
Exhibitions
- American Treasures of the Library of Congress: Progressive Era and Invention and Photography
- Books That Shaped America: 1850–1900 and How the Other Half Lives
Related Library of Congress Collections
Manuscript Division
- Jacob A. Riis Papers (Finding Aid)
- National Child Labor Committee (Finding Aid)
- Theodore Roosevelt Papers (Finding Aid)
- National Consumers’ League (Finding Aid)
Prints and Photographs Division
- National Child Labor Committee Collection
- Vergara Photograph Collection
- Detroit Publishing Company Collection
Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division
- The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898 to 1906
- Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904
Geography and Map Division
Resources for Teachers
- Collection Connection: Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904
- Collection Connection: The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898–1906
- Collection Connection: Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880–1920
- Lesson Plan: Child Labor in America
- Lesson Plan: Child Labor and the Building of America
- Lesson Plan: The Immigrant Experience: Down the Rabbit Hole
- Lesson Plan: Immigration History Firsthand
- Lesson Plan: Labor Unions and Working Conditions: United We Stand
- Primary Source Set: Children’s Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
- Primary Source Set: Immigration: Challenges for New Americans
- Primary Source Set: The Industrial Revolution in the United States
- Resource: Selected Images of Ellis Island and Immigration
- Resource: Jump Back in Time: Gilded Age (1878–1889)
- Teaching with the Library of Congress Blog Post: Analyzing Persuasive Techniques in Historical Media Messages: Child Labor
- Teaching with the Library of Congress Blog Post: What’s In a Name? Learning From the Titles of Library of Congress Primary Sources–Part 2
- Timeline: Immigration to the United States, 1851–1900
- Timeline: Rise of Industrial America, 1876–1900: City Life in the Late 19th Century
Read More About It
Books by Jacob Riis
- Riis, Jacob A. The Children of the Poor. (1st edition, 1892) New York: Garrett Press, 1970.
- _______________. How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. (1st edition, 1890) New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1971.
- _______________. The Making of an American. (1st edition, 1901) New York: The Macmillan Company, 1970.
- _______________. Jacob Riis Revisited, Poverty and the Slum in Another Era, ed. with intro by Francesco Cordasco. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books (Doubleday), 1968.
Books about Jacob Riis
- Alland, Sr., Alexander. Jacob A. Riis: Photographer & Citizen. New York: Aperture, 1973
- Buk-Swienty, Tom. The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008.
- Fried, Lewis and John Fierst. JacobA. Riis: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977.
- Lane, James B. Jacob A. Riis and the American City. Port Washington, NY: National University Publications, Kennikat Press, 1974.
- Yochelson, Bonnie. Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half: A Complete Catalogue of His Photographs. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
- Yochelson, Bonnie and Daniel Czitrom. Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2014.
For Younger Readers
- Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Kids On Strike. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999 (reprint 2003).
- Hopkinson, Deborah. Shutting out the Sky, Life in the Tenements of New York 1880-1924. New York: Orchard Books, An imprint of Scholastic, Inc., 2003.
- Marrin, Albert. Flesh & Blood So Cheap. New York: Random House Children’s Books, 2011.
- Meyer, Edith Patterson. “Not Charity, but Justice:" The Story of JacobA.Riis. New York: Vanguard Press, 1974.
- Napoli, Donna Jo. The King of Mulberry Street. New York: Random House Children’s Books, 2005.
- Pascal, Janet B. Jacob Riis, Reporter and Reformer. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Winthrop, Elizabeth. Counting on Grace. New York: Yearling, An imprint of Random House Books for Young Readers, 2007.
Companion Volume
Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half is the first comprehensivestudy and complete catalogue ofJacob Riis’s photographs and isthe culmination of more than twodecades of research on Riis byphotographic historian BonnieYochelson; published by YaleUniversity Press in association with the Museum of the City of New York and the Library of Congress. The book is supported by the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.
- Riis Exhibition Family Guide (PDF, 471KB)
- Jacob Riis Exhibition Brochure (PDF, 17.79MB)
Resources Outside the Library
Jacob Riis: Revealing “How the Other Half Lives” is a co-presentation of the Library of Congress and the Museum of the City of New York.