# Jacob Riis

## Biography

Jacob August Riis was born in Ribe, Denmark, in 1849. He immigrated to the United States at age twenty, experiencing firsthand the poverty and harsh living conditions that would later define his life's work. After various odd jobs, Riis found his calling as a police reporter in New York City, joining the New York Tribune in 1877. He documented the squalid tenements and immigrant communities of the Lower East Side, becoming a pioneering "muck-raking" journalist. Riis innovatively used photography, including early flash techniques, to expose the dire realities of urban poverty to a wider public. His seminal work, "How the Other Half Lives" (1890), combined vivid narratives with shocking photographs, inspiring significant social reform. He also wrote "The Making of an American" (1901), an autobiography detailing his journey and friendship with Theodore Roosevelt. Riis, a dedicated social reformer, advocated for improved housing, education, and children's welfare until his death in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1914.

## Books

- [How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York](https://samolit.com/books/96384)