My Dear Alice: Recent Episodes
Pamela Bannos
19th century New York photographer Alice Austen’s life story through letters returned to her home decades after her death. The letters are a portal to photographic, women’s, and LGBTQ history.
Daisy invites Alice to “read between the lines” while Alice meets Gertrude Tate, who will become the love of her life.
/! elementor - v3.7.8 - 02-10-2022 / .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Chapter 2: 1880s Recreation (tennis-mania & summer resorts) Image attributions: (HRT) Historic Richmond Town archive; (AAH) Alice Austen House Museum collection.
22-year-old Alice Austen in 1888 1888 portrait by Austen's Uncle Oswald Muller. (HRT)
Bradish Carroll letter The opening letter from this episode. Bradish Carroll danced the Santiago Waltz with Alice - it is the music from which this podcast theme music was derived. (AAH)
1888 Tennis Group Carrie Ward (top row, left); Nellie Janssen (top row, right); and Bradish Carroll (seated with cane.) (HRT)
1888 Dance Card Dance card showing Alice danced the Santiago Waltz with Bradish Carroll. (AAH)
Emily Babbitt & Lieutenant Edwin Babbitt Alice's tennis doubles partner with his wife, who wrote Alice congratulating her on winning her tennis match. (AAH)
1888 letter from Emily Babbitt Fragment from letter from Emily Babbitt, as part of this chapter's narrative. (AAH)
1889 Costume Party at a Catskills summer resort Alice & Trude Eccleston dressed as nuns, advertising Pear's Soap. Charlie Barton seated in military costume. (HRT)
1889 Catskill costume party detail Detail showing Alice & Trude Eccleston dressed as nuns, with Charlie Barton in military costume. (HRT)
1889 in Costume (HRT)
1888 Staten Island's best women tennis players Published in Outing Magazine, Alice Austen is standing at far right in the top row. (AAH)
1885 Katie with Punch & Chico Alice Cornell Austen often wrote of Katie, the Austens' live-in helper who, among other duties, tended to the dogs. (HRT)
Alice Cornell Austen (Alice's mother) in 1887 Alice Cornell Austen with Tristan, the cat. (HRT)
1887 scrapbook page Alice's scrapbook showing 1887 & 1888 tennis news, obituaries, and other items. (AAH)
1887 scrapbook page detail Detail showing Alice's tennis results, her grandmother's obituary, and her aunt Mary Austen's obituary. (AAH)
Tennis Club receipts Facing pages showing membership receipts for the Staten Island Ladies Club & the SI neighborhood club, Ladies Tennis Club of Clifton. (HRT)
1888 Tennis Group The photo Nellie Janssen asked for - she is seated at top right. Bradish Carroll is at middle left with striped beanie. (HRT)
1888 scrapbook item Badge to attend the 1888 tennis matches. (AAH)
Lake Mahopac, 1888 Lake Mahopac, where Alice joined Trude Eccleston in the summer of 1888. (HRT)
Lake Mahopac today Lake Mahopac in 2022. Photograph by Pamela Bannos.
1888 letter from Effie Emmons Fragment from letter from Cushings Island, Maine, as part of this chapter's narrative. (AAH)
1889 the Ward family Violet Ward (standing, looking right), Carrie Ward (seated far right) and their father, a Civil War general, standing with bugle. (HRT)
1889 Tennis Group Group photo showing several of Alice's correspondents. (HRT)
1889 Bessie Strong Detail from group showing Bessie Strong.
Chapter 1: Introductions (the story / the house / the characters / the letters)Image attributions: (HRT) Historic Richmond Town archive; (AAH) Alice Austen House Museum collection. Letter album at Historic Richmond Town ArchiveAlbum of 1830s through 1870s letters written by Sarah Ann & John Haggerty Austen
Sarah Ann Austen Townsend in 1832John Haggerty Austen's 17-yr-old sister. Portrait, courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library. (AI colorized)
Alice's grandmother, Elizabeth Alice Townsend AustenAlice Austen's maternal grandmother, painted circa 1840 (HRT)
David AustenAlice Austen's paternal great-grandfather, painted in 1846 (HRT)
Alice Cornell TownsendAlice Austen's maternal great-grandmother, circa 1835. (HRT)
Alice's Book circa 1877Book given to a friend by Alice Austen as she was leaving her home. Returned to Clear Comfort decades later. (AAH)
Peter TownsendAlice Austen's maternal great-grandfather, painted circa 1840 (HRT)
1870 painting of Clear Comfortcirca 1870 painting by William Hart (HRT)
3 year old Alice Austen in 1869Studio portrait re-photographed by Alice Austen in the 1890s (HRT)
1883 letter from Auntie MinMinnie Austen Hicks Miller letter from Hong Kong - earliest letter in the collection. (AAH)
1884 envelope from BrooklynEnvelope for Bessie Hazard's letter - a fragment of it showing a child's scribbling from decades later. (AAH)
1884 letter fragment with more recent scribblesEvidence of the Mandia family's children's interactions with the letters they kept for 40 years. (AAH)
Clear Comfort in 188519-year-old Alice Austen on the house's piazza (AAH)
Julia & Alice at 19 in 1885Julia Martin and Alice Austen with Chico & Punch (AAH)
Auntie Min, Uncle Peter & Alice in 188519-year-old Alice with her aunt and uncle (AAH)
1885: Alice and Her FriendsAlice (far left) and Trude Eccleston (2nd from left) and friends in their bathing suits at Clear Comfort. (HRT)
1887: View from Clear Comfort's front lawnView of the Narrows from Clear Comfort's front lawn. (AAH)
2021 View from Clear Comfort's front lawnA cruise ship passes by Clear Comfort in 2018. Photograph by Pamela Bannos.
Chico & Punch in 1887Chico the chihuahua and Punch the pug on Clear Comfort's piazza (AAH)
1887 Scrapbook pageAn article about Clear Comfort in one of Alice Austen's scrapbooks (AAH)
Aunt Min, Uncle Oswald & Alice Austen18-year-old Alice with Aunt Min & her husband Uncle Oswald (AAH)
Elizabeth Alice Townsend AustenAlice Austen's grandmother in 1885 (AAH)
Alice Austen in 1887Dunn studio portrait taken in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (AAH)
Minnie Austen Hicks MillerAlice Austen's Auntie Minn, circa 1885 (AAH)
1888 Tennis GroupAlice in tie, middle in bottom row. Trude Eccleston, 2nd from left top row. (HRT)
Contemporary panoramic view of Clear ComfortPhotograph by Pamela Bannos.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT Opening music…[Bessie Strong]1885, July 19, New Brunswick:My dear Alice – Perhaps when you discover that this letter was written on Sunday, you will hesitate about reading it. New Brunswickers are never troubled with such compunctions, but with Staten Island people it may be different. You began your letter with a slurring remark about our “metropolis” or rather our weather, which was unjust, and words cannot describe the pain it caused me. However, I will try to forget and forgive. Have you heard the song “Forget, Forgive” by the same composer as “Some Day”?[Narrator]This is one letter among hundreds that were sent to 19th century photographer Alice Austen. I’m Pamela Bannos, in collaboration with the Alice Austen House Museum, and this is My Dear Alice, a podcast series that explores the life of photographer Alice Austen through her photographs and these letters that were discovered decades after her death. Here, we will piece together Austen’s story through her extensive ...