of a 25-by-100-foot lot. When the Tenement House Act of 1867 was passed, the tenement was defined as: Any house, building, or portion thereof, which is rented, leased, let or hired out to be occupied or is occupied, as the home or residence of more than three families living independently of one another and doing their own cooking upon the premises, or by more than two families upon a floor, so living and cooking and having a common right in the halls, stairways, yards, water-closets, or privies, or some of them. It was with the publication of this act that the basic "dumbbell" layout of the tenement was first used. This tenement style was supposed to allow more natural light and air ventilation into these living quarters, as well as adding more water closets and allowing for the fire safety ​regulations explained in the Tenement House Act of 1867. On top of this, many of the landlords of these tenements did little to improve their conditions. When asked about the enforcement of the new statutes, the Superintendent of Buildings said that he was satisfied with hard wood in these tenements because it "burned slowly." Jacob Riis Jacob Riis emigrated from Denmark in 1870 to New York City, eager to prove himself. Finding it difficult to find work, he found a home in the slums of New York's Lower East Side. He went back to Denmark for a short time, returning to New York to become a police reporter. During this time, Riis became a devout Christian and devoted himself to "the service of God and his fellows." Riis turned to photography as a sort of "pastime" and found it a useful tool when writing his police reports. Once he began using magnesium flash powder, he could capture the dark and dingy conditions of the tenements. How the Other Half-Lives was only one book in Riis' bibliography highlighting the conditions in the slums of New York. Some of his other works that highlighted more in depth views into slum life were The Children of the Poor, Children of the Tenements, The Battle with the Slums, and Out of Mulberry Street. Summary In January 1888, Riis bought a detective camera and went on an expedition to gather images of what life was like in the slums of New York City. This both included Riis’ taking his own photos as well as his