The cloth cutters of Ludlow Street

Jacob Riis took this photo inside a Ludlow Street tenement apartment circa 1905. Looks like the entire extended family was running its own mini sweatshop.

Notice the little pup under the chair at left. I’d never seen a pet dog in a Lower East Side tenement interior photo before.

He looks pretty content there, with all his people around him.

Tags: cloth cutting, Immigrants on the Lower East Side, Jacob Riis, Lower East Side, Ludlow Street, New York City 1905, New York City at the turn of the century, tenement photos