Chicago Slums (1910): Artwork and History

Chicago Slums (1910) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Lewis Wickes Hine American, 1874–1940.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The photographer shadows and speaks to his subject. Sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine worked for social justice throughout his career, concentrating often on immigrant laborers. He held views very similar to Chicagoan Jane Addams. In the year this Chicago picture was taken, Addams published Twenty Years at Hull House, referring to the settlement home for immigrants that she had founded in the city with Ellen Gates Starr: The Settlement is an attempt to relieve the overac-cumulation at one end of society and the destitution at the other. It must have a deep and abiding sense of tolerance. It must be hospitable and ready for experiment. Its residents must regard the entire life of their city as organic, to make an effort to unify it, and to protest against its [economic] over-differentiation.

Object facts

• Title: Chicago Slums
• Date: 1910
• Artist attribution: Lewis Wickes Hine American, 1874–1940
• Place of origin: United States
• Medium: Gelatin silver print
• Dimensions: Image/paper: 11.7 × 16.4 cm (4 5/8 × 6 1/2 in.)
• Type: Photograph
• Department: Photography and Media
• Reference number: 1959.866

Collection credit

Acquired through exchange with George Eastman House

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.