Server maintenance scheduled April 27 at 8-11pm EST.

Museum of the City of New York

The Museum of the City of New York fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world’s most influential metropolis. It engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city’s past, present, and future.

mcny.org

|

Resources from Museum of the City of New York

Resource Kit

Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half

Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a pioneering newspaper reporter, author, and social reformer in New York City in the late 19th century. His then-novel idea of using photographs to illustrate his writing about urban poverty created a rich historical record that was rediscovered in the 1940s and has since established Riis as a forerunner of modern photojournalism. The Museum of the City of New York holds the collection of NYC images that Riis used in his career. See more at https://collections.mcny.org

Created by: Museum of the City of New York

A Layman's Sermon: Jacob A. Riis on How the Other Half Lives & Dies in NY

Jacob A. Riis delivered his first lecture, "How the Other Half Lives and Dies in New York," on January 25, 1888, at the Society of Amateur Photographers of New York. Using an early form of projector known as a stereopticon to display images of the slum and its residents, Riis took his audience on a visual tour of the tenements. Terry Borton of the American Magic-Lantern Theater created this abridged version of the lecture for the Museum of the City of New York's "Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York's Other Half" exhibition. The lecture is based on a transcript of one that Riis delivered in Washington, D.C. in 1891.

Museum of the City of New York

The "Slide" that was the Children's only Playground once.

A group of children and two women sitting near an inclined cellar door on Hamilton Street. Shopkeepers hammered the cellar door with nails to stop children from using it as a slide.

Museum of the City of New York

Street Arabs -- night boys in sleeping quarters.

This photograph shows three boys sleeping outside, curled around a barrel near a doorstep.

Museum of the City of New York

Hester Street. The Street, the school children's only playground.

This photograph shows people walking on Hester Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood.

Museum of the City of New York

[Neighborhood crowd in Seward Park.]

This photograph shows a large crowd gathered around a swing set in Seward Park.

Museum of the City of New York

Open Air Gymnasium. - Crotona Park. Fulton Avenue and 173rd Street.

This photograph shows children playing on a playground equipped with climbing poles, rope swings and climbing rings.

Museum of the City of New York

[Mulberry Street.]

This photograph shows Mulberry Street, crowded with vendors peddling their wares on carts and wagons.

Museum of the City of New York

The Bend.

This photograph shows Mulberry Bend, a place surrounding a curve on Mulberry Street. Mulberry Bend was described as one of the worst parts of the Five Points slum by Jacob Riis in the book "How the Other Half Lives".

Museum of the City of New York

[Jacob A. Riis.]

Portrait of Jacob A. Riis.

Museum of the City of New York

["The Battle with the Slum" poster for Riis lecture.]

Reproduction of a poster advertising a lecture by Jacob Riis, entitled "The Battle with the Slum".

Museum of the City of New York

"Knee-pants" at forty five cents a dozen -- A Ludlow Street Sweater's Shop.

This photograph shows six people working inside a crowded room in a tenement house, making pairs of pants.

Museum of the City of New York

Roof playground (boys) -- Public School.

This photograph shows boys playing ball on the rooftop playground of a public school.

Museum of the City of New York

Images and Technology in Jacob Riis's Era

Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half

Jacob Riis took advantage of a new technology - flash powder - to capture images that had previously been impossible to photograph: the city by night and dark interior scenes.

Created by: Museum of the City of New York

Immigration and Labor at the Turn of the 20th Century

Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half

For immigrants in turn-of-the-century New York, labor frequently blurred the line between work and home, at times involving whole families. Examine this image and the text below to consider how different reformers envisioned solutions to the labor problems of the day.

Created by: Museum of the City of New York

Playgrounds and Parks in the City

Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half

By the turn of the 19th century, New York City’s Lower East Side neighborhood was the most densely populated place in the world. The neighborhood had a higher mortality rate than the rest of the city. Many reformers, like Jacob Riis, advocated for the creation of parks and playgrounds that would provide children with more places to exercise and access fresh air. They used photography to provide powerful visual evidence of the need for open, recreational spaces to combat the spread of disease.

Created by: Museum of the City of New York

Jacob Riis’s “Magic Lantern” Lecture

Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half

Women's Lodging Room in W. 30th Street Station

Created by: Museum of the City of New York

Little Katie

Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half

“‘I scrubs.’ Little Katie from the W. 52nd Street Industrial School,” Jacob Riis, ca 1890. From the collection of Museum of the City of New York, 90.13.1.132

Created by: Museum of the City of New York

From Candids to Portraits

Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half

Jacob Riis used a different technique for each of these three photographs he took to show the plight of individuals in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side in the late 19th century. As you examine the images and read about his process, consider how his portrayals evolved and debate the ethics of Riis’s approach to depicting working-class New Yorkers.

Created by: Museum of the City of New York

Introduction: Jacob Riis and His Work

Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half

“Knee-pants" at forty five cents a dozen -- A Ludlow Street Sweater's Shop, Jacob Riis, ca 1889. From the collection of Museum of the City of New York, 90.13.1.151.

Created by: Museum of the City of New York

No Ebooks to display