Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

Born in Ribe, Denmark, in 1849, he immigrated to the United States in 1870 and struggled through poverty and odd jobs before finding work in journalism. Those hard early years shaped the sympathy and sharp eye he later brought to reporting on immigrant neighborhoods, lodging houses, and tenement life in New York.

He became widely known for How the Other Half Lives (1890), a book that combined vivid reporting with photographs to reveal the conditions faced by the urban poor. Riis is often remembered as an early muckraking journalist and social documentary photographer whose work pushed readers and public officials to pay attention to housing, sanitation, and public welfare.

He also wrote other books, including The Making of an American, and remained active in reform causes into the early twentieth century. Riis died in 1914, but his work still stands out for the way it joined storytelling, images, and a strong sense of public purpose.