Jacob Riis and Thomas Nast
Jacob Riis
Through
photos and writings this man began documenting poverty in New York City in the late Riis, a Danish
immigrant, became famous for campaigning against slum housing (NPR). Jacob A. Riis was born May 3,
1849, in Ribe, Denmark
and died May 26, 191, in Barre,
Massachusetts. He was a newspaper reporter, social reformer,
and photographer who shocked the consciences of Americans in 1890 by his
factual description of slum conditions in his photographs and in book How
the Other Half Lives (Brinkley, 461).
Riis was the underachieving son of a schoolmaster. After immigrating to America, Riis worked in as a carpenter; in the financial panic of 1873. He experienced unemployment firsthand. This experience led Riis to feel empathy with New York's poor immigrants and he could write about them because he knew what they were going through (NPR). In 1873 he became a police reporter, and was assigned to New York City’s Lower East Side, where he found that in some tenements the infant death rate was 1 in 10.
Riis used the newly invented flashbulb technique in photographing the rooms and hallways of these buildings to dramatize his lectures and books (Britannica). The Lower East Side of New York City was the most densely populated place on Earth: Blocks of tenements houses were home to the working, poor immigrants of the city, including Italians, Irish, Germans, Jews, Czechs and Chinese. These people lived in the darkness of unlit corridors in these tenements, a corridor that would open into 10 square feet, windowless rooms, where entire families lived and where some would work. Riis created a visual document of urban poverty. "5 Cents a Spot," shows a room full of people bedding down for the night. (A "spot" meant somewhere on the floor.) In his book Riis used those images and his descriptions to awaken the conscience of prosperous, native-born American, who thought the immigrants threatened the political stability of the city and the nation.
Riis believed that if he could simply expose these conditions and if people knew how bad things were, that they would rise up and help to change them." Riis organized his most famous book, How the Other Half Lives — as a kind of tour of the slums. He would go neighborhood by neighborhood, describing ethnic groups (NPR). He portrayed the grinding poverty, the sweatshops, the growing power of Democratic political machines, and the increase of child labor and juvenile crime in his book. (Rediscovering Jacob Riis by Bonnie Yochelson and Daniel Czitrom). Riis and other Progressive-era reformers are often called "muckrakers.” They contended that poverty was the product of imperfect social and economic systems, and that it could be reduced through increased government regulation of the economy. The idea that poverty can be eliminated through governments reforms, (which Riis helped to promote) had long-term effects on American politics through the present (NPR).
Riis was the underachieving son of a schoolmaster. After immigrating to America, Riis worked in as a carpenter; in the financial panic of 1873. He experienced unemployment firsthand. This experience led Riis to feel empathy with New York's poor immigrants and he could write about them because he knew what they were going through (NPR). In 1873 he became a police reporter, and was assigned to New York City’s Lower East Side, where he found that in some tenements the infant death rate was 1 in 10.
Riis used the newly invented flashbulb technique in photographing the rooms and hallways of these buildings to dramatize his lectures and books (Britannica). The Lower East Side of New York City was the most densely populated place on Earth: Blocks of tenements houses were home to the working, poor immigrants of the city, including Italians, Irish, Germans, Jews, Czechs and Chinese. These people lived in the darkness of unlit corridors in these tenements, a corridor that would open into 10 square feet, windowless rooms, where entire families lived and where some would work. Riis created a visual document of urban poverty. "5 Cents a Spot," shows a room full of people bedding down for the night. (A "spot" meant somewhere on the floor.) In his book Riis used those images and his descriptions to awaken the conscience of prosperous, native-born American, who thought the immigrants threatened the political stability of the city and the nation.
Riis believed that if he could simply expose these conditions and if people knew how bad things were, that they would rise up and help to change them." Riis organized his most famous book, How the Other Half Lives — as a kind of tour of the slums. He would go neighborhood by neighborhood, describing ethnic groups (NPR). He portrayed the grinding poverty, the sweatshops, the growing power of Democratic political machines, and the increase of child labor and juvenile crime in his book. (Rediscovering Jacob Riis by Bonnie Yochelson and Daniel Czitrom). Riis and other Progressive-era reformers are often called "muckrakers.” They contended that poverty was the product of imperfect social and economic systems, and that it could be reduced through increased government regulation of the economy. The idea that poverty can be eliminated through governments reforms, (which Riis helped to promote) had long-term effects on American politics through the present (NPR).
Thomas Nast
Nast was born on September 27, 1840 in Landau, Baden Germany—died Dec. 7, 1902, Guayaquil,
Ecuador).
He was an American cartoonist, who is best known for his attack on the political
machine of William M. Tweed
in New York City
in the 1870s.
Nast arrived in New York
at the age of six. He studied art
at the National Academy of Design and became a draftsman for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper at
the age of 15 and worked for Harper’s Weekly
at 18. In 1860 he went to England for the New York Illustrated News
and in the same year went to Italy
to cover Giuseppe Garibaldi’s revolt for The Illustrated
London News and American publications.
With the outbreak of the American Civil
War, Nast vigorously supported the Union cause and opposed slavery
from his drawing
board at Harper’s Weekly.
His cartoon “After the Battle” (1862), attacked Northerners who were opposed to
energetic prosecution of the war, and his “Emancipation” (1863), which showed
the evils of slavery and the benefits of its abolition (Brinkley, 393) were so effective that
President Abraham Lincoln
called him “our best recruiting sergeant” (Britannica).
In Harper's Weekly Magazine he showed
the carnage and sadness that follows war, and his art was became a vehicle for
commentary. His pictures reflected what he felt rather than what he saw
(uh.edu). During
Reconstruction, Nast’s cartoons portrayed President Andrew Johnson
as a repressive autocrat and characterized Southerners as vicious exploiters of
helpless blacks (Britannica). Nast’s biggest contribution came in 1871
(uh.edu). Many
of Nast’s most effective cartoons, such as his “Tammany
Tiger Loose” and “Group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to Blow Over” (both
1871), were virulent attacks on New York’s Tammany Hall
political machine led by “Boss Tweed” (Britannica) ; an old patriotic organization called the Tammany
Society controlled New York and was run by the infamous William
Tweed and three shrewd cronies.
No one did business without paying
bribes to Tweed's gang who bled huge sums of
money from the citizens. Their theft ended up running up a debt in New York that New
Yorkers were still paying well into this century (uh.edu). Tweed wasn't worried about what the papers wrote due to
the fact that few of the people he was robbing could read. But Nast created a
whole new of political assault -- Tweed's thumb lowered on New
York City, Tweed with a sack of
money for a head, and Tammany underlings portrayed as slaves. He succeeded in
bringing legal processes to bear on Tweed and
his gang. Within months they were all either in jail or on the run (uh.edu). No one
did business without paying bribes to Tweed's
gang who bled huge sums of money from the citizens. Their theft ended up running
up a debt in New York
that New Yorkers were still paying well into this century. Tweed
wasn't worried about what the papers wrote due to the fact that few of the
people he was robbing could read. But Nast created a whole new of political
assault -- Tweed's thumb lowered on New York City,
Tweed with a sack of money for a head, and Tammany
underlings portrayed as slaves. He succeeded in bringing legal processes to
bear on Tweed and his gang. Within months they
were all either in jail or on the run (uh.edu). An irony of history is that
when Tweed escaped from jail and fled to Spain
in 1876, he was recognized and arrested by a customs official who did not read
English but had seen Nast's Harper's Weekly caricatures of Tweed (Cartoons.edu).
By 1885 Nast’s disagreements with
the editors of Harper’s Weekly were becoming increasingly frequent and he
was appointed consul general at Guayaquil,
Ecuador, in
1902. From his pen came the Republican Party’s elephant,
Tammany Hall’s tiger, and one of the most popular images of Santa Claus.
He also popularized the Democratic Party’s donkey
(Britannica).
Similarities
Both Riis and Nast were considered "Muckruckers" because they were people who trying
to expose corruption to the public. Both Nast and Riis works shocked the public wit problems like: the
corruption of the Tweed Ring and the mistreatment of immigrants. Both these artists’ works were very effective in
revealing all of the current problems relating to the Industrial Revolution to the people. Riis
and Nast were similar in that they both voiced their opinions through
images to express ideas and news. America's immigrants were mostly illiterate, so by giving these people a picture that depicts all of
society’s problems allowed a way to involve them.
Differences
The purpose for these reformers were different. Riis tried to capture poverty through his vivid photographs and Nast tried to capture the corruption of society through his cartoons. Both of these men were immigrants as well.
Works Cited
"Works Cited"Jacob A. Riis (American Journalist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
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"No. 912: Thomas Nast." No. 912: Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
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"Thomas Nast." Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.Jacob A. Riis (American Journalist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
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"No. 912: Thomas Nast." No. 912: Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Riis, Jacob A. How the Other Half Lives. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Pub., 2004. Print.
Siegel, Robert, Bonnie Yochelson, Daniel Czitrom, and Tom Buk-Swienty. "Jacob Riis: Shedding Light On NYC's 'Other Half'" NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast (American Political Caricaturist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast." Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
The Unfinished Nation. N.p.: McGraw-Hill Humanities Social, 2006. Print.
Yochelson, Bonnie, Jacob A. Riis, and Daniel J. Czitrom. Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-century New York. New York: New, 2007. PrintWorks Cited
"Jacob A. Riis (American Journalist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Jacob Riis (1849–1914)." Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US, Jacob Riis (1849-1914). N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"No. 912: Thomas Nast." No. 912: Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Siegel, Robert, Bonnie Yochelson, Daniel Czitrom, and Tom Buk-Swienty. "Jacob Riis: Shedding Light On NYC's 'Other Half'" NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast (American Political Caricaturist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast." Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.http://mikophoto.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Baxter-Street-Court-by-Jacob-Riis-c.-1895.jpg
http://karinaschroeder.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/riis.jpg
http://media.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2008/jun/riis/fivecentsaspot200-a438f597b037f87fd51bae2b082eb886242c9a1b-s6-c30.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Bandit's_Roost_by_Jacob_Riis.jpeg
http://www.thispublicaddress.com/depression/images/riis.gifpression/images/riis.gif
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Thomas_H_Nast.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Boss_Tweed,_Thomas_Nast.jpg
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/19-century/Nast-he_wants_a_change_too-1876.jpg
http://graphicwitness.org/group/nastnest.jpg
http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/HTALLANT/COURSES/his312/jcoleman/carpet.jpg
"Works Cited"Jacob A. Riis (American Journalist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Jacob Riis (1849–1914)." Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US, Jacob Riis (1849-1914). N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"No. 912: Thomas Nast." No. 912: Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Siegel, Robert, Bonnie Yochelson, Daniel Czitrom, and Tom Buk-Swienty. "Jacob Riis: Shedding Light On NYC's 'Other Half'" NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast (American Political Caricaturist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast." Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.Jacob A. Riis (American Journalist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Jacob Riis (1849–1914)." Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US, Jacob Riis (1849-1914). N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"No. 912: Thomas Nast." No. 912: Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Riis, Jacob A. How the Other Half Lives. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Pub., 2004. Print.
Siegel, Robert, Bonnie Yochelson, Daniel Czitrom, and Tom Buk-Swienty. "Jacob Riis: Shedding Light On NYC's 'Other Half'" NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast (American Political Caricaturist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast." Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
The Unfinished Nation. N.p.: McGraw-Hill Humanities Social, 2006. Print.
Yochelson, Bonnie, Jacob A. Riis, and Daniel J. Czitrom. Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-century New York. New York: New, 2007. PrintWorks Cited
"Jacob A. Riis (American Journalist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Jacob Riis (1849–1914)." Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US, Jacob Riis (1849-1914). N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"No. 912: Thomas Nast." No. 912: Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Siegel, Robert, Bonnie Yochelson, Daniel Czitrom, and Tom Buk-Swienty. "Jacob Riis: Shedding Light On NYC's 'Other Half'" NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast (American Political Caricaturist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Thomas Nast." Thomas Nast. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.http://mikophoto.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Baxter-Street-Court-by-Jacob-Riis-c.-1895.jpg
http://karinaschroeder.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/riis.jpg
http://media.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2008/jun/riis/fivecentsaspot200-a438f597b037f87fd51bae2b082eb886242c9a1b-s6-c30.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Bandit's_Roost_by_Jacob_Riis.jpeg
http://www.thispublicaddress.com/depression/images/riis.gifpression/images/riis.gif
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Thomas_H_Nast.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Boss_Tweed,_Thomas_Nast.jpg
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/19-century/Nast-he_wants_a_change_too-1876.jpg
http://graphicwitness.org/group/nastnest.jpg
http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/HTALLANT/COURSES/his312/jcoleman/carpet.jpg