Alice Austen (March 17, 1866–June 9, 1952) lived in Clear Comfort, a Victorian Gothic waterfront property on the Staten Island shoreline by the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, with her her life partner Gertrude Tate. This unique vantage point gave the photographer a view of the erecting of the Statue of Liberty (1886), troops returning from World War I and people arriving at Ellis Island. But she is best known for photographing whatever she encountered. In Street Types of New York, published in 1896, we see how she observed various people at work. At other times she took her camera by bicycle to tennis clubs, producing an archive of action shots, and on trains and boats to show us people aboard.
In 1945, Austen lost her fortune in the Wall Street crash of 1929 and was evicted from Clear Comfort. She and Tate were looked after by their families, none of whom approved of their lifelong relationship and denied their request to be buried together.
In 1950, Austen’s archive of 7,500 pictures were moved to Historic Richmond Town, formerly the Staten Island Historical Society. This month, her archive was returned to Clear Comfort, now known as Alice Austen House.
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“In this home studio, which was also one of her photographic muses, she produced thousands of photographs of a rapidly changing New York City, making significant contributions to photographic history, documenting New York’s immigrant populations, Victorian women’s social activities, and the natural and architectural world of her travels.”
– Alice Austen House
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