Jacob A. Riis – 1849-1914

After immigrating from Denmark, Riis became a journalist in New York. He explored the slums of the city’s Lower East Side and published, in 1890, How the Other Half Lives, a dramatic combination of text and photographs documenting life in those slums—a life virtually unknown to the city’s (and the nation’s) prosperous middle class. His book stirred the American conscience and spurred legislation aimed at slum clearance and general urban social reform.