Paper Short Abstract:

In a series of books published between 1902 and 1910, investigative journalist Hutchins Hapgood assembled a literary library of social types. His portrayals of marginalized individuals were written in the first and third person, merging subjectivities of self and others to address a tension of violation and care inherent in Progressive era reforms.

Paper Abstract:

Social photography and investigative writing created reflective surfaces for making the experiences of the laboring classes and recent immigrants in the United States broadly visible. Marginalized individuals and groups were studied in their places of living and labor. The method of documenting and exposing their lifeworld through empirical facts and research was needed for social reform and epitomized the moral philosophy of Progressive era reformers. Ghost images of marginalized individuals created the threshold that helped imagine the working classes outside their instrumental use in the labor force and mediated their observers' subjectivity. They were reduced to types that could be elevated to the ethical realm in which "sharing suffering" was possible (after Donna Haraway's When Species Meet, 2007). Hutchins Hapgood, whose investigative journalism was rooted in Progressivist methods of studying society includes autobiographical and proto-ethnographic works, Autobiography of a Thief (1903), An Anarchist Woman (1909), The Spirit of the Ghetto (1902) and Types from City Streets (1910). These writings portrayed the psychic life and motivations of an ex-pickpocket and burglar, an anarchist woman; and revealed social protagonists who assessed philanthropic efforts critically, offering a double exposure. He also captured the "life's little misfits" (1910) and the "ghetto" inhabitants (1902) of New York City. I am interested in how the merging of subjectivities, accomplished through first-hand accounts and autobiographies built from observations, conversations, and letter-writing, organized the margin that allowed crossing worlds and created a place of social encounter for sharing experiences of middle- and working-class individuals.