ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GRAPHICS
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RIIS, JACOB PHOTOGRAPHER, NEW YORK CITY, 1849 -1914
"... Russell was in and out of town (New York), those days, and we had a series of sub-lets around the East Village and then had a nice little (read: real little!) walk-up flat on Ludlow Street, long before it was made fancy like today. For a while Russell was doing some research at the public library in the photo archives and bringing home copies of old Joseph Riis photos from, like, the turn of the century (the previous) of the poor immigrants and their terrible living conditions on the Lower East Side in these horrible hovels. They all looked just like our apartment. Worse, they all looked just like US in our apartment!"
From "The Memoirs" by Bill Wolf, Chapter XIV
Below: Ready for the Sabbath in a coal cellar, Ludlow Street
Below: Pierto learning to write, Jersey Street tenement.
Below shop in Ludlow Street tenement, c. 1889.
Below: Washing up in the newsboys' lodging.
Below: Dive on Thompson Street (black and tan dive).
Below: Ludlow Street.
Below: Street Arabs barelegged, Mulberry Street.
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