Bicycle Messenger

Series TitleStreet Types of New York

Artist Alice Austen (American, 1866 - 1952)

Date1896

MediumCollotype

DimensionsImage: 3 7/8 × 4 1/2 inches (9.84 × 11.43 cm)
Sheet: 4 7/16 × 5 1/16 inches (11.27 × 12.86 cm)
Mount: 6 13/16 × 8 7/8 inches (17.3 × 22.54 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.3068

SignedOn image recto, lower left corner, in negative: "copyright / 1896 by / E.A. Austen."

Inscribednone

Markingsnone

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DescriptionImage of a young man wearing pants with a buttoned jacket and cap standing in the road with his hand resting on the seat of a bicycle. A printed sign is displayed across the center of the bike's frame and reads: "American Messengers Western Union Tel Co." Multistory buildings line the road in the background and people are gathered on the sidewalk.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Alice Austen’s series Street Types of New York City (1896) picture workers in lower Manhattan: a bicycle messenger, garbage collectors, a carriage driver. The entire portfolio included 150 portraits, an early example of social documentary portraiture in the United States.

Austen rejected gendered societal expectations and became one of the first women photographers to work prolifically outside a commercial studio. In about 1894, she began photographing on the streets of Manhattan, carrying 50 pounds of equipment on her bicycle. Austen lived openly with her partner, Gertrude Tate. Tate’s family rejected their relationship, and the women were buried separately upon their deaths.

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