'The Making of Americans' at Park City Museum

Park City Museum's Tozer Gallery is hosting a powerful exhibit from November 10 to January 7. 'The Making of Americans' is based on the impact Jacob Riis (1849–1914) a Danish immigrant who was a pioneering newspaper reporter and social reformer had on the city of New York at the turn of the twentieth century. This exhibit is from 'NEH on the Road', and was adapted from an exhibit that was organized by the Museum of the City of New York.

After observing the horrid living and working conditions of impoverished immigrants in New York City, Riis felt compelled to speak out and write articles to call attention to their plight.

Finding words alone were ineffective, he first hired photographers and then learned the skill himself so he could capture the images of the old and young struggling to survive in their new American home.

Ironically, it was the invention of flash photography that allowed many of these dramatic photographs to be shot in the dark and often windowless tenements.  Riis persuasive articles now had haunting images to accompany them. Many of these same images appear in the book he released in 1890 'How the Other Half Lives'. 

Through his lectures, many books, and even his friendship with President Theodore Roosevelt (former Police Commissioner of New York), Riis advanced social reform in early twentieth-century America….much like TV coverage of the attacks on peaceful Civil Rights marchers and cellphone recordings of police brutality have also instigated change.

This multimedia exhibit is made up of storyboards outlining Riis' life and career and also several videos. It includes life-sized photographs as well as artifacts and personal documentation.