Street Arabs in the Area of Mulberry Street

Street Arabs in the Area of Mulberry Street is a black and white photograph taken by Danish American photographer Jacob Riis, probably in 1890. The designation of street arabs was given back then to homeless children. Riis took several pictures of these children, during the journalistic and photographic work that led to the publication of his landmark book How the Other Half Lives (1890), where they were published with the title of Street Arabs in Sleeping Quarters.[1]

Street Arabs in the Area of Mulberry Street (c. 1890) by Jacob Riis

History and description

In the late 19th century there were a large number of homeless children in the streets of New York. Some of the children who lived in the streets had homes but preferred to sleep on the street, as tenements may be small, unsanitary, or overcrowded.

In the photograph, three children apparently sleep near an heated vent at the bottom floor of a tenement on Mulberry Street. The names or occupations of the children are unknown but they were of poor condition like it can be deduced from their poor clothings and from the fact that two of them are barefoot, and sleep one in the top of the other.[2] This photograph was taken in daylight and it appears staged by the author, since at least one of the children appears to be smiling. It nevertheless achieves his purpose to illustrate poverty and homelessness in children.[3]

Riis used these images to attract the public interest of the upper classes of New York for the poor conditions of the lower classes and to help them to improve their condition. The photographs of poor or homeless children were often particularly poignant and moving to achieve that purpose.

Cultural references

The scene depicted in the photograph was recreated in the fourth episode of the TV series The Alienist (2018), set in the late 19th century.[2]

Public collections

There is a print of this photograph at the Museum of the City of New York.[4]

References
  1. The pedagogical potential of using Jacob A. Riis' works about the poor in New York City, Bill Temple, 2016
  2. The harsh lives of New York City street kids, captured — in a flash — by Jacob Riis, The Bowery Boys, 12 February 2018
  3. Miles Orvell, American Photography, Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 72
  4. Museum of the City of New York
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