April 6, 2018—May 25, 2018

Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives

Fremont

Jacob Riis was a Danish-born American photographer who decided to use his talent with a camera to peer behind the gilded veneer of high society to expose the harsh realities of living in New York City at the turn of the century. A social reformer and early muckraker in the tradition of Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell, Riis traveled into tenements, factories and sweatshops to document the day-to-day lives of the city’s many poor immigrants and laborers. This traveling exhibit contains several of Riis' life-size photographs and personal artifacts, as well as multimedia features and interactive stations. In the spirit of Riis' passion to give a voice to the voiceless, the exhibit includes photographs and testimonials of those struggling locally in Sandusky County and northwest Ohio in order to foster a conversation about hardship in the 21st century.