Stanford University
Jacob Riis
Fourth graders view and discuss the photographs of Jacob Riis.In this Jacob Riis and Immigrants instructional activity, 4th graders analyze the photographs of Jacob Riis and answer questions about the feelings evoked by the photographs....
PBS
Pbs: The American Experience in the 1900s
This site presents a general picture of what life was like in the United States at the turn of the century. Content includes compelling images, information, and documents about American life.
Other
On the Lower East Side: Observations of Life in Lower Manhattan
Links to contemporary essays about life on the Lower East Side of New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These essays cover a range of topics and are well worth exploring to find out what problems writers were exposing...
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century
A thorough examination of the life of Theodore Roosevelt and the people and events that influenced him. You'll find photographs of Roosevelt, as well as photos, paintings, and biographies of some influential people in Roosevelt's life.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Biography of America: Capital and Labor
This thirty-minute video, the seventeenth in a series on American history, examines the rocky relationship between labor, management, and industry from 1882 to 1901. You can also read the transcript, find a map of the Anthracite Strike,...
OpenStax
Open Stax: Progressive Movement 1890 1920: Origins of Progressive Spirit
Learn how the muckrakers explosed problems and corruption, which galvanized the public to demand change from the government, thus triggering the Progressive movement, and everything that meant.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Politics of Reform
[Free Registration/Login Required] A great look at the Progressive Era, the issues dealt with at that time, and the legistlation passed to help alleviate social ills. Read about the great range of personalities and viewpoints that drove...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: People: Assimilation and the Crucible of the City: How Other Half Lives
Photographs and an excerpt from Jacob Riis's famous tour of the distressing conditions of the tenements in New York City. Includes questions for discussion.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Immigration in the Gilded Age:using Photographs as Primary Sources
[Free Registration/Login Required] This resource presents a lesson plan about immigration that uses photographs as primary sources.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: Gilded Age: America Moves to the City
Discusses the urbanization that took place at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. Includes questions for students at end.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1890 1945: The Age of Empire: Muckrakers
Discusses the muckraking journalists and novelists who were at the forefront of movements pushing for stronger protections for workers and consumers. Their work led to the passage of several important pieces of legislation. Includes...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, Knee Pants
The images Jacob Riis captured of the living conditions in New York tenements in the late 1800s would shock the conscience of Americans and instigate societal changes. View his pictures and read about his work in this essay.
Other
Tenant Net: How the Other Half Lives
Find a hypertext reproduction of the full text (with illustrations) of the original 1890 edition of Jacob Riis's classic work on the living conditions of New York's poor immigrants, "How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements...
Curated OER
"Five Cents a Spot": Image of Victorian Boarders, How the Other Half Lives, 1888
Victorian boarders.