Alice Austen’s Staten Island

Alice Austen, the accomplished amateur photographer who was belatedly recognized as one of the greatest of her time (see frontispiece, page 2), lived most of her life on Staten Island. The result was a fine picture album of upper-class life on the Island as the nineteenth century rounded pleasantly toward its close. Feeling that the rural vistas of Staten Island, vulnerable to time, deserved to be kept for future enjoyment, Alice also took many pictures like the one above of Richmondlown—a pretty country village about (in 1898) to become, almost incredibly, part of New York City. A turn of the page will show lier fine winter study of the Narrows as seen from her own front yard; on succeeding pages a selection of pictures illustrates Island social life, which she fondly described as “larky.” The