Alice Austen is one of the first female photographers, and she lived in Staten Island, NY, at a home built by a Dutch sea captain who settled there in the early 1700s. In this photo Alice sits on a wooden fence post; she holds a camera up to her face and looks toward the left side of the photo.
Less concerned with decorum than with getting a good picture of the auto speed trials, Alice perches on a fencepost while Gertrude Tate quizzically watches the second photographer.*
Auto races brought out Alice's fiercest photographing instincts as she climbed a fence to get a good shot of early speed trials on Staten Island. In 1902, Alice in action was almost as great a shock to Staten Island society as an automobile race, for women were expected to keep their feet on the ground and their hobbies in the parlor.**
Of course, this race did not take place in 1902. 1910 is probably more correct.
Can PreWarCar afficionados identify the car?
Question, information and photo by: Don Bosco, USA
* Pictured in Novotny, p. 163
** Ppublished in the 1951 Life Magazine article "The Newly Discovered Picture World of Alice Austen,"
Extra information: typed inscription on the photo owned by the Staten island Historical Society: "Neg. No. B-39-c Old No. B-XXXVI (4x5) / Alice Austen on / Fence Post / [handwritten] Photographing Auto Racing on / Southfield Blvd. / c.1910 / copy negative made / from old faded print / enclosed in this / container / ..."