[citation needed] The Survey is one of the earliest and most thorough descriptions of urban conditions in the United States.
Some seventy investigators, including Elizabeth Beardsley Butler, Margaret Byington, John R. Commons, Edward T. Devine, Crystal Eastman, John A. Fitch, documentary photographer Lewis Hine, and artist Joseph Stella, began work in 1907.
Immigrants from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe poured in seeking jobs and escape from poverty.
Survey director Paul Kellogg aimed to connect the reformist purpose with the latest methods of scientific inquiry.
He hoped the results would alert the public about the social and environmental ills raging in industrial America and favorably influence policymaking, both corporate and government, in Pittsburgh and throughout the nation.