Alice Austen House: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ History Through Photography

STATEN ISLAND (PIX11) — She broke barriers in a profession dominated by men in the early 1900s and lived an independent life as a lesbian in the Victorian era.

This Pride Month, we’re taking a closer look at famed photographer and Staten Island’s very own, Alice Austen.

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PIX11 got a tour of the Alice Austen House, a museum dedicated to Austen’s life, work, and her place in LGBTQ+ history.

Perched along the shoreline overlooking New York Harbor with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in its line of sight, the charming cottage is nestled in a modern-day Staten Island neighborhood, yet what lies inside is a wealth of history.

It was the home base for one of New York’s most prolific and celebrated female photographers, who was also a pivotal figure in the LGBTQ+ movement.  Victoria Munro is the executive director of the Alice Austen House, now a museum in the Rosebank section and a nationally registered site of LGBTQ history.

“She was a trailblazing photographer who left us an archive of nearly 8,000 images of a changing New York City, but also a personal archive of incredible photos of her inner circle of female friends and of course, so many photographs of her beloved home,” said Munro.

Fearless in her profession, Austen was one of the first female photographers to work outside the studio. She would take up to 50 pounds of equipment with her, ride the ferry, and head onto the streets of Manhattan to document the city’s burgeoning immigrant community. She documented a time of massive change in New York City and the country as a whole.  Austen photographed immigrants in new professions in the FDNY and the newly formed sanitation department, now known as DSNY. Austen also took many photographs from the grounds of her home.

“Alice had taken over 1.500 images either from boats or of the water, so she really did document the working waterway, which is still New York’s entry,” said Munro. “Those immigrant ships would sail right past this house, and Alice documented the ships on the water, but also she was actually hired professionally to document the Quarantine Station.”

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Born in 1866,  Austen was a young child when she moved to Staten Island. Her grandparents had turned an old Dutch farmhouse into a Victorian cottage they named  “Clear Comfort.”  The original formal parlor remains, with photographs of the family on the walls and collections of Austen’s letters encased in glass. Austen’s uncles, who gave her her first camera, helped build her a darkroom in the house to foster and encourage her work. She was doted on as a child, and her family made sure Clear Comfort was left to her.

“She really broke the barriers about what was considered acceptable behavior for Victorian women,” said Munro. “She engaged in so many different activities, and she was really smart about creating safe spaces for her and her female friends to be and be free.”

The home was not only a muse for Austen’s work. It was also where she shared her life with her partner, Gertrude Tate.  Austen and Tate lived in the home together for 30 years, and by all accounts, they lived out and proud and very much a part of this community.

“She was an avid gardener and the founding member of the Staten Island Garden Club,” said Munro.  “She absolutely lavished care and attention on the grounds.”

The Museum has launched a horticultural program, the Queer Ecologies Garden Project. The current garden is filled with plants that are non-binary, self-seeding or symbolically queer.  It’s a nod to Austen’s devotion to the garden on the grounds.  “She lavished so much love and care on these gardens, and they would also travel the world and bring back cuttings and grow incredible plants,” said Munro.  “Alice would also throw parties for her wisteria when it was in bloom; she would ring her friends and tell them to bring champagne on ice so she really celebrated the grounds.”

Sadly, Austen lost her wealth in the 1929 stock market crash and struggled for years to maintain the property. Ultimately, she lost it and, in failing health, went to live in the New York Farm Colony, a home for destitute people.  Austen died in 1952.

“Alice knew her photographs were incredibly important, and she gave them to the executive director of what was then the Staten Island Historical Society,” said Munro.  “Her and Gertrude had been very involved with preservation here on the Island, and they had stewarded that larger collection.”   On June 21st this month, an event was held at Historic Richmond Town, where the Alice Austen Collection was repatriated to the Alice Austen House and museum.

The Friends of Alice Austen was formed and worked tirelessly to renovate the home and turn it into a living, breathing photographic museum that opened its doors in 1985 and still stands today.

“I think it’s really important that we have examples of pre-Stonewall history,” said Munro.  “We have just done boundless amounts of work to bring Alice back out of the closet; she was never in it herself in her lifetime, it was others who thought they were protecting her by not telling the whole story.”

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