Jacob A. Riis

Jacob A. Riis was a Danish-American journalist, social reformer, and photographer born on May 3, 1849, in Ribe, Denmark. He was the third of fifteen children born to Niels Edward Riis, a schoolteacher, and Carolina Riis, a homemaker. Riis's family lived in poverty, and he had to drop out of school at the age of 11 to work as a carpenter's apprentice. In 1870, Riis immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. He worked as a laborer, a salesman, and a reporter for several newspapers before joining the staff of the New York Tribune in 1877. Riis's reporting focused on the living conditions of the poor in New York City's slums, particularly in the Lower East Side. Riis's most famous work is his book, How the Other Half Lives, published in 1890. The book is a collection of photographs and essays that document the living conditions of the poor in New York City. The book was a bestseller and helped to bring attention to the plight of the poor in America's cities. Riis continued to work as a journali