14. Hell’s Kitchen

“Rough Places in Gotham: In “Hell’s Kitchen” on the West Side,” The Century Magazine, September, 1910

Long before Jessica Jones started cleaning up Hell’s Kitchen, this sketch was part of a magazine piece Bailey did in 1910 showing “Rough Places in Gotham.” It follows in the footsteps of Jacob Riis, whose 1890 book How the Other Half Lives raised public interest in the conditions of the urban poor. The magazine text referred to Hell’s Kitchen as “a district which has been prominent in newspaper annals,” alluding to its then sordid reputation.