Person Record
Images
Metadata
Name |
Austen, Alice |
Othernames |
Elizabeth Alice Austen |
Born |
March 17, 1866 |
Birthplace |
Staten Island |
Deceased |
June 9, 1952 |
Deceased where |
Staten Island |
Mother |
Alice Cornell Austen |
Father |
Edward Stopford Munn |
Role |
Artist |
Places of residence |
Staten Island, New York |
Occupation |
Photographer |
Notes |
One of America’s first female photographers to work outside of the studio, Austen often transported up to 50 pounds of photographic equipment on her bicycle to capture her world. Her photographs represent street and private life through the lens of a lesbian woman whose life spanned from 1866 to 1952. Austen was a rebel who broke away from the constraints of her Victorian environment and forged an independent life that broke boundaries of acceptable female behavior and social rules. Austen was independently wealthy for most of her life and has widely been considered an amateur photographer because she did not make her living from photography. However, in addition to completing a paid assignment documenting the people and conditions of immigrant quarantine stations in New York during the 1890’s, Austen copyrighted, exhibited and published her work. Alice Austen’s life and relationships with other women are crucial to an understanding of her work. Until very recently many interpretations of Austen’s work overlooked her intimate relationships. What is especially significant about Austen’s photographs is that they provide rare documentation of intimate relationships between Victorian women. Her non-traditional lifestyle and that of her friends, although intended for private viewing, is the subject of some of her most critically acclaimed photographs. Austen would spend over 50 years in a devoted loving relationship with Gertrude Tate, 30 years of which were spent living together in her home which is now the site of the Alice Austen House Museum and a nationally designated site of LGBTQ history. |
Related Records
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1995.9.116 - Print, Photographic
[Alice Austen and Julia Martin sitting in trees with dogs]
Record Type: Photo
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1995.9.146 - Print, Photographic
[Alice Austen and a man in formal attire at Clear Comfort]
Record Type: Photo
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2017.003.021 - Print, Photographic
[Alice Austen reading on the porch of Clear Comfort]
Record Type: Photo
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2017.004.027 - Negative, Glass Plate
[Minn Müller, John Haggerty Austen, Punch, and Alice Austen]
Record Type: Photo
