Sandburg's Hometown

August 10, 2015

Jacob A. Riis in 1906


Jacob A. Riis

by Barbara Schock

While attending Lombard College in the late 1890s, Carl Sandburg and his friends went to hear several lectures at Knox College. He was particularly impressed by Jacob A. Riis who delivered a lecture and showed stereopticon slides of the slums in New York City.

 

Riis had published a book of his photographs, with commentary, in 1890. How the Other Half Lives was an immediate success. The book was an early example of photojournalism and investigative reporting. It exposed immigrant living conditions on the Lower East Side of New York City. More than 334,000 people were crammed into one square mile of the city.

 

Jacob A. Riis was born May 3, 1849, in Ribe, Denmark. He was the third of thirteen children. His father, Niels E. Riis, was a school teacher. He encouraged Jacob to read the works of Charles Dickens and James Fenimore Cooper to improve his English. At his own request, Jacob was apprenticed as a carpenter. The job prospects were poor in his homeland. He decided to emigrate to the United States. It took two years for him to earn the money to pay for the $50 ticket on a ship to America. His friends gave him $40 to make a start in his adopted homeland in 1870, when he departed.

 

After arriving in New York, Riis had difficulty finding a job and was nearly destitute on more than one occasion. He had a variety of jobs and started several businesses which failed. He even sold flatirons door-to-door. Eventually, he became a reporter and bought a weekly labor newspaper with borrowed money. He made a success of the newspaper and sold it back to the politicians who had originally owned it. He was offered a job by a neighbor to become a police reporter for the New York Tribune. He saw the worst crime-ridden and impoverished conditions and wrote about them. He wanted to inform middle and upper class people about what was happening in the city.

 

He became a photographer  in order to show the conditions in which immigrants lived. He also learned to use flash powder with the camera to get clearer, more detailed photographs of people living in the tenements and children sleeping on the streets at night.

 

Riis walks the beat in New York City behind his friend and fellow reformer, NYC Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt (1894)
Riis walks the beat in New York City behind his friend and fellow reformer, NYC Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt (1894—Illustration from Riis's autobiography)

In 1895, Theodore Roosevelt was appointed president of the Board of Commissioners of the New York Police Department. He read How the Other Half Lives and went to see Riis. They visited the slum areas  from midnight until 4 o'clock in the morning and discovered ninety percent of the policemen were not on duty. Roosevelt was in a position to make changes in the police department. He was well-to-do and could deal with community leaders and officials in order to make sure improvements were made in their neighborhoods. Roosevelt and Riss became close friends for the rest of their lives..

 

In 1897, the City tore down the worst of the tenements near the notorious Five-Points slum and created a park. It was named for Jacob A. Riis. A settlement house was also established and named for him.

 

Riis was a firm believer in making things better. He had his own prejudices about ethnic groups and their behavior and attitudes; but he fought injustice wherever he found it.

 

In his autobiography, Always the Young Strangers, Sandburg wrote “Riis had become a national figure...as a builder and a changer of conditions.” “[H]e had fought politicians and landlords and had come through with results for humanity.” Jacob Riis was a man after Sandburg's own heart.

Sandburg's Hometown
Date Title
August 17, 2015 Jacob A. Riis
August 10, 2015 Mason Jars
August 3, 2015  October 7, 1896
July 27, 2015 The Soldier's Monument
July 20, 2015 Ice
July 13, 2015 Moses O. Williamson
July 6, 2015 Sweet Little Alix
June 29, 2015 Sharlie's Shickens
June 22, 2015 Anna Held & John Drew
June 15, 2015 Hartel & Secker Meat Market
June 8, 2015 Girls
June 1, 2015 Old First Church - Part II
May 25, 2015 Old First Church - Part I
May 18, 2015 Marbles
May 11, 2015 Pawnee County, Kansas
May 4, 2015 Detective Stories and the Real Thing
April 27, 2015 Professor Isaac A. Parker
April 20, 2015 Celluloid Collars
April 13, 2015 Asparagus
April 6, 2015  Mayor John C. Stewart 
March 30, 2015 Basket Ball
March 23, 2015 The Courthouse of Knox County, IL
March 16, 2015

“Trifles make perfection...”

March 9, 2015 Uncle Tom's Cabin
March 2, 2015 Martha Sandburg Goldstone
February 23, 2015 Devotion
February 16, 2015  Gumbiner's Pawn Shop 
February 9, 2015 White Bread
February 2, 2015 The Monarch Club
January 26, 2015 The Silver Dollar
January 19, 2015 The Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway
January 12, 2015 The Four Corners
December 22, 2014 Swedish Christmas
December 8, 2014 Christmas 1878
December 1, 2014 Bunker Boots & Shoes
November 24, 2014 Galesburg, Illinois
November 17, 2014 It was Buffalo Bill's Day
November 10, 2014 The Election of 1896 (A follow-up story)
November 3, 2014 The Election of 1896 (continued)
October 27, 2014 The Election of 1896
October  24, 2014 The Rissywarn
October 20, 2014 The Parlor Stove
October 13, 2014 Ashes to Ashes
October 6, 2014 Jesse James
Sept. 29, 2014 Lester T. Stone, Public Servant
Sept. 22, 2014 It's Who You Know
Sept 15, 2014 Mother of the Illinois Flag
Sept 8, 2014 The Scissors Grinder
Sept 1, 2014 Baseball
August 25, 2014 Howard K. Knowles, Capitalist
August 18, 2014  Alcoholic Beverages
August 11, 2014 Soda Water
August 4, 2014 Sweet Corn
July 28, 2014 Marching Through Georgia
July 21, 2014 The Knox County Fair
July 14, 2014 The Panic of 1893
July 7, 2014 The Rev. T. N. Hasselquist
June 30, 2014 The Knox County Courthouse
June 23, 2014 The Family Photograph Album
June 16, 2014 Parades
June 9, 2014 Lingonberries
June 2, 2014 Where We Live
May 26, 2014 Old Main
May 19, 2014 Rhythms of the Railroad
May 12, 2014 Spring Tonic
May 5, 2014 The Milkmen
April 28, 2014 Gray's "Elegy..."
April 21, 2014 Off to War
April 14, 2014 Swedish Easter
April 7, 2014 A Father's Face
March 31, 2014 Secret Societies
March 24, 2014 George A. Murdock, Merchant
March 10, 2014 Trade Cards
March 3, 2014 The Demorest Medal
February 24, 2014 Rip Van Winkle
February 17, 2014 Cabbage Soup
February 10, 2014 Lincoln's Birthday
February 3, 2014 4  The Colonel
January 27, 2014 The Lincoln Penny - A Little History
January 20, 2014 Walking to Work
January 13, 2014  A Small Abode
January 6, 2014 Birth of a Poet
December 30, 2013 Christmas 1880
December 23, 2013 Swedish Christmas
December 16, 2013 The Reporter Sees Santa
December 9, 2013 The Coming of Christmas
December 2, 2013 The Fire Boys Talk
November 25, 2013 Galesburg Will Feast on Turkeys and Cranberries - Thanksgiving 1893
November 18, 2013 Mary Sandburg Johnson
November 11, 2013 Carl Sandburg's Bicycle
November 4, 2013 Lace Curtains
October 28, 2013 The Front Room
October 21, 2013 A Warm Breakfast
October 14, 2013 Marion D. Shutter
October 7, 2013 Cigars and Consumption
September 30, 2013 Forrest F. Cooke & August Sandburg
September 16, 2013 Forrest F. Cooke, Mayor
September 9, 2013 Dusty Streets
September 2, 2013 Typhoid Fever
August 26, 2013 Coffee and Water
August 19, 2013 A Horse! A Horse!
August 12, 2013 Gaddial Scott
August 5, 2013 The Racetrack
July 29, 2013 John Peter Algeld - Part II
July 22, 2013 John Peter Altgeld - Part I
July 15, 2013 Tramps, Tramps, Tramps
July 8, 2013 Lady Liberty
July 1, 2013 Galesburg's Fourth
June 24, 2013 John H. Finley
June 17, 2013 The World's Columbian Exhibition
June 10, 2013 Fruit Short-Cake
June 3, 2013 Horatio Alger, Author
May 27, 2013 Memorial Day, 1887
May 20, 2013 Professor Jon W. Grubb
May 13, 2013 Beginnings of Lombard University
May 6, 2013 Young Sandburg’s View of Lombard College
April 29, 2013 Thinking
April 22, 2013 Robert Colville, Master Mechanic
April 15, 2013 The Galesburg Opera House
April 8, 2013 Grocery Stores and Sample Rooms
April 1, 2013  A Hearty  Breakfast 
March 25, 2013  The Lost Wallpaper Legend 
March 18, 2013 Martin G. Sandburg
March 4, 2013 The Edison Talking Machine
February 25, 2013 Joe Elser, Civil War Veteran
February 18, 2013 Remember the Maine...
February 11, 2013 Lincoln's Birthday
February 4, 2013 Curiosity
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