Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis was born in Ribe, Denmark, on May 3, 1849.

immigrated to New York in 1870, searching for a employment as a carpenter.

Riis’s only companion was a stray dog. The dog brought him inspiration and when a police officer mercilessly beat his dog to death, Riis was devastated.

He was the 3rd of 15 children

born to Niels Riis, schoolteacher and editor of his local newspaper, and Carolina Riis, a homemaker

At age 25, Married to Elisabeth Gortz Nielsen. In 1905 his wife grew ill and died.

Riis remarried in 1907 to Mary Phillips

As a child Jacob Riis was not a good student, he preferred outdoor activities

“The poor we shall always have with us, but the slum we need not have. These two do not rightfully belong together. The present partnership is at once poverty’s worst hardship and our worst faults"

carpenter in CopenhagenBrooklyn News's news

bureau. police reporter for the

New York Tribune,New York Evening Sun in

1888In 1889, Scribner's

Magazine published Riis's photographic essay on city life, which Riis later expanded to create his greatest work, How the Other Half Lives.

One of Riis's most famous photographs, "Three Children Sleeping in a Dirty Alley"

(c. 1890s).

The crowed and unsanitary living conditions of New York City's million plus immigrants in the 1890s

Another famous photo by Riis, entitled "Bandits' Roost" (c. 1890s), depicting a dangerous alleyway in the Mulberry Park district of New York City

Jacob Riis helped American society by helping them realize the necessity of construction and city improvements .

Many of the cities were infested with disease and crime.

Theodore Roosevelt accompanied Riis on his round on tenement houses and back alleys. Roosevelt considered Riis one of the most helpful citizens in America.

Jacob Riis (left), who photographed impoverished social conditions, President Theodore Roosevelt, and Bishop John H. Vincent (right). Photo courtesy of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library.

Jacob Riis died in Barre, MA, on May 26, 1914. His cause of death is unspecified.

He was buried in Riverside Cemetery, which is located in Barre, MA.

Riis raised money to create institutions to help the poor children. He retired a farm in Massachusetts, where he died in 1914.

During the 20th century the name Jacob Riis became synonymous with efforts to improve the lives of the less fortunate. He is remembered as a great reformer and a humanitarian figure.