Jacob Augustus Riis was born in Ribe, Denmark on May 3, 1849.
May 18, 1870: Jacob Riis sets sail for America on the ship, Iowa with $40, which was used up quickly.
May 18, 1870: Jacob Riis sets sail for America on the ship, Iowa with $40, which was used up quickly.
Poverty Strikes
"...A combination of bad luck, bad planning, bad bosses, and his own impulsive and hotheaded nature kept him erring from job to job, finally resulting in his finding himself homeless on the city streets. For several weeks...he slept in police-station lodgings, where he was robbed and where his small dog was killed by an attendant." -Luc Sante [Student Email Interview, November 18, 2014] Riis' gold locket had been stolen, but the policeman had not believed him, thus prompting the police fight to happen:
"How should I, a tramp boy, have come by a gold locket?" -Jacob Riis, The Making of an American, 1901 |
"In the financial Panic of 1873, [Jacob Riis] experienced unemployment first hand." [NPR]
"The outrage of that night became...a mainspring in the battle with the slum as far as my share in it is concerned. My dog did not die unavenged." |
Out of Poverty: Journalism Beginnings