Jacob Riis was an American social reformer and author who wrote about the plight of the poor in New York City. His most famous work, How the Other Half Lives, was published in 1890 and exposed the squalid living conditions of the city's slums. Asher B. Durand was an American painter and engraver who was a member of the Hudson River School. He is best known for his painting Kindred Spirits, which was commissioned by the art patron and poet William Cullen Bryant.