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Jacob Riis was a journalist and social documentary photographer. He was born in Denmark in 1849 and immigrated to the US as a young adult (21 years old). "Like the hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who fled to New York in pursuit of a better life, Riis was forced to take up residence in one of the city's notoriously cramped and disease-ridden tenements. Living in squalor and unable to find steady employment, Riis worked numerous jobs, ranging from a farmhand to an ironworker, before finally landing a role as a journalist-in-training at the New York News Association." His most notable work "How the Other Half Lives" was published in 1890. He wrote about and photographed slum conditions of immigrant workers in New York City.

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As governor of New York, Riis’s friend Theodore Roosevelt (future president of the US) appointed a Tenement House Commission, which led in 1901 to the creation of the Tenement House Department, headed by another Riis friend, Robert de Forest of the Charity Organization Society. Riis and this circle of municipal citizen-reformers, which included social welfare activists Josephine Shaw Lowell and Lillian Wald, worked to gather statistical evidence and raise public awareness. They advocated for new housing designs to ease crowding and improve fire safety, sanitation, and access to air and light.

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1. Jacob Riis used photographs to expose the terrible living conditions of poor working immigrants in New York City tenements. Pick one image that looks the worst to you. Identify which image (Photograph A-G) you chose. Explain what was wrong with the living conditions depicted in the image you chose.
2. Jacob Riis took several pictures of poor children. Pick one of these images and explain your reaction to it. What does it make you think, feel or wonder?
3. If you were a wealthy American in 1890, how would you react to seeing Jacob Riis' photographs? Explain.
4. Do you consider Riis' work successful? Explain.

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John Spargo was born in England in 1876. He became a Methodist minister and immigrated to the US as an adult in 1901. He settled in New York and began preaching. He spent his life helping the working class poor of New York city. He established a "settlement house" to provide social and economic support to new immigrants. Spargo was shocked by the living and working conditions of the poor, especially children. Spargo was a founding member of the American Socialist Party and published several works including: "The Bitter Cry of the Children" 1905, "The Underfed School Children" 1906, "The Common Sense of the Milk Question" 1908.

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"The Bitter Cry of the Children" 1905 John Spargo

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"The Bitter Cry of the Children" 1905 John Spargo

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“The coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken, or crushed fingers, are common among the boys. Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery. . . . Clouds of dust . . . are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundation for asthma and miners’ consumption.”

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"Work in the coal breakers (processing plant) is exceedingly hard and dangerous. Crouched over the chutes, the

boys sit hour after hour, picking out the pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushes past to the

washers. From the cramped position they have to assume, most of them become more or less deformed and

bent-backed like old men. When a boy has been working for some time and begins to get round-shouldered, his

fellows say that “He’s got his boy to carry round wherever he goes."

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1. John Spargo wrote "The Bitter Cry of the Children" about children working in coal mines. Copy one line that you think is the most interesting description of children working in coal mines.
2. What is your reaction to the excerpts from Spargo's work "The Bitter Cry of the Children"?

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Working as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Lewis Hine (1874-1940) documented working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1924. The NCLC photos are useful for the study of labor, reform movements, children, working class families, education, public health, urban and rural housing conditions, industrial and agricultural sites, and other aspects of urban and rural life in America in the early twentieth century.
Founded in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee set out on a mission of "promoting the rights, awareness, dignity, well-being and education of children and youth as they relate to work and working." Starting in 1908, the Committee hired Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940), first on a temporary and then on a permanent basis, to carry out investigative and photographic work for the organization. The more than 5,100 photographic prints and 355 glass negatives in the Prints and Photographs Division's holdings, together with the often extensive captions that describe the photo subjects, reflect the results of this early documentary effort, offering a detailed depiction of working and living conditions of many children--and adults--in the United States between 1908 and 1924.

Hine later referred to his photographic work for the NCLC as "detective work." Photo historian Daile Kaplan offers this picture of how Hine conducted his work, which was frequently regarded with suspicion by business owners, supervisors, and workers:

Nattily dressed in a suit, tie, and hat, Hine the gentleman actor and mimic assumed a variety of personas--including Bible salesman, postcard salesman, and industrial photographer making a record of factory machinery--to gain entrance to the workplace. When unable to deflect his confrontations with management, he simply waited outside the canneries, mines, factories, farms, and sweatshops with his fifty pounds of photographic equipment and photographed children as they entered and exited the workplace. (Photo Story: Selected Letters and Photographs of Lewis W. Hine. Ed. by Daile Kaplan. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992).

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As a result of the growing sentiment against child labor, the Keating-Owen Act was passed. It was created in 1916 and was the first federal law to regulate child labor. The National Child Labor Committee, who helped sponsor the law, was an organization with the goal of spreading awareness of the horrible conditions of children labor. They would spread awareness through images and pictures in attempt to end child labor.

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1. Lewis Hine worked for 20 years taking photographs of children working across the US. In your opinion, which picture has the greatest impact on you?
2. Pick an image and describe how it makes you feel/what it makes you think. Identify the picture you were working on (Photograph A-D).

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Upton Sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from California, who pioneered the kind of journalism known as "muckraking." His best-known novel was "The Jungle" which was an expose of the appalling and unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry.

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“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it would be dosed with borax [a white powder made from boric acid, used in detergents, flame retardants, and disinfectants] and glycerine [a chemical compound used in foods and medicines], and dumped into the hoppers [containers for mixing], and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit. . . . There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers [containers] together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.”

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“...There were the men in the pickle rooms, for instance, where old Antanas had gotten his death; scare a one of these that had not some spot of horror on his person.  Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world [lead to his death]; all of the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one.  Of the butchers and floorsmen, the beef boners and trimmer, and all those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb; time and time again the base of it had been slashed, till it was a mere lump of flesh against which the man pressed the knife to hold it.  The hands of these men would be criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or trace them.  They would have no nails, - they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan.  There were men who worked in the cooking rooms, in the midst of steam and sickening odors, by artificial light; in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour.  There were the beef luggers, who carried two hundred pound quarters into the refrigerator cars, a fearful kind of work, that began at four o’clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men in a few years…”

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When The Jungle was published, the nation reacted in horror. After reading the novel, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered an immediate investigation into the meat industry, though privately he told Sinclair that he disliked the Socialist polemic near the end of the novel. Within months, two pieces of legislation resulted from Sinclair's novel: The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, both signed into law on June 30th, 1906. Sinclair was an instant celebrity and a Socialist hero, and was finally financially stable. He lamented the fact that the nation focused only on the unsafe food handling aspect of his novel, and ignored the problem of labor exploitation. He famously quipped: "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

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1. Which excerpt (A or B) was most shocking to you? Explain.
2. Was Sinclair's work successful? Explain.

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1. Photograph A is the worst for us because there are a lot of people living in a messy and crowded place.
2. Photograph C is the worst, it makes us feel sad and the kid shouldn't be living like that, they should be going to school.
3. If we were a wealthy american we would do anything in my power to help the citizens not live like that.
4. We think he is successful because it brings awareness to the situation.

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1.) The worst photograph is photo A because it shows a lot of people living in a small room that looks unsanitary.
2.) When i see the picture of the kids I feel bad to see them look tired and homeless, since sleeping on stairs would be horrible.
3.) As a wealthy American in the 1890s, i would feel bad and do the best I can to help the people going through these things.
4.) I would consider his work succesful because after these photographs, things got better for the next generations of the people living in poverty like that.

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1. "From the cramped position they have to assume, most of them become more or less deformed and bent-backed like old men."
2. Our reaction is that it's sad and that no one should be working like that, it's cruel.

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1. We believe Photograph G presents the worst living conditions as it is very cramped and unsanitary
2. Photograph D makes us feel sadness, we see that these kids get no sense of childhood, and are forced to work.
3. If I was very wealthy in 1890 I would probably not care but we would choose to donate
4. I consider Rill's work successful because it really gave the world what it was like at the time and gave a new perspective

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1. in my opinion the picture that impacted the group the most was photograph c because it shows a sad and dirty and starved kid.

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1. "Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery. . . . Clouds of dust . . . are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundation for asthma and miners’ consumption.”
2. Our reaction is that the working conditions these children were put through is very sad, and nobody should have to go through this experience especially children.

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Jacob Riis
1. We thought that image D because of the fact that there are literal children being abused and made to work whilst living in horrible conditions
2. Image G made me feel so grateful for the life i have because i feel like we complain so much and we don't realize that people that came before us have it so much worse in that image you see how bad living conditions were for the children and the people living there.
3. I would feel horrible and i honestly would try to help them out because it would be so selfish not to.
4. I think yes it was successful and it really impacted people.

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1. Photograph C has the greatest impact on us because he looks so young to be in that poor condition.
2. Photograph D makes us think that the working conditions were super bad and kids shouldn't be alone in the dangerous factories.

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1.) I think the most interesting line is "his

fellows say that “He’s got his boy to carry round wherever he goes."".
2.) The reaction I gave to reading this was a very sad reaction. It hurts to know that that life was normal for them and they didnt know it was wrong.

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1. The image D looks the worse because they are children laying on the stairs and they look exhausted. That shows bad and unhealthy living conditions.
2. Our reactions to photograph B is shocked because there is a toddler left alone in a building that looks dangerous, left unmaintained with poor living conditions that are unhealthy for a toddler.
3. If we were wealthy Americans in 1890 seeing these things going on, our reactions would be devastated because our life wouldn't be like that and those are young children that had to suffer thru that.
4. Yes it was successful because it showed the horrible living conditions back then.

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1. A terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery"
2. Our reaction is that it gets us very emotional, reading the very cruel and brutal conditions the children had to work through

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1) We chose photograph A because photo A is crowded. It is small and there are 6 people in the room looking tired and uncomfortable. This is a place no one would want to live in due to the diseases you can get.
2) Picture B made us think that the baby is located without parents and the baby is living in a place or little house with very poor conditions.
3) If we were wealthy Americans in 1890, we reacted gratefully. Since people are living harsh life back then with barely any necessities.
4) Yes, Rills work was successful because people can discover how life was back then.

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1) D: They don't have a roof on their heads, sleeping on the floor, no blankets, no food/water.
2) D: Our reaction to this photo was that we felt bad for them because they are all alone and cannot find a decent living space. It makes us think how they get into this situation of being outside without somewhere to stay.
3) If we were wealthy Americans in 1890, we would react by being shocked. We would take action into opening a charity to donate to these kids.
4) We believe Rill's work was successful because his work open people's eyes on how terrible people's living conditions were.

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Photograph c makes us feel unhappy and heart broken

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John Spargo
1. “The coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken, or crushed fingers, are common among the boys."
2. It was to read about how it was for children and how the conditions were so harsh .

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1.) I think Photograph E has the biggest impact because it shows a young kid working and carrying buckets.
2.) Photograph C makes be feel so sad because it shows a kid really dirty that looks really young. It makes me think about how well i was treated as a kid and how badly they were treated.

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1. Picture D is the worst photo because it shows children living and sleeping in a barrel.
2. The pictures of the children made us feel sad and heartbroken.
3. If I was wealthy and saw the children in those pictures I would be disgusted and try to help the people in any way I could.
4. I do believe he was successful because it showed the world how people really lived in those tenements.

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1. Excerpt A was the most shocking because it was so unsanitary but there was no other option.
2. It was a success because he got President Roosevelt's attention and got the meat factory investigated.

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1. "Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery. . . . Clouds of dust . . . are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundation for asthma and miners’ consumption.”
2. Our reaction to the experts were shocked because of the working conditions the children were put thru.

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1. The picture that has the greatest impact on us is Photograph C
2. Photograph C makes us feel sad and makes us think that he could never have a childhood and instead had to spend his days working from a very young age

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1) We think the most interesting line of children working in coal mines is "Spargo was shocked by the living and working conditions of the poor, especially children. "
2) Our reaction to the excerpts from Spargo's work is that It was not fair for children to be living a work lifestyle. When they are just kids.

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Lewis Hine
1. Picture C was the one that impacted us the most.
2. It made us feel sad and cry.

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1.) I think that excerpt B is worse, Excerpt B describes How people got hurt from the work they were doing, and some people even lost lives from it.
2.) It was a success because it was recognized by a powerful person at the time, President Roosevelt.

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1) "The coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken, and crushed fingers, are common among the boys."
2) We were very shocked at how children were working in very bad conditions and how children shouldn't be working, they should be in school.

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1. Was the most shocking to our group because the work they've done was not enough for them because of the low pay.
2.  Sinclair's work was successful as he got the President's attention to be able to get the meat factory investigated, only because of all the incidents that had happened.

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1. Excerpt A cause it was unsanitary
2. It was successful because it got the president's attention

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1) Image C has the greatest impact.
2) Image C makes us feel because the kid in the picture was very young. And it's very surprising for a kid that young to be working and being in dangerous conditions.

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1) The picture that had a greatest impact on us was photography B because the kid looks tried, exhausted, and sad.
2) Photography E makes us feel that It is was unfairer on how they treat the children and get a very low wage when adults do the same and get payed a little one.

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1.  Photograph B has the greatest impact on us because the child looks wounded and exhausted from working in unsanitary conditions.
2. Photograph E shows a little boy bare foot in hard working conditions making us feel sorrow for the child because he should not have to be working like that.

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1.Excerpt A because they described the work places as very dirty and unsanitary which is very crucial to be clean, diseases can be very dangerous.
2. The work was successful because it was able to get the attention of the president, the attention got them to investigate.

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1. Excerpt A was the most shocking because of how they produced meat at the time, as it was unsanitary, such as having meat on the floor, and workers having to pull out rats of the meat at factories.

2. Sinclair's work was successful as it gave a new perspective on how unsanitary the work conditions, were and food they consumed on the daily basis was dirty

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1) Excerpt A because they had low working conditions and low pay.
2) It was successful because  It got president Rooselvt attention.

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1.  Expert B was the most shocking to us because it shows how the workers can be injured while still working because they had to provide for there family and if not they were fired.
2. Yes because it showed the reality of the working conditions back then