The “Battle with the Slum” visits Exeter – 1908
by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, May 25, 2018.
Late in 1907, Dr. Abner Merrill, a local businessman and philanthropist, began to plan an educational lecture series. He was inspired, it is said, by the venerable Lowell Institute of Boston, which had been endowed since 1838 through a bequest from the estate of John Lowell Jr. Lowell was the son of textile industrialist, Francis Cabot Lowell, and had inherited most of his fortune. His ‘institute’ promoted public lectures on a variety of topics – the first speaker was Edward Everett, who is now best remembered as the first speaker at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in 1863. Everett spoke for over two hours before yielding the stage to Abraham Lincoln, who then upstaged him in two minutes with the Gettysburg Address.
Merrill’s plans were more modest. He wanted to be sure his lecture series would be appreciated by local folks, so he ran a pilot program beginning in November of 1907. Although he appointed trustees to select lecturers, he chose the first speaker – Edward Everett Hale, nephew of the Lowell Institute’s inaugural speaker. Hale, a noted author and historian, gave a lecture “Definition of a True Republic.”
Merrill would later clarify his intention for the program, “the course or courses of the lectures shall not be popular readings and musical entertainments – such entertainments being more properly provided by other methods – but on Scientific, Literary and Educational subjects, those subjects as shall best tend to advance and promote the general intelligence of the community.” This was an unsurprising goal given that the series began during a period known as the Progressive Era. It was a time when reformers, and a reformer president Theodore Roosevelt, were focused on social issues. Between roughly 1890 and 1920, social improvements were political hot topics.
It was, therefore, also unsurprising that one of the first speakers was Jacob Riis. Riis was a journalist from New York who had stunned the nation with the publication of his book, “How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York.” Utilizing the new technology of flash photography, Riis traveled into the darkest corners of the city’s slums. Most of the neighborhoods he wrote about while working the police beat were impoverished immigrant enclaves. Riis, an immigrant himself from Denmark, understood the difficulties facing new arrivals. He also correctly guessed that many of his readers had no idea what conditions were like in the crowded tenements. His articles and books directly addressed the squalor and were illustrated with actual photographs of living conditions. By 1908, social reformers had been working hard to improve everyday life. Legislation had been passed to change working conditions, food safety and unhealthy housing. Riis published a follow-up book, “The Battle with the Slum,” in 1902, to highlight some of the changes.
Exeter was not New York City, but it did have factories, tenement housing and an influx of immigrant labor during these years. In 1903, a census of children was taken in town to determine the number of child laborers. At that time, children had to be over 14 years old to work in a factory. To do so, they had to apply for and receive a work certificate. Of the 988 children under the age of 16 in town, 63 were working instead of attending school. Of these, 45 worked at the Gale Brothers Shoe factory. The numbers startled many residents, although no new laws were passed to change the situation, families were encouraged to keep their children in school until the required age of 16.
Riis had noted that immigrant workers were often mistreated due to lack of language skills, written off as ‘stupid’ when they merely didn’t understand what was required of them. But there was no formal English class for most immigrants. They were expected to simply pick it up. Louise Mantegani recalled how she learned English after arriving in Exeter from Italy in 1912, as a child of eight. Placed into a first grade class at Hall Place School, she was the biggest student in class. “The teacher was very kind and patient with us. After school she would keep us a few minutes and teach us the names of two or three objects. We said them over and over on the way home. At first shopping for us was very frustrating, since we knew practically no English, it was done mostly by sign language.” Children, like Louise, had an easier time mastering the language. Exeter twice tried to create night school classes for learning English in 1894 and 1917. Both times the classes were well attended by eager students, but both times the schools were forced to close due to lack of funds.
As Riis presented his illustrated lecture extolling the successes of slum clearing, settlement houses, improved hygiene and free education, Exeter’s citizens must have wondered how these problems could be solved in a place with a smaller population, and fewer resources, such as their own town. He spoke twice – first at the Merrill Lecture held at Town Hall on Tuesday, February 25, and again the next day at the Phillips Exeter Academy chapel under the auspices of the Christian Fraternity. Riis has, in recent times, been criticized for his descriptions of immigrant neighborhoods in New York. His writing often reflects negative stereotypes of ethnic groups. Should we forgive him for this? His vivid photographs – even those rendered as line drawings for publication – tell us more than his words. Pictures of hungry barefoot children packed into crowded tenement housing often provoked more reform than mere description. Certainly in Exeter his slideshow would have opened many minds to the troubles of poverty. In this, he fulfilled Dr. Abner Merrill’s vision to “promote the general intelligence of the community.”
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org.
Image: Photo by Jacob Riis, “Sleeping homeless children.” Riis specialized in photo journalism utilizing the new technique of flash photography. His photographs brought the squalid conditions of New York’s slums into the homes of his readers. He spoke at one of the first Merrill Lectures in Exeter in February 1908.
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, May 25, 2018.
Late in 1907, Dr. Abner Merrill, a local businessman and philanthropist, began to plan an educational lecture series. He was inspired, it is said, by the venerable Lowell Institute of Boston, which had been endowed since 1838 through a bequest from the estate of John Lowell Jr. Lowell was the son of textile industrialist, Francis Cabot Lowell, and had inherited most of his fortune. His ‘institute’ promoted public lectures on a variety of topics – the first speaker was Edward Everett, who is now best remembered as the first speaker at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in 1863. Everett spoke for over two hours before yielding the stage to Abraham Lincoln, who then upstaged him in two minutes with the Gettysburg Address.
Merrill’s plans were more modest. He wanted to be sure his lecture series would be appreciated by local folks, so he ran a pilot program beginning in November of 1907. Although he appointed trustees to select lecturers, he chose the first speaker – Edward Everett Hale, nephew of the Lowell Institute’s inaugural speaker. Hale, a noted author and historian, gave a lecture “Definition of a True Republic.”
Merrill would later clarify his intention for the program, “the course or courses of the lectures shall not be popular readings and musical entertainments – such entertainments being more properly provided by other methods – but on Scientific, Literary and Educational subjects, those subjects as shall best tend to advance and promote the general intelligence of the community.” This was an unsurprising goal given that the series began during a period known as the Progressive Era. It was a time when reformers, and a reformer president Theodore Roosevelt, were focused on social issues. Between roughly 1890 and 1920, social improvements were political hot topics.
Exeter was not New York City, but it did have factories, tenement housing and an influx of immigrant labor during these years. In 1903, a census of children was taken in town to determine the number of child laborers. At that time, children had to be over 14 years old to work in a factory. To do so, they had to apply for and receive a work certificate. Of the 988 children under the age of 16 in town, 63 were working instead of attending school. Of these, 45 worked at the Gale Brothers Shoe factory. The numbers startled many residents, although no new laws were passed to change the situation, families were encouraged to keep their children in school until the required age of 16.
Riis had noted that immigrant workers were often mistreated due to lack of language skills, written off as ‘stupid’ when they merely didn’t understand what was required of them. But there was no formal English class for most immigrants. They were expected to simply pick it up. Louise Mantegani recalled how she learned English after arriving in Exeter from Italy in 1912, as a child of eight. Placed into a first grade class at Hall Place School, she was the biggest student in class. “The teacher was very kind and patient with us. After school she would keep us a few minutes and teach us the names of two or three objects. We said them over and over on the way home. At first shopping for us was very frustrating, since we knew practically no English, it was done mostly by sign language.” Children, like Louise, had an easier time mastering the language. Exeter twice tried to create night school classes for learning English in 1894 and 1917. Both times the classes were well attended by eager students, but both times the schools were forced to close due to lack of funds.
As Riis presented his illustrated lecture extolling the successes of slum clearing, settlement houses, improved hygiene and free education, Exeter’s citizens must have wondered how these problems could be solved in a place with a smaller population, and fewer resources, such as their own town. He spoke twice – first at the Merrill Lecture held at Town Hall on Tuesday, February 25, and again the next day at the Phillips Exeter Academy chapel under the auspices of the Christian Fraternity. Riis has, in recent times, been criticized for his descriptions of immigrant neighborhoods in New York. His writing often reflects negative stereotypes of ethnic groups. Should we forgive him for this? His vivid photographs – even those rendered as line drawings for publication – tell us more than his words. Pictures of hungry barefoot children packed into crowded tenement housing often provoked more reform than mere description. Certainly in Exeter his slideshow would have opened many minds to the troubles of poverty. In this, he fulfilled Dr. Abner Merrill’s vision to “promote the general intelligence of the community.”
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org.
Image: Photo by Jacob Riis, “Sleeping homeless children.” Riis specialized in photo journalism utilizing the new technique of flash photography. His photographs brought the squalid conditions of New York’s slums into the homes of his readers. He spoke at one of the first Merrill Lectures in Exeter in February 1908.
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