David Nguyen

Rubino 7
th

Jacob Riis
He was born in Ribe, Denmark on May 3
rd
.
He migrates to America after getting rejected by the love of his life.
He bought the News Company and sold it for 5 times the buying price after Elizabeth
decided to marry him.
He got recommended a job as a police reporter. There, he witnessed the slums of New
York first hand.
He was one of the first photographers to use flash powder in his shots. He was inspired
by the terrible employers of his numerous jobs.
The rest of his life, he worked to expose the slums of New York. Tenants didnt have any
windows, ventilation, running water, or toilets.
Sanitation rates were extremely low and tuberculosis was very common. 1/3 of children
died before turning one.
He believed in Protestant Philanthropy.
He believed that he could influence the middle class and the rich to help the poor by
exposing them to the other half. Thats when he wrote a popular book that exposed
all the atrocities called How the Other Half Lives.
In his book he fought against poverty, declining influence of Protestant churches,
sweatshops, working conditions, child labor, juvenile crime, living conditions, political
machines, and tenants.
He continued his work through speeches, photos, his book, and articles.
He soon had the support of New York Philanthropists.
He helped pass the New York State Tenement House Act making outward facing
windows, an open courtyard, ventilation systems, outdoor toilets, and fires safeguards a
requirement.
His story of Some Things We Drink stopped the epidemic of Cholera after the city
purchased the reservoir.
His writing influenced the passing of the Small Park Act of 1887 which created parks in
New York.
He died on his farm in Massachusetts in 1914.
He was considered one of the first muckrakers by exposing the lives of poor people and
their living conditions to the middle class and upper class.