Street Arabs in the Area of Mulberry Street

Riis took several pictures of these children, during the journalistic and photographic work that led to the publication of his landmark book How the Other Half Lives (1890), where they were published with the title of Street Arabs in Sleeping Quarters.

[1] In the late 19th century, there were a large number of homeless children on the streets of New York.

[2] In the photograph, three children apparently sleep close to each others near a heated vent at the bottom floor of a tenement on Mulberry Street.

The names or occupations of the children are unknown, but they seem to be very poor, judging by their clothing and from the fact that two of them are barefoot.

[5] The scene depicted in the photograph was recreated in the fourth episode of the TV series The Alienist (2018), set in the late 19th century.