Tuesday, June 23, 2020 – STATEN ISLAND ALICE AUSTEN PHOTOGRAPHER
TUESDAY
JUNE 23, 2020
RIHS’s 86th Issue of
Included in this Issue:
STATEN ISLAND
ALICE AUSTEN
PHOTOGRAPHER
Alice in June,1888-Photograph by Oswald Muller
Biography
Austen’s father abandoned the family before she was born, and she was baptized under the name Elizabeth Alice Munn on May 23, 1866, in St. John’s Church on Staten Island. She never used the name Munn and would initial her negatives with “EAA” for Elizabeth Alice Austen. With no household income and no husband, Alice’s mother moved back to her own parent’s home, which was known as Clear Comfort. Alice was the only child in the household, which now consisted of: Alice’s mother, Alice Cornell Austen (1836-?); Alice’s maternal grandparents, John Haggerty Austen (c1810–1894) and Elizabeth Alice Townsend (c1810s–1887). Also in the house were her mother’s siblings: Peter Austen, who was a chemistry professor at Rutgers University; and Mary Austen (1840-?) aka Minnie Austen, who was married to Oswald Müller (1840–?) who was the owner of a shipping company. Oswald was born in Denmark. Clear Comfort Austen in a June 1888 photograph by Oswald Müller
The house was built in the 17th century, but was expanded during the 19th century by Alice’s grandparents: John Haggerty Austen; and Elizabeth Alice Townsend. Clear Comfort was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark on April 8, 1976, one month after the 110th anniversary of Alice’s birth. It is also known as “Alice Austen House” and is located in the Rosebank neighborhood.(Wikipedia)
Photography
Austen became interested in photography when her uncle, Oswald Müller, brought home a camera around 1876.[5] Alice’s uncle Peter Townsend Austen was a chemistry professor at Rutgers who taught her photographic processing. Peter and Oswald converted a closet on the second floor into Alice’s darkroom. The earliest extant photograph by her is dated 1884. Over the next 40 years she produced around 8,000 photographs. Austen’s subject was daily life of the people of New York. She documented upper middle-class society on Staten Island and lower-class people living in New York’s Lower East Side. Her images of immigrants showed “a hesitancy and curiosity experienced by both photographer and subject.
Gertrude Amelia Tate
In 1899 Austen met Gertrude Amelia Tate (1871–1962), a kindergarten teacher and dancing instructor of Brooklyn, New York. She became Austen’s lifelong romantic partner. Gertrude visited Alice regularly and they spent holidays together in Europe. She moved in with Alice at Clear Comfort in 1917, overriding her family’s objection over her “wrong devotion” to Alice. They stayed together until, after the Stock Market Crash when they struggled to get by, Gertrude’s family offered housing to Gertrude, and only her, in 1950. They wished to be buried together, but their families refused this wish.
Photo Above “Playing Cards in the Austen Parlor, 1892
The Public Health Service doctor who asked Alice to record the quarantine procedures and equipment poses with his son on the Wadsworth.
Decline
Austen lived off the interest from the money left by her grandfather but the principal was lost in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. In 1920 Austen is listed in the Social Register of New York and was a member of the Colony Club of New York. By age 63, she had no income. She began to sell off her silver, art works, and furniture to get enough money to buy food and fuel. She then took out a mortgage on the house which was taken by the bank in 1945. She sold her remaining possessions for $600 to a second-hand dealer from New Jersey and called her friend Loring McMillen from the Staten Island Historical Society to take the photos. He stored them at the Third County Courthouse in Richmondtown.
She then moved to an apartment, then a nursing home. On June 24, 1950, she was declared a pauper and was admitted to New York City Farm Colony, Staten Island’s poorhouse. Rediscovery In 1950 Picture Press started a project on the history of American women and contacted archives for unpublished images.
C. Copes Brinley of the Staten Island Historical Society had 3,500 extant, uncatalogued Austen glass plate negatives of the roughly 8,000 she took.In October 1950, Constance Foulk Robert met with Brinley and McMillen to look at the negatives. Oliver Jensen came along on the next trip and he published several of the photos in his book Revolt of Women. He also wrote an eight-page story in Life magazine, and published six-pages of travel photos in Holiday magazine. The publications raised more than $4,000 for Austen and she was able to move out of the Farm Colony and into a private nursing home.
On October 9, 1951 Austen was the guest of honor at the first Alice Austen Day. She said: “I am happy that what was once so much pleasure for me turns out now to be a pleasure for other people.”
Austen continued to be supported by the Staten Island Historical Society and lived the next eight months in the nursing home, where she died on June 9, 1952.
The Society arranged for her funeral and she was buried in the Austen family plot in the Moravian Cemetery at New Dorp, Staten Island.[2] The Alice Austen Collection The Staten Island Historical Society at Historic Richmond Town claims it owns over 7,000 original items (glass plate negatives, film base negatives, and original prints) by Austen, but they do not retain the right to license images in their collection.
This collection is cataloged, digitized, and stored in an archival manner at Historic Richmond Town. The collection is available for study by appointment and high-quality images are made available upon request.The Alice Austen House Museum also has a collection of photographs, with about 300 on display in the resource room, which is open to the public.
Photo above Clear Comfort Bedroom
Alice and lifelong companion Gertrude Tate. Alice is seated on latter photo
FOR MORE ALICE AUSTEN PHOTOS PLEASE SEE ALICE AUSTEN.ORG
WHAT AND WHERE IS THIS?
Send your submission to JBIRD134@AOL.COM
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MONDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
“BLACKWELL’S ISLAND” Edward Hopper, 1928. View or Welfare Island from about 82 Street in Manhattan. Dome is the top of the Octagon, then the Metropolitan Hospital.
EDITORIAL
Just in case you did not hear, today is Democratic Party Primary Election Day. All islanders now vote at PS/IS 217 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
IF YOU HAVE AN ABSENTEE BALLOT, BRING IT TO THE POLL SITE TO HAND IT IN.
Judith Berdy
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
FUNDING PROVIDED BY:
ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION THRU PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDING
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDS THRU DYCD
REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION (C)
THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY (C)
WIKIPEDIA (C)
STATEN ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY (C)
ALICE AUSTEN HOUSE MUSEUM (C)
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rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
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