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Primary Source Sets
Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and the Urbanization of Chicago
An excerpt from essay by undercover journalist Bessie Van Vorst about working women’s labor conditions, 1903.

An excerpt from essay by undercover journalist Bessie Van Vorst about working women’s labor conditions, 1903.

Bess Van Vorst’s investigative journalism article, “The woman that toils,” features text and illustrations detailing the challenges of women’s factory work and tenement life in Chicago. Van Vorst and her sister-in-law Marie Van Vorst posed as working women to experience these conditions firsthand. The authors were frequently criticized for having a condescending attitude toward their subjects.

Citation Information
Van Vorst, Bessie, excerpt from “The woman that toils,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/cafc5a0b8952774bfcca2eaa94bca0b2.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Claremont Colleges Library via California Digital Library.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 7 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and the Urbanization of Chicago

Previous ItemNext Item
An excerpt of the opening pages from the novel Sister Carrie, 1900.
Theodore Dreiser’s new foreword to his novel Sister Carrie, 1917.
A photograph of crowds outside the Chicago department store Marshall Field & Co., 1910.
A photograph of the beautiful interior of Chicago department store Marshall Field & Co., 1900.
A photograph of the downtown Chicago shopping district, 1905.
A photograph of young children working in a bottle factory in Chicago, ca. 1900.
An excerpt from essay by undercover journalist Bessie Van Vorst about working women’s labor conditions, 1903.
An excerpt from Jane Addams’s book, Twenty Years at Hull-House, 1910.
An excerpt from D. M. Thompson’s report on urban development and public improvements of US cities, 1889.
A clip from a film on urbanization by the Bureau of the Census, 1960.
An excerpt from Enrico Ferri’s Socialism and Positive Science, 1906.
An essay about Theodore Dreiser excerpted from a book titled Theodore Dreiser, America’s Foremost Novelist, 1917.
An excerpt from Augustin Daly’s melodrama, Under the Gaslight, first produced in 1867.
An illustration from Augustin Daly’s melodrama, Under the Gaslight, first produced in 1867.

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