On February 17, 2022, Doc Chat took to the streets of turn-of-the-century New York City to learn about a talented and understudied female photographer.

A weekly series from NYPL's Center for Research in the Humanities, Doc Chat pairs an NYPL curator or specialist and a scholar to discuss evocative digitized items from the Library's collections and brainstorm innovative ways of teaching with them. In Episode Forty-Four, NYPL’s Elizabeth Cronin, Assistant Curator, Photography Collection, spoke with art historian Bonnie Yochelson about the career and images of Staten Island photographer Alice Austen. Yochelson's book, Miss Alice Austen, Conservative Rebel of Staten Island will be published by Fordham University Press in 2023. 

A transcript of this episode is available here. 

Below are some handy links to materials and sources suggested in the episode.

Episode Forty-Four: Primary Sources

Elizabeth and Bonnie explored many of Austen's street scenes, held in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs at the New York Public Library. Digitized images of Austen's Street Types photographs can be explored in NYPL's Digital Collection.

They also discussed the following book, which may have inspired Austen's series of Street Types: 

Sigmund Krausz, Street Types of Chicago: Character Studies (Max Stern & Co., 1892).

Episode Forty-Four: Readings and Resources

Further resources on Alice Austen:

Gotham Center’s online exhibition about Alice Austen

For the Alice Austen Collection, see Historic Richmond Town Collections Database 

Further Reading by Bonnie Yochelson:

Bonnie Yochelson and Daniel Czitrom, Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York (New Press, 2007).

Bonnie Yochelson, Alfred Stieglitz New York (Skira Rizzoli Publications, 2010).

Bonnie Yochelson’s website

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Doc Chat episodes take place on Zoom every Thursday at 3:30 PM. Check out upcoming episodes on NYPL's calendar,  and make sure you don't miss an episode by signing up for NYPL's Research newsletter, which will include links to register. A video of each episode will be posted on the Doc Chat Channel of NYPL's blog shortly after the program. There you can also explore videos and resources for past episodes. See you at the next Doc Chat!