24 Facts About Alice Austen

Elizabeth Alice Austen was an American photographer working in Staten Island.

Alice Austen is best known for her street photography and her intimate depictions of women's lives and relationships in the Victorian era.

Alice Austen was born Elizabeth Alice Austen on March 17,1866, in Rosebank, New York to Alice Cornell Austen and Edward Stopford Munn.

Alice Austen was encouraged at a young age to pursue various activities and hobbies, and was first introduced to photography at the age of ten by her uncle Oswald.

Alice Austen was a self-taught photographer, and primarily used photographic plates and a camera manufactured by the Scovill Company.

Alice Austen meticulously recorded information about her photographs, including the glass plate brand, aperture, and exposure time.

Alice Austen used a darkroom, likely designed by her uncle, an amateur photographer and chemistry professor at Rutgers University, and produced over 7,000 photographs up through the 1930s, most notably depicting New York's immigrant populations, the inner lives and activities of Victorian women, and her travels to Europe.

Alice Austen is notable as one of the first female photographers to work outside of a studio and was known to transport up to fifty pounds of camera equipment on her bicycle.

Alice Austen is considered an amateur photographer as she was independently wealthy and typically did not sell her work to support herself.

Alice Austen's work was published in Violet Ward's Bicycling for Ladies in 1896, although she was not credited.

Alice Austen's work is today considered significant for providing a rare look into the private lives of queer Victorian women.

In 1897, Alice Austen met Gertrude Tate, a teacher from Brooklyn, while on vacation in the Catskills.

Alice Austen continued to take photographs of her home and friends, and of her travels in Europe with Tate, though many of her film negatives from the 1920s and 1930s were never printed.

Alice Austen was an active member of Staten Island society, founding the Staten Island Garden Club and participating in the Staten Island Bicycle Club.

Alice Austen is said to have been the first woman in Staten Island to own a car.

In 1929, Alice Austen lost her savings in the Wall Street crash, and she and Tate financially struggled throughout the Great Depression.

In 1944, Alice Austen was forced to sell Clear Comfort, and the pair was evicted from the house in 1945.

Alice Austen was declared a pauper by the state and transferred to the New York City Farm Colony in Castleton.

The Staten Island Historical Society sponsored "Alice Austen Day" featuring the first public exhibit of Austen's work.

Alice Austen passed away on June 9,1952, following a stroke.

Alice Austen was buried in her family's plot in Moravian Cemetery in Staten Island, and despite their wish to be buried together, Tate was buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn after her death in 1962.

The Friends of Alice Austen House was formally incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1979, and continues to operate the house and surrounding garden in coordination with the Department of Parks and Recreation.

In 1994, the Alice Austen House was the site of a demonstration by the activist group the Lesbian Avengers, who advocated for the acknowledgement of Austen and Tate's same-sex relationship.

In 2017, the Alice Austen House was designated as a National LGBT Historic Site, and received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to incorporate Austen and Tate's relationship into the museum.