Alice Austen

Alice Austen
Austen in Richmondtown, Staten Island on October 9, 1951, for her photo exhibition
Born Elizabeth Alice Munn
(1866-03-17)March 17, 1866
Rosebank, New York City, New York, United States
Died June 9, 1952(1952-06-09) (aged 86)
Staten Island
Resting place Moravian Cemetery
Occupation Photographer
Years active 1880s - 1930s
Partner(s) Gertrude Amelia Tate (1899-1950~)[1]
Parent(s) Alice Cornell Austen (1836-?)
Alice Austen House or Clear Comfort in 2002

Elizabeth Alice Austen (March 17, 1866 – June 9, 1952) was a Staten Island photographer.[2][3]

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 (c1800-?) and Elizabeth Alice Townsend (c1800-?). 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.[3][4]

Photography

Trude and I Masked by Austen
Alice Austen Watches her World by Austen c. 1910

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.[6]

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." [7]

Household

By 1900 her uncle Oswald was the head of household and the family had two servants: Katherine Wertz (1857-?); and Constance Rasmusth (1876-?). They also had a cook, Mary McDonald (1873-?).

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 companion. 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 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.[8]

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, and 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.[6] 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."[9]

Death and burial

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 owns over 7,000 original items (glass plate negatives, film base negatives, and original prints) by Austen, and they retain the right to license images in their collection.[10] This collection is cataloged, digitized, and stored in an archival manner at Historic Richmond Town.[11] The collection is available for study by appointment and high-quality images are made available upon request.[12] 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.

Timeline

  • 1866 Birth and baptism
  • 1917 Gertrude Tate moves in
  • 1929 Stock market crash
  • 1950 Declared a pauper then her rediscovery
  • 1951 Alice Austen day
  • 1952 Death
  • 1976 Clear Comfort becomes National Landmark

Legacy

The Alice Austen School, PS 60, located on Merril Avenue in the Bulls Head neighborhood of Staten Island, is named in her honor.[13] Playwright Robin Rice's drama Alice in Black and White traces Austen's life from 1876 to 1951.[14] The play also follows Oliver Jensen's search for and discovery of Austen and her glass plate negatives. The play received its world premiere at the Kentucky Center followed by a New York City premiere at 59E59 Theaters in 2016, the 150th anniversary of Austen's birth. (Both productions with Looking for Lilith Theatre Company). The play won the StageWrite Women's Theatre Initiative Award.

References

  1. ↑ "Her Life | Alice Austen House". aliceausten.org. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
  2. 1 2 "Miss Alice Austen, 86 Photographer". The New York Times. June 10, 1952. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  3. 1 2 Claire Wilson (March 12, 2006). "Rosebank, Staten Island: A Quiet Slice of New York Waterfront". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  4. ↑ "Alice Austen House". National Park Service. 2007-01-23.
  5. ↑ The queer encyclopedia of the visual arts. Summers, Claude J. San Francisco: Cleis Press. 2004. ISBN 1573441910. OCLC 54529572.
  6. 1 2 "Alice Austen House Museum". Historic House Trust. Archived from the original on 2008-02-16. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
  7. ↑ Dejardin, Fiona. "Austin, Alice". Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  8. ↑ http://aliceausten.org/her-life/ Accessed 1 February 2014.
  9. ↑ "Old Friends Honor Miss Alice Austen. Photographer For 50 years Has Her Day". The New York Times. October 8, 1951. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  10. ↑ "IMLS Treatment of Collections grant award to the Staten Island Historical Society to rehouse vintage prints in the Alice Austen Collection". Awarded Grants Search. Institute of Museum and Library Services. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  11. ↑ "IMLS Museums for America grant award to the Staten Island Historical Society for digitization of the Alice Austen Collection". Awarded Grants Search. Institute of Museum and Library Services. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  12. ↑ "Research and Library". Historic Richmond Town. Staten Island Historical Society, Historic Richmond Town. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
  14. ↑ "BWW-Review-ALICE-IN-BLACK-AND-WHITE-at-59E59-Theaters-is-Important-Theatre-Wonderfully-Presented-20160809". Retrieved 2015-06-04.

Further reading

  • New York Times, October 6, 1951, page 12; "Alice Austen Day"
  • ‘The Newly Discovered Picture World of Alice Austen: Great Woman Photographer Steps Out of the Past’, Life (24 Sept 1951), pp. 137–44
  • H. Humphries and R. Benedict: ‘The Friends of Alice Austen: With a Portfolio of Historical Photographs’, Infinity (July 1967), pp. 4–31
  • S. Khoudari: Looking the Shadows: The Life and Photography of Alice Austen (diss., New York, Sarah Lawrence College, 1993)
  • M. Kreisel: American Women Photographers: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography (Westport and London, 1999)
  • Novotny, Ann. Alice's World: The Life and Photography of an American Original: Alice Austen, 1866-1952. Old Greenwich, Conn.: Chatham Press, 1976.
  • Novotny, Ann. "Alice Austen's World." In Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics 1, no. 3 (Fall 1977): 27-33.
  • J. L. Roscio: Unpacking a Victorian Woman: Alice Austen and Photography of the Cult of Domesticity in Nineteenth Century America (diss., Buffalo, NY, State U., 2005)
  • Rist, Darrell Yates. "Alice Austen House: A Gay Haven on Staten Island is Reclaimed." The Advocate, no. 438 (21 January 1986): 38-39.
  • Rosenblum, Naomi. A History of Women Photographers. New York: Abbeville, 2014. ISBN 9780789212245.
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