Born in Ribe, Denmark, Jacob Riis immigrated to New York in May 1870 at a time when the United States was in an economic slump. Although he could speak and read English and had served as an apprentice carpenter in Copenhagen, he found it difficult to find work. He tried mining in Pennsylvania, and after nearly starving to death he returned to New York, where he lived in crowded lodgings run by the police. These early experiences of poverty made a powerful impression on the young man that he carried with him for the rest of his life.

Reporter.

Riis found work with a Long Island newspaper in 1873 and soon bought and sold a small paper in Brooklyn. He traveled back to Denmark where he married a childhood sweetheart in 1876. Returning to New York, he found work in 1878 at the New York Tribune for twenty-five dollars...