Faith, Hope & Charity : Social Reform and Photography, 1885-1910

This is a superbly illustrated exploration of how photography helped drive social reform in America at the end of the 19th century.

During the last decades of the 19th century, America's expanding wealth and influence moved progressive thinkers to evaluate the role of public institutions in providing for the welfare of a growing population.

Among the figures who became preoccupied with issues of social welfare was Francis Greenwood Peabody.

A chief tool in Peabody's didactic arsenal was the "Social Ethics Collection", a wide-ranging assemblage of photographs, maps, and charts that documented living conditions, educational institutions, hospitals, and charitable organizations, across the US and Europe. "Faith, Hope & Charity" is a superbly illustrated examination of how the Peabody collection sought to compel people of wealth and influence to philanthropic undertaking.