Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis was lived through  May 3, 1849 to May 26, 1914. He was born in Ribe, Denmark and was known as a U.S newspaper reporter, social reformer,and photographer. He shocked the United States by showing he slum conditions in his books, one being How the Other Half Lives in 1890. He was the ted Emancipator of the Slums who who exposed the downside of the United States in the late 19th century. 

Jacob Riis came to the United States at the age of 21, he held various jobs. In 1873 he became a police reporter and was assigned to New York's Lower East Side. He used flash bulb technique photographing to dramatize his lectures and photos in his books. How the Other Half Lives is Riis most famous book. 

When How the Other Half Lives was published it was seen by Theodore Roosevelt, the New York Police Commissioner, and he had the police lodging houses that were in the book closed down. Throughout the next twenty five years Jacob Riis wrote and lectured about the problems on the poor. He was a terror to officials and the government. He exposed them in articles, books, and public speeches. He not only got news but he cared about it. Jacob Riis was a man who hated tryannies, misrery and abuses.