Historic Photo – This photograph of Hester Street on New York’s City’s Lower East Side in the 1890 reflects the lives of Jewish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th Century. It served as a marketplace for Jewish peddlers and was the only playgrounds for Jewish children (at right). Photo was taken by Jacob A. Riis, a Jewish immigrant whose startling pictures of the Lower East Side ghetto areas led to some reforms. Entitled “The Street – The School Children’s Only Playground,” it is part of the Jacob A. Riis collection in the Museum of the City of New York.

Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August), 1849-1914 · [ca. November 1971]

[Information from item housing] Immigration: United States