Finding Meaning in the Shadows

Helen Campbell. Darkness and Daylight, or Lights and Shadows of New York Life. Hartford, Conn.: Worthington & Co., 1892.

By the late-19th century, social reformers assumed the role of exposing underground urban life. Helen Campbell was one such reformer who wrote several books on women’s work and poverty. The 230 engravings between the covers of Darkness and Daylight were “from photographs taken from life expressly for this work, mostly by flash-light.” On the left is a portrait of Campbell, and on the right are policemen, ladies of pleasure, gamblers, street urchins, and other figures who are described throughout the exhibition and profiled in the Rogues’ Gallery.