Alice Austen House or Clear Comfort in 2002
Elizabeth Alice Austen (March 17, 1866 – June 9, 1952) was a Staten Island photographer.
Early years
Alice'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 glass-photographic-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
Elizabeth Alice Austen in a June 1888 photograph by Oswald Müller
The house was built in the 1600s, but was expanded during the 1800s 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.[1][2]
Photography
Alice became interested in photography when her uncle, Oswald Müller, brought home a camera around 1876. Alice's uncle Peter was a chemistry professor and he showed Alice how to use the developing chemicals in a darkroom. 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 had produced over 8,000 photographs.[3]
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 Alice met Gertrude Amelia Tate (1871-1962) of Brooklyn, New York. She became Alice's life long companion. Gertrude moved in with Alice at Clear Comfort in 1917.
Decline
Alice lived off the income from the money left by her grandfather but all was lost in the stock market crash of 1929. Alice at age 63 now had no income. She tried serving tea on her lawn with Gertrude for a few years but it never provided enough money to pay her bills. She began to sell off the home's silver, art works, and furniture to get enough money for food and fuel. She eventually mortgaged the house which had been owned outright, but lost the title in 1945. Forced to move, Alice sold her remaining possessions for $600 to a second-hand dealer from New Jersey. When the dealer began emptying her home she panicked and called Loring McMillen from the Staten Island Historical Society for assistance. McMillen found her collection of glass plate negatives and he took as many as he could to the basement of the old Third County Courthouse in Richmondtown, rescuing them from being destroyed. Alice then moved to a small apartment but eventually moved into a nursing home. Her final indignity was on June 24, 1950, when she was declared a pauper with no assets 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. Oliver Jensen of Picture Press sent out a standard form letter to various archives and historical societies, asking if any had interesting images for the project. C. Copes Brinley of the Staten Island Historical Society responded and invited someone to look through the 3,500 extant, uncatalogued Alice Austen glass plate negatives of the roughly 9,000 she took in her lifetime. In October 1950, Constance Foulk Robert, a research assistant, met with Brinley and McMillen to go through the negatives. Constance brought Oliver Jensen with her on a next trip and an agreement was signed with the Historical Society. Oliver Jensen then published several of Alice's photos in the book Revolt of Women. He also wrote an eight-page story in Life magazine, and six pages of Alice's travel photos in Holiday magazine. The publications raised more than $4,000. Alice Austen's 1/3 of the proceeds was enough to move her out of the Farm Colony and back into a private nursing home. On October 9, 1951 Alice Austen was the guest of honor at an exhibition of her photographs at the Richmondtown museum where over 300 guests had been invited to celebrate 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."[4]
Death and burial
Alice continued to be supported by the Staten Island Historical Society and lived the next eight months in the nursing home, where she died peacefully, in her sleep on June 9, 1952. The Society arranged for her funeral and [5] she was buried in the Austen family plot in the Moravian Cemetery at New Dorp, Staten Island.
The Alice Austen Collection
The Staten Island Historical Society at Historic Richmond continues to conserve, preserve and restore the Alice Austen Collection through generous grants and donations. The Society owns and holds the copyright to over ninety seven percent of Alice's images.
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
References
- ^ "Alice Austen House". National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny32.htm. "For 78 years, this was the home Elizabeth Alice Austen (1866-1952), a remarkable photographer whose work predates in subject matter and technique the photographs of other giants in the field. Austen began her career in the 1870s, and, although she used subjects as other women photographers of her time, her pictures have a realistic and natural edge rather than the blurry romantic view advocated by magazines of the time. Austen also veered away from the conventional studio poses; instead she took pictures of people during the course of their normal activities."
- ^ "Rosebank, Staten Island: A Quiet Slice of New York Waterfront". New York Times. March 12, 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/realestate/12living.html. Retrieved 2008-06-26. "In July, the same group holds a picnic and concert with an 18-piece band on the grounds of Clear Comfort, the former home, now a museum, of Alice Austen, a native Staten Islander who was a pioneering female photographer."
- ^ "Alice Austen House Museum". Historic House Trust. http://www.historichousetrust.org/item.php?i_id=32. Retrieved 2008-08-05. "In 1877, at the age of 11, Austen received a camera from her uncle. She was immediately mesmerized by this new invention, and spent the next 40 years capturing some 8,000 images. She was often seen riding her bicycle around Staten Island and Manhattan, carrying almost 50 pounds of photographic equipment. Austen is best known for her street photography: photos of immigrants just off the boats from Ellis Island, street sweepers hard at work, postmen, bootblacks, and fishmongers. Her photographs bear witness to a strong aesthetic eye: she knew how to compose an image, what to include and leave out. Her artistic talents are evident in her photographs of nature, which were influenced by 19th-century ideas of nature as holder of both beauty and spirit."
- ^ "Old Friends Honor Miss Alice Austen. Photographer For 50 years Has Her Day.". New York Times. October 8, 1951. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00C13FE3E5C127A93CAA9178BD95F458585F9. Retrieved 2008-06-26. "Fifty friends of Alice Elizabeth Austen peered through the rain washed windows of the museum. It was 4 P.M. and the pioneer woman photographer was half an hour late for the greatest reception of her eighty-five years."
- ^ "Miss Alice Austen, 86 Photographer". New York Times. June 10, 1952. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0E1FFC3F5E177B93C2A8178DD85F468585F9&scp. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
Further reading
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