Refuse Collectors
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)
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 number2005.27.3072
SignedOn image recto, lower right corner, in negative: "copyright / 1896 by / E.A. Austen."
Inscribednone
Markingsnone
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a horse drawn wagon on a cobblestone road with a uniformed man standing on the sidewalk. A row of brick buildings line the background.Gallery LabelAlice 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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Portfolio/Print in Portfolio