named after Riis.

• Jacob Riis Triangle, located in Richmond Hill, Queens, is named after Riis.

• PS 126M The Jacob August Riis School, a New York City public school in Manhattan's Lower East Side serving kindergarten through grade 8, is named after Riis.

• Jacob Riis Settlement House, a multi-service community based organization, is located in the Queensbridge Houses, in Long Island City, Queens, NY. www.riissettlement.org

Jacob Riis Park is part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area in the New York City borough of Queens. ... Rockaway is the name of a peninsula of Long Island, most of which is located within the borough of Queens in New York City; the peninsulas easternmost section forms the town of East Rockaway, in suburban Nassau County. ... Gateway National Recreation Area is a 26,607 acre (105 km²) recreation area owned by the United States government in the New York City metropolitan area. ... For other uses, see Queens (disambiguation) and Queen. ... Liberty Avenue intersecting with Lefferts Boulevard in Richmond Hill, Queens NY. 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... For other uses, see Queens (disambiguation) and Queen. ...

References

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant reporter, published in 1890, in which he documented the squalid living conditions in the slums of New York City. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Jacob Riis

• Jacob Riis page from the Open Collections Program at Harvard University. Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 collection. Includes links to fully digitized copies of 10 of his books.
• How the Other Half Lives (complete online edition)
• Works by Jacob Riis at Project Gutenberg