Alice Austen (1866 – 1952) was a pioneer of American photography who lived and worked at 2 Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island with her partner Gertrude Tate. Austen took over 7,000 photographs of a rapidly changing New York City, making significant contributions to photographic history, showing New York’s immigrant populations, Victorian women’s social activities, and the natural and architectural world of her travels. What is especially significant about Austen’s photographs is that they provide rare documentation of intimate relationships between Victorian women. Her depiction of her non-traditional lifestyle and that of her friends, although intended for private viewing, is the subject of some of her most critically acclaimed photographs. Her former home is now the site of the Alice Austen House Museum and a nationally designated site of LGBTQ history.