Alice Austen (1866–1952)’s photographs of her friends provide “rare documentation of intimate relationships between Victorian women.” Austin spent 53 years in a devoted relationship with her partner, Gertrude Tate. They spent 30 of those years living together in a house on Staten Island, New York, now the Alice Austen House Museum, a nationally designated site of LGBTQ history. The Museum not only celebrates Austen’s life and work, but also exhibits contemporary works by LGBTQ artists.
Independently wealthy most of her life, Austen did not make living from her photography, but produced approximately 8,000 images in her lifetime. During the 1890s, she did take on a paid commission to document the people and conditions of immigrant quarantine stations in New York, which she exhibited and published.
Austen lost her wealth in the stock market crash of 1929. She and Tate were evicted from their home in 1945. What followed was a sad, but not entirely unusual tale at that time.
“Tate and Austen were separated by family rejection of their relationship and poverty. Austen was moved to the Staten Island Farm Colony where Tate would visit her weekly. In 1951 Austen’s photographs were rediscovered by historian Oliver Jensen and money was raised by the publication of her photographs to place Austen in private nursing home care. On June 9th 1952 Austen passed away. The final wishes of Austen and Tate to be buried together were denied by their families.” (from the Alice Austen House Museum website)
Austen’s extraordinary talent extended beyond her photography. She was a landscape designer, a master tennis player, and the first woman to own a car on Staten Island. In short, she was an independent woman who did not want to be confined by Victorian mores and social norms.
Julia Martin, Julia Bredt and Self Dressed Up as Men, 4:40 pm, Thursday, October 15th, 1891 Abbreviated Title: Self & others dressed as men Austen, Alice, 1866-1952, American [artist] American 1891 HOLLIS number: olvwork53956
Darned clut 1891 HOLLIS number: olvwork221237
Group apparatus - Misses Ward. Laweence, Elliot 5 x 7" glass negative 1893 HOLLIS number: olvwork221240
