New York: Remarkable images in an unrecognisable 19th century America
Cold night: Three young street children huddle together over a grate for warmth in an alleyway off Mulberry Street, Manhattan
Harsh conditions: A young girl, holding a baby, sits in a doorway next to a garbage can. Riis was a great reformer and his work helped to draw attention to the plight of the deprived
Shades of the Wild West: In an astonishingly atmospheric image taken in 1887, a group of men loiter in an alley known as 'Bandit's Roost' off Mulberry Street
Slumdogs: The sight of Italian immigrant families in New York on Jersey Street, living in shacks could be a scene from the developing world today
Shanty town: A dilapidated wooden shack sits in an empty lot surrounded by tenement buildings in 1896
Living on the edge: View of a back-lot house on Bleecker Street between Mercer and Greene Streets, almost toppling into an excavation site
Unfettered squalor: An Italian immigrant smokes a pipe in his makeshift home under the Rivington Street Dump
Makeshift home: A man sorts through trash under the 47th Street dump where he has made his home in around 1890
Hard labour: In a picture taken in 1890 a Bohemian family of four roll cigars at home in their tenement. Working from six in the morning till nine at night, they earn $3.75 for a thousand cigars, and between them could turn out three thousand cigars a week
Working till they dropped: Mrs Benoit, a Native American widow, sews and beads while smoking a pipe in her Hudson Street apartment, New York City, while right, a dishevelled shoeshine boy named Tommy takes a break from business
Handiwork: A Native American, Mountain Eagle, and his family make handicrafts while one son plays violin in their tenement at 6 Beach Street in this image taken in 1895
Line up: A group of prisoners in striped suits and hats at The Lock-step Penitentiary on Blackwell's Island around 1890
Feast day: A shrine in 'Bandits Roost', between Mulberry Street and Mulberry Bend, Little Italy, during the feast of Saint Rocco on the 23rd May, 1895. Right, a real mulberry tree behind an early building, presumably the original dwelling in the area of Mulberry Bend
Getting an education: One girl laughs with delight at having her photo taken as street children get the chance to read at a library at 48 Henry Street, New York City in 1900
Alley playground: Children play with barrels under the washing hung between tenements in Gotham Court, Cherry Street around 1890
Nature class: Teachers show primary school children how to plant seeds in a plot of land in New York. This picture was taken in about 1900
Freshly landscaped: New Yorkers enjoy the open space of the newly-planted Mulberry Bend Park in 1900
Team spirit: A group portrait of a football team posing in front of a fence at the West Side Playground, 68th Street, in 1895
Shopping in the sunshine: A grocery shop and post office on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, around 1890
Snowy New York: Warmly wrapped up children play in front of Dewitt Church, 280 Rivington Street, in 1890
Playtime: Riis also captured the city at leisure. Three girls jump rope while a group of children and adults form a semicircle around them on the rooftop playground of the Hebrew Institute
Bathing beauties: Children swim under the supervision of adults at Public Bath #10, at the Hudson River
Urban playground: Schoolboys play with a ball on the rooftop playground
Slumdwellers salute: Children of Mott Street Industrial School, New York, salute the Stars and Stripes, and repeat the Oath of Allegiance
Waiting for delivery: Children holding American flags while riding tricycles and wagons on the rooftop garden of Ellis Island were the offspring of detained or waiting immigrants