At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, an outbreak of progressivism and came about in our nation's biggest cities. These new "Muckrakers" came in many forms including magazine/newspaper publishers, writers like Lincoln Steffens and John Spargo, and finally photographers like Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine. They aimed at fighting social evils with their cameras instead of their words, believing that their medium of pictures could have a more powerful impact on the public. They wished to reform society by promoting democracy, free speech, americanizing immigrants, exposing corrupt businessmen and politicians, lobbying for better working conditions, creating child labor laws, and broadly curbing monopoly power to help the little guy. More specifically, Jacob Riis shocked middle-class americans in 1890 with these pictures describing the dark and dirty slums of new york. Although the progressives were not able to completely rid America of its social evils (a daunting task), it is remarkable how much work and legislation was accomplished by them.
Lodgers in a crowded Bayard Street tenement - "Five cents a spot."
Yard in Jersey Street (now gone) where Italians lived in the then worst slums.
A woman holding a child, and men sitting in a rear yard of a Jersey Street tenement.
A woman holding a child, and men sitting in a rear yard of a Jersey Street tenement.
Children's Playground in Poverty Gap.
"Little Susie at Her Work," Gotham Court: Meant to showcase the lack of child labor laws. Girls and boys this young were already working to help provide for their families.
Bandit's Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street: Showcases the claustrophobic and dirty conditions people were living in.
A mile from daylight. This picture brings to light problems with both child labor, and coal mining working conditions.
"Knee-pants" at forty five cents a dozen -- A Ludlow Street Sweater's Shop.