Opening:

[Bradish J Carroll]
My Dear Miss Austen,
          I have to thank you very much indeed for giving me one of those prints of the tennis match, as I particularly wanted it. I found it at home when I got down from the City today. Had I known it was on the way this morning when I met you on the Boat, I most certainly would have thanked you in person.
          I am going to frame all of them and hang them in my room so as to keep those pleasant days fresh in my mind.
Hoping to have the good fortune to meet you soon at some of the dances.
          Believe me, Most sincerely yours,
Bradish J Carroll

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[Narrator]
Mr. Carroll’s mention of meeting Alice Austen at some of the dances ties in with a notable item in Austen’s archive. One of her scrapbook’s dance cards (detailing an evening’s music by song, dance style, and with the penciled name of each dance partner) shows Austen danced the Santiago Waltz with Bradish Carroll in early 1889. It is the melody from which this podcast theme music was derived.

I’m Pamela Bannos, in collaboration with the Alice Austen House Museum, and this is My Dear Alice, a podcast series that explores the life of photographer Alice Austen through her photographs and these letters that were discovered decades after her death.

Here, we will piece together Austen’s story through her extensive photographic legacy, while filling in new details through these rediscovered letters that were sent to her historic home called Clear Comfort.

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[Narrator]
Chapter 2

Among the earliest letters in the boxes that were returned to Clear Comfort (now the Alice Austen House Museum), voices emerge that reveal Alice’s athletic and photographic prowess. In particular, her love of tennis crosses over into her photography, and this sometimes helps illustrate the letters.

Word of Alice’s photographs spread, and not long after she received Bradish Carroll’s letter, his opponent in that mixed doubles match inquired about the photos taken on the steps of the Ladies Clubhouse that same day:

[Nellie Janssen]
My dear Miss Austin,
          Do you remember the time when you took a group photo of us all at the Club House at the end of the Open tournaments?
I have seen Brad Carroll’s & as they are all so good, wouldn’t it be possible for me to buy one? The group where I am sitting down is the particular one, I want. You know what I mean?
          Just send me a line as to how much it will be, and I will send it to you. I hate to trouble you Dear Miss Austen, but if it inconveniences you too much, don’t mind about it.
Sincerely always, Nellie Janssen

[Narrator]
The group photos show an assortment of well-dressed tennis players with a clarity that makes them seem contemporary, except for the women’s long skirts and fancy hats, and the men’s dandyish outfits replete with derbies and canes. Although the men seem to have changed out of their striped tennis outfits, the women played the matches that Alice photographed that day in the long dresses they’re pictured wearing in the group shot.

America’s first national tennis tournament was held on Staten Island at the Cricket Club in 1880, just a few years after Mary Outerbridge is credited with setting up the first court there with equipment she had brought back with her from Bermuda. The game became so popular that multiple tennis clubs had formed throughout the Island, and the surrounding New York area.

Like others on Staten Island who had the space, Alice laid out a tennis court on the north lawn of Clear Comfort. And she photographed groups of her friends with their rackets and in their sporty clothes – the women’s which hardly seem conducive to moving around at all, although the corsets don’t appear to be as tight as those that Auntie Min wore. Eventually, women removed their corsets and wore skirts with tight belts and shirt waists – but which still kept them covered down to their wrists and ankles.

Alice got in on the local craze as a young girl, earning the nickname “Ping” from her Auntie Min. Along with newspaper articles, Alice’s penciled notes detail the highlights of her competitive play. She states that she first played in a tournament in 1881 when she was 15. Two years later she won the mixed-doubles championship of the Clifton Ladies Club, which hosted the games.

She also mentions that in 1884 she won the Champion Prize Pin for winning three years in a row; and in 1885, she and her mixed doubles partner won both the doubles & singles tournaments at the Clifton Ladies Club.

+++++++

[Narrator]
There’s a surprisingly thorough record of local sporting and social events in the New York area newspapers of the time, and this is also reflected in Alice’s letters. Here’s Bessie Strong after that 1885 tournament:

[Bessie Strong]
My dear Alice: –
          I purposely waited until after your tennis tournament should be over before writing to you, hoping that you would afford me an opportunity for congratulating you on a glorious victory. I have been searching the paper each morning for news of you and was highly delighted when I saw you had beaten two of your opponents. But yesterday news was not what I wanted to see, and now it is my painful duty to condole with you.
          Your name has been appearing in print a great deal lately, my dear. So far I have heard nothing dreadful of you.

[Narrator]
A couple years later, Emily Babbitt, wife of Alice’s one-time doubles partner, Lieutenant Edwin Babbitt, wrote from Fort Monroe, in Virginia:

[Emily Babbitt]
Hurrah for you my dear Alice!
          I wish I had been there to see you win the tournament. When I saw by the paper that the finals lay between Miss Williams and you, I fairly trembled knowing what an excellent player she is. But I am delighted that you are the victor and I congratulate you. You must have played a beautiful game to beat her and it is a good thing for the club that there was one who could defend at least one prize. I would have hated to have all the prizes taken to the other side of the island.
          Mr. Babbitt sends all sorts of congratulatory messages, and I send my love.
Remember us to your mother.
Emily Babbitt

[Narrator]
Another newspaper reported:

[Reporter]
“Miss Austen won the All-Summer Tournament at the Staten Island Ladies Club, in 1886.
In that year’s autumn tournament, Miss Austen & Miss Ward played through to the finals. They had never played together until in the match.
“It was said that nobody had ever played a prettier or more brilliant match.”

[Narrator]
And so now it’s time to introduce Violet Ward.

[Violet Ward]
Maria Emily Graham McKnight Ward

[Narrator]
Violet was a couple of years older than Alice, and she and her younger sister Carrie Ward…

[Carrie Ward]
Caroline Constantia Ward

[Narrator]
…were popular on the Staten Island tennis circuit.

Violet and Carrie lived with their widowed father, a Civil War General, in a mansion he had built on a 20-acre estate overlooking the Lower New York bay and the Narrows. The estate was called Oneata. Violet signed her letters…

[Violet Ward]
Oneata, Grymes Hill, Tompkinsville

[Narrator]
Their home, Oneata, said to be a Native American word meaning “kissed by dawn” was perched on the second highest point on Staten Island. The grounds are now the property of Wagner College – where there are still stunning views over the water towards Brooklyn.

Violet was well-known and active, holding roles at the various local women’s sports organizations for several years in the mid and late-1880s. The largest, the Ladies Club for Outdoor Sports, had nearly 200 members at this time.

In 1888, the New York Times reported that the national Lawn Tennis tournament was transferred from Newport, Rhode Island, to Staten Island and the Ladies’ Club for Outdoor Sports was excited to be a part of the planning … this led to a scuffle in their annual elections. The Times noted that of the two presidential candidates, one represented “the old conservative and aristocratic element in Staten Island society,” and the other was “said to be a more recent arrival … representing the new and progressive, or radical, element.” Violet Ward was the vice-presidential candidate on the progressive slate.

Several New York newspapers covered the election, one later reported:

[Reporter]
“the contest is said to have been exceedingly amusing, all manner of electioneering tactics being resorted to, even to the bringing of infirm and aged voters to the polls in carriages.”

“Miss Violet Ward, who is a well-known tennis expert and is quite famous as having been sunstruck and carried off the field insensible two years ago, has had several fingers in the electioneering pie since its inception. Miss Ward had been looked upon as a candidate for the vice-presidency on the Radical side, and although she was known to be electioneering very hard, nobody had a very clear idea as to which side her sympathies were with. Yesterday morning, having carefully laid her little trap, Miss Ward fired it by refusing to be considered as a candidate and throwing her votes over to the Conservative candidate who was unanimously elected.”

“There are those who say that this step was premeditated from the first, and that Miss Ward was nominated in pursuance of a plan not unknown among older and male politicians.”

[Narrator]
We’ll see how Violet was inspired and innovative in other ways when we’re further along.

By the way, Alice was elected as one of seven directors of the Ladies Club for Outdoor Sports during that notorious event. The voting roster and newspaper articles are pasted into one of her scrapbooks.

And so, although Alice’s possessions were scattered around the time of her 1945 eviction from Clear Comfort, somehow, her meticulous scrapbooks remain – albeit, also scattered within the separate collections of Staten Island Historical Society and the Alice Austen House Museum. The earliest remaining scrapbook, dating from 1881 through 1887 somehow ended up at a library at Harvard University in Massachusetts, and one at the Alice Austen House was returned decades after Austen left, having been found in a second-hand sale.

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[Narrator]
Those summers of 1887 through 1889 were Austen’s most celebrated tennis years. In 1887 she was photographed with a group of Staten Island’s best women players that was published in Outing magazine, and in 1889, she made it to the finals in single and doubles play but lost the final rounds in both. Throughout, and for several more years, she was one of the directors of the Ladies Club for Outdoor Sports.

Staten Island’s tennis seasons launched in May with the opening of the Ladies Club and closed with tournaments in October. During the summers Alice’s friends mostly left the city and Island for summer resorts in picturesque areas throughout the Hudson Valley and closer places, like the Hamptons – never quite leaving tennis behind.

In 1888, Alice’s friend Lou Alexander wrote from Southampton on Long Island, where she mentions her local Staten Island tennis club and she tells of a new club where she’s staying – that place remains an exclusive club today, more than 130 years later.

[Lou Alexander]
White Cottage, Southampton
Dear Alice,
          I haven’t heard if I’ve been elected or received by the club over at Livingston. Would you mind finding out for me? Because I want to pay my dues, if I have.
       There is a splendid club here. The courts are fine. The house itself is quite a large one. I believe they call it the Southampton Casino as well as the Meadow Clubhouse. This place is far from the city for businessmen, so the men that are here are mostly from college or else not in business. The consequence is they play tennis everyday all day long everyone goes down to the club in the morning and then they all march over to the beach from there and go in. There is always surf.
          I won’t be able to go up to Lake Mahopac next week. Hope you will have a Jolly time and write to me soon,
With much love,
Lou Alexander

[Narrator]
Alice’s small, atypical family did not partake in these summer resorts – although her grandfather loved going to the Mohonk Lake Mountain House just beyond the Catskills (still there since 1869) and he called the area “the prettiest place in the world.” But she was invited along with her friends’ families; particularly by her closest friend, Trude Eccleston, who right now was waiting for her to join them at Lake Mahopac.

[Trude Eccleston]
Lake Mahopac. July 20th
My dear Alice,
          I am trying to talk and write at the same time & I know I need not tell you how hard it is to combine the two.
          We have had such beastly weather up here since we arrived that we have not been able to do a thing but sit in the piazza.
          I took a row this morning around the lake, it is so beautiful. There are two beautiful Islands and I expect to spend my mornings reading in some shady nook, when it gets dry.
          We like the house very much indeed, everything is so clean and new and the table is excellent; not much style, but very good and I think I am in a fair way to get fat, much to my disgust. So you must hurry up and come and we will play tennis and row until we are skeletons.
          There is a very nice tennis court here better than any of the others near, it is not what we would call fine but it is quite level and right on the lake.
          There is a great dearth of men up here and although every place is full of people they all seem to be old people or very young girls.
          Now then, I must dress for supper; I just live in my old tennis suit.
          Write me soon all the news and arrange to come week after next.
Now then, farewell and give my love to all my friends with piles for yourself.

[Narrator]
Alice was enjoying the summer by going to local beaches (or as they said, bathing) and attending parties, like those given by the Clifton Ladies Tennis Club.
The summer social activities were booming, and Trude was working to get Alice to join her.

[Trude Eccleston]
          In the first place, I am delighted to think you are really coming up here on Monday and hope you will not be disappointed in my angelic disposition when the two weeks have passed.
          We had the jolliest ride yesterday afternoon. I never laughed so hard in all my life. I was the only girl and such singing and yelling I never heard before.
We hired a little steam launch and steamed all around the Lake in the twilight; there were ten of us and the boys had their banjos. You had better bring your banjo along.
          How I envy you bathing. Bring your bathing suit and we will find someplace to go in. The boys bathe every day and say it is delicious.
          Now then, Alice as I will see you so soon, I will not write anymore.
With love for all, I send, Lovingly, Trude

[Narrator]
Meanwhile, one Staten Island friend wrote to Austen from Fire Island, and another, Effie Emmons, wrote from an island in Maine. The letters were forwarded to Alice, who had already left for Lake Mahopac.

[Effie Emmons]
August 3, 1888, Cushings Island, Maine,
Dear Alice,
          How is Lake Mahopac? We are liking Cushings. Last night we went up to the hotel and danced. I had quite fun dancing with Morrill. He is lots of fun, full of the old Nick. But knowing so few fellows, I did not dance very much, and even if I had, probably would not have been asked.
          Oh dear! I should like to see you so much, you dear old thing. I suppose you are having a glorious time with Trudie but be sure and don’t forget me, if you do my wrath will be upon you, so beware, old lady.
          Well now, I shall take pity on you and close this uninteresting letter. I only hope you can get through without yawning.
Yours, Effie S Emmons

[Narrator]
Alice had joined Trude and the Eccleston family at Lake Mahopac for nearly the whole month of August, returning straight to her darkroom to develop her glass negatives and print the group photos and others, which of course she sent, to the delight of the recipients.
Still there, Trudie wrote back promptly, also describing what Alice had missed since she left:

[Trude Eccleston]
My dear Alice. Your prompt letter calls for a speedy reply, so here goes.
          I think the pictures you sent me to look at splendid. Mr. Manners saw the tennis groups and wanted me to ask you if you would allow him to pay for one.
          There was a large ball Saturday night; we all went over in full dress costumes. They threw different colored lights on the dancers, which made a lovely effect. The red light was immensely becoming; but the green and blue were ghastly. They call it Phantom dancing.
          We had a great time watching that Miss Michael. She had a fight with her lover and gave all her dances to another man. She has treated him terribly. It is the talk of the hotel. I would give a good deal to know what the trouble is.
          The tennis court is swarming with men from morning until night and unless I walk over with my racket, which by the way, is a perfect beauty, with a partner to hold me up, I never get a chance to play at all. Fortunately, they do not use any net anymore.
          I miss you very much indeed, my dear and feel quite lonely in my huge room.
          The people are beginning to go away and I say good riddance to bad rubbish.
          Now then, farewell and write soon. The family and friends in general wished to be remembered to you.
Much love. Ever your friend, Trudie

+++++++

[Narrator]
The following summer of 1889 repeated tennis and the getaways. Alice spent time at the Bay Head, New Jersey beaches with her Uncle Peter’s family before she left for a further vacation spot. Effie Emmons wrote from Keene Valley in the Adirondacks.

[Effie Emmons]
It is beautiful up here and I wish you could have come. I know you would have enjoyed it.
          There are lovely walks, and we have all turned out to be quite good walkers. As for me, I am simply crazy to walk up all the mountains. It is very wild, and the scenery is lovely. We are right up in the mountains.
          We went out on a straw ride Monday night. I never went to such a nice one; we stopped at a Hotel in the Valley and danced. It was simply fine.
          I am sure this place is much nicer than the Catskills. I shall try to stay until September, you had better come up and stay with me.

[Narrator]
But Alice went to Tannersville in the northern Catskills with Trude Eccleston’s family, and from the looks of it, she had a blast. In a pretty hilarious group photo of people in costume, including a Dutch maid and what appears to be a man in drag as a Spanish lady, Alice and Trude are dressed as nuns. They seem to be huddling in character behind a young woman in a low-cut dress, while a man seated on the floor in a military costume looks up at her, resembling an organ grinder monkey.

Adding commentary to their nun characters, Trudie and Alice’s white forehead veils read Pears Soap, and an ad hung around their necks reads “Good Morning, Have you used Pears Soap,” which was the British product’s ubiquitous catch phrase not to be escaped in New York newspapers. The nuns each have a hair brush dangling from their habit in place of a rosary. An ad in that week’s Life magazine stated, “In the United States Pears’ Soap has found a place in public favor equal to England. … That woman who goes to a summer resort and fails to take with her, as she would a tooth brush or a hair brush, a supply of Pears soap, puts up with cheap substitutes until her burning smarting skin makes life a burden…” The catch phrases were: “Fair white hands. Bright clear complexion. Soft healthful skin.”

The day before these costume party shenanigans, Alice’s mother wrote the first of three letters that give a glimpse into life at Clear Comfort and their mother/daughter relationship.

[Alice Cornell Austen]
My precious Child,
          I was so glad to get your letter. I know you forgot the ink stand, but did you forget the package of rosin, & Pond bottle with alcohol and a screw bottle of Pond? I found these standing around.
          I went to town yesterday and got a yard of silk for your blouse so you will have enough to finish it.
I went to a trunk store for a small strap but could not find one. I got two pair more black stockings for you if the others suit you. I hope you have enough summer clothes. You poor child, how did you ever manage to pack in such a hurry, I hope your things were not much crushed.
          Your Grandpy is very persistent about taking you to Lake Mohonk, he thinks you would like the rowing on the Lake so much. He wants to take you & I for a week if you wish it; I will do so as you choose. It is certainly a beautiful place, the girls go out in the boats with banjos and guitars, and at night there is music and singing all around. They fish off the piazzas, sitting in armchairs.
          Take care of yourself my dear baby; eat and drink all you can.
Remember me to Mrs Eccleston in kind, and I am, always, your Mama.
I am so glad you had a good room.

[Narrator]
Alice Cornell Austen’s letters are all the same length, filling all the space on both sides of two pieces of paper. She often talks of fashion and advises her daughter on proper dress.

[Alice Cornell Austen]
I am so sorry that you have not got your lace dress; it might have been easily fixed by tying the flannel with ribbon and putting a jacket of red ruffling in the back. I am peeved with myself for not having done so. The fact is you want all kinds of dress when you go away.

[Narrator]
The letters sometimes read as stream of consciousness as she fills Alice in on local occurrences.

[Alice Cornell Austen]
There has been a big German picnic and clambake at the dog breeders today. They have been singing in chorus and cooking incessantly. Fritz was very busy singing & cooking at once.
          I saw Miss Jimmy Hopkins on the train the other day, she thinks you are a wonderful girl, with tennis, photographing, doing so many things well. I told her about your cooking which quite surprised her. She is a person of good taste. I may go and see her.

[Narrator]
And she adds her little asides.

[Alice Cornell Austen]
Christina went up to Dr Hasbronck, and had eight front teeth pulled out. Her looks are not improved thereby.

[Narrator]
She often speaks of Katie, their live-in helper who also tends to the dogs at Clear Comfort:

[Alice Cornell Austen]
Katie takes great care of the dogs; oils and washes them. Chico shows no signs of running away.

[Narrator]
And of course offers motherly advice, speaks of the weather, and shares local news.

[Alice Cornell Austen]
I hope you get plenty of sleep, and drink milk if it is good there. Do you find any good subjects for the camera? Your Grandpy is talking all the time about Lake Mohonk. Do not think of hurrying from Catskill for that.
          I do not know if you see any newspapers, so I will enclose a slip about Narragansett tennis. It must have been an exciting game. Have you heard from Effie? I have forwarded all letters that have come for you.
          Tell me all about yourself when you next write; every day they ask here, ‘Anything from Loll?’
Your affectionate Mama

[Narrator]
The third letter arrived at the start of Alice’s final week away. Clearly she had not been following the Pears’ Soap regiment. And she had also been a part of an incident involving an errant bull that made it to the local papers. Alice’s mother refers to Charlie Barton, who was a fixture in the friendship circle and was also the fellow on the floor dressed in the military costume in the group photo.

[Alice Cornell Austen]
My dear little Lollie,
          I heard of you from Charlie Barton who came round one evening. He said you had sunburned one of your cheeks and was bathing it with Pond for it hurt you; you poor child, how did you manage to get so burnt.
          We are going on very quietly here, everything just the same. Katie scents the dogs and gets a dreadful lot of fleas off Chico. What she picked off yesterday were the biggest and blackest I had ever seen.
          There is a thrilling account in the Herald today of a party, of which you were one, being attacked by a bull and rescued by Sam Eccleston.
          Do keep away from fields with cattle in them. I so hate the sight of a bull. Who could have written the account? I have saved it if you do not see it.
          I hope your shoes arrived safely; they were a mass of green mold when I opened the box. I put them right in the sun. I thought you certainly had them with you.
          You must arrange to suit yourself about coming home; it seems a long time since I saw my dearest Babe.
Your Mama

[Narrator]
Alice was gone for three weeks, returning at the end of August, with time to prepare for the fall tennis season. Before she left, she had mailed a letter to a man who she met while at Bay Head, when she was staying with her Uncle Peter’s family. Her letter reached him at Manhattan’s Lawyer’s Club exactly one month later, and his return letter came from The Players Club, which remains there today:

[Henry K Gilman]
September 24th: The Players, Gramercy Park
My dear Miss Austen,
          Your note of August 24th has calmly reposed in the dispatch box at the Lawyers Club under the letter “G” until today when I came across it in getting my last month’s vouchers – It is so rare a thing for me to receive a letter there that I seldom look in the box, as all my mail goes either to Flushing or to 10 Wall Street and I was under the impression that I had given you that address. However, as I have received it at last, no harm has been done, and I acquit you at once of any charge of being an unfaithful correspondent.
          The main object of this note is to say that I saw Mrs. Nellie Austen at Bayhead on Sunday and since she is to be in this vicinity the first week in October, I hope we will be able to arrange some kind of a wild Spree – which will include a trip to the theatre and some kind of a celebration at the Lawyers Club if that is agreeable to you.
          It is just possible that I may have to go to Chicago next week and I would therefore suggest, that in selecting the date for the jaunt, you should select an evening early in the week, and I will try to arrange my plans to correspond.
          Let me hear from you and please direct your note to 10 Wall St.
Yours sincerely, Henry K Gilman

[Narrator]
Henry Gilman comes across as very proper – and in my opinion, a little stuffy in comparison to Alice, who invited him to her tennis tournament in reply to his letter. This didn’t go over very well, as it seems Mr Gilman took it as a slight that her plans did not allow for his suggestion to arrange some kind of a wild spree:

[Henry K Gilman]
My dear Miss Austen
          Pardon my delay in replying to your note, but I have been so busy that it has been quite out of the question for me to even consider the question of taking a day off – or even an afternoon to see your tennis games –
I hope you will give my best regards to Mrs. Austen if she is still with you and I very much regret that your engagements will not admit of our carrying out the plan suggested.
          Hoping to see you in the not distant future.
I am Truly Yours,
Henry K Gilman

[Narrator]
Alice was in the middle of her most celebrated tennis tournament, winning singles and doubles matches, and over the next few days heading to the final rounds where she would lose both matches. It was probably just as well that Mr. Gilman was not present. Ten days later, he tried again.

[Henry K Gilman]
October 14th: The Players, 10 Gramercy Park, Sunday evening
My dear Miss Austen,
          I have just returned from the last visit of the season at Bayhead, which seems to be almost deserted, save for the faithful Austen contingent whose hospitality I have been enjoying.
          I was sorry not to be able to get to Staten Island for the Tennis Tournament in which you figured, but I am promising myself the pleasure of calling upon you this week, and if it is agreeable to you, will devote Wednesday evening to that purpose.
          Will, if you please, let me hear from you between now and Wednesday and if any other time will be more acceptable to you, please so indicate.
          Hoping to see you, I am, as always, sincerely yours, Henry K Gilman.
Will you please give the wandering boy some brief directions for finding the house.

[Narrator]
We’ll be hearing a lot more from Henry K Gilman.

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[Narrator]
So, to conclude the 1880’s, here is Bessie Strong writing on New Year’s Eve the first of her yearly thank you notes to Alice for her Christmas gift, that also comes with an inventory report of her own.

[Bessie Strong]
December 31, 1889: New Brunswick.
My Dear Alice,
          I am indebted to you for the beautiful photographs and should have written you my thanks and appreciation, had I not been the victim of La Grippe. It came on while I was on my way to New York the Monday before Christmas, and I could barely get through my lesson and a little shopping I had to do. Came home almost wild with a blinding headache, sore throat, chills, and the worst backache I ever experienced.
          Was nearly crazy Tuesday night as my back had ached steadily for 2 days and I could not sleep.
          Christmas day was not very hilarious for me, as I could not sit up. But I felt better, and my presents were so lovely they cheered me up.
          Jack Van Dyke came up to dinner and brought me just what I had wanted: a silver button hook; he always manages to get the right thing. Mrs. Macauley and Rosalie gave me silver bonbonnieres and Bessie Palmer a silver hair pin. That was the extent of my silverware.
          Then I had a Mackintosh, two exceedingly pretty table covers, a sofa cushion, cup and saucer, embroidered handkerchief, “Character Sketches from Dickens” beautifully illustrated, a bookmark, lacquer tray, and a few other little things; in all twenty presents!
          As you can imagine it takes me some time to acknowledge all these things as they come from all points of the compass.
          Have just finished Miss Alcott’s life and letters and found it charming. One of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while.
          Hope you will have a pleasant New Year’s day. My best wishes for all. Mother sends love and a Happy New Year and hopes with me that we shall see you here before long. Everything is so stupid, though, just now.
With much love, as ever yours, Elisabeth

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[Narrator]
In the next episode, boy crazy Trude Eccleston’s dalliances seem to lead to Alice Austen’s most provocative photographs for which she is best known today:

[Trude Eccleston]
I am having two very flourishing flirtations with Dr. Edie & Mr. Gregg. I like the latter better, but I don’t let on I do.

+++++++

[Narrator]
This episode featured the following voice talent in their order of appearance: Nicholas Kinney, Casey Wangman, Natalie Welber, Ella Stevens, Tom Bannos, Madeleine Bagnall, Maya Slaughter, Rachel Hilbert, Reute Butler, and Benjamin Jouras.

Sound editor: Kendall Barron
Original music by Nicolas Rosa-Palermo and me, Pamela Bannos.
Other music from FreeSound and other public domain sources. A couple pieces were played by The Edwardian Pianist. Links are in the website that accompanies this podcast – where you will also find images, and some letters and photographs referred to in each episode.

Cast in the order of appearance:
Bradish J Carroll: NICHOLAS KINNEY 
Nellie Janssen: CASEY WANGMAN
Bessie Strong: NATALIE WELBER
Lou Alexander: ELLA STEVENS
Newspaper reporter: TOM BANNOS
Violet Wart: MADELEINE BAGNALL
Effie Emmons: MAYA SLAUGHTER
Trude Eccleston: RACHEL HILBERT
Alice Cornell Austen: REUTE BUTLER
Henry K Gilman: BENJAMIN JOURAS

Voices in the introduction (in order):
Ella Stevens
Maya Slaughter
Ella Stevens
Kylie Boyd
Natalie Welber
Graham Goodwin
Madeleine Bagnall
Efren Ponce
Cristina Bragalone
Reute Butler
Ella Stevens
Benjamine Jouras
Kristen Waagner

MUSIC FILES USED IN THIS EPISODE:

Theme music by Nicolas Rosa-Palermo: Interpretation of the 1889 Santiago Waltz 

The Edwardian Pianist (Adam Ramet) by permission:
1860:The Evening Star Waltz, by Henry Farmer.
1877: Celestial Beauty Waltz, by George Jervis Rubini
The Edwardian Pianist’s YouTube Channel

Sheet Music Singer (Fred Feild) by permission:
1855: Listen to the Mocking Bird (derived from)
The Sheet Music Singer’s YouTube Channel

Musopen website:
1835: Frederic Chopin, Waltz in B minor, Op. 69 no. 2 (licensed under Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 license)

Freesound website music:
Liezen3: Cello Ensemble Trio (licensed under CC Attribution 0 license)
Darkash28: Funny music (orchestra) (licensed under CC Attribution 0 license)
1854 D.E. Jannon, Amy Waltz, played on 1890 parlor guitar by Lucas Gonze (licensed under CC  Attribution 3.0 License)
Grape Lemon: Musicbox (licensed under CC Attribution 0 license)

Pamela Bannos:
Flute melody (2 melodies)
Flute guitar brass melody
Lilty Waltz variations (Bessie Strong music)

1888 portrait of 22-year-old Alice Austen by her uncle Oswald Muller

The 1888 letter from Bradish J. Carroll that opens this episode – from the Alice Austen House Museum Letter Collection.

The dance card showing that Alice danced the Santiago Waltz with Bradish Carroll in February 1899. This podcast’s theme music is derived from that melody.

Lieutenant Edwin Babbit and Emily Babbitt. Edwin Babbit was Alice Austen’s tennis doubles partner during this period. Emily Babbitt wrote Alice congratulating her on her solo tennis victory. (Negative in the Historic Richmond Town Archive; print in the Alice Austen House Collection.)

1889 costume party: Alice Austen & Trude Eccleston dressed as nuns, advertising Pear’s Soap. This summer party took place at a resort in Tannersville, in the Catskills.

This group on the Staten Island Ladies Club piazza with Nellie Janssen seated appears to be the photograph that Janssen wrote Austen about, asking if she could buy a copy.

Outing Magazine, November 1887, image featuring Alice Austen with Staten Island’s best women tennis players. (From Alice Austen scrapbook in the Alice Austen House Museum collection.)

Katie, the Austens’ live in helper in 1885, on Clear Comfort’s steps with Chico, the chihuahua and Punch, the pug.

50-year-old Alice Cornell Austen (Alice’s mother) holding the Austens’ cat, Tristen, in 1887

1887-1888 scrapbook page showing clippings that include tennis items, as well as obituaries and marriage and engagement notices. Image detail shows Alice and Lieutenant Babbit’s doubles loss, followed by her grandmother and great-aunt’s obituaries. Elizabeth Alice Townsend Austen was Alice Austen’s namesake. Mary Austen Townsend married Elizabeth’s brother, Isaac. Three Austen siblings married three Townsend siblings.

Scrapbook open page spread showing Alice’s membership receipts from the Staten Island Ladies Tennis Club, and the more local Ladies Tennis Club of Clifton. (From Alice Austen scrapbook in the Alice Austen House Museum collection.)

Two posed tennis groups on the steps of the Staten Island Ladies Tennis Club, taken on the days of the October 1888 tournaments.

Alice Austen’s paper medallion ticket for the 1888 tournament. (From Alice Austen scrapbook in the Alice Austen House Museum collection.)

Lake Mahopac, NY, where Alice joined Trude Eccleston in the summer of 1888.
Contemporary photo of Lake Mahopac, taken by Pamela Bannos in the summer of 2022.

The Ward family. Violet stands at the right, gazing out of the frame; her sister Carrie is seated at the right, looking to the left. Their father, Civil War general William G. Ward. The group is in a parlor at the Ward estate on Staten Island, called Oneata.

1888 tennis group showing several of the correspondents in the letter collection.
Detail images show Trude Eccleston, Bessie Strong, Effie Emmons, Lou Alexander, and Charlie Barton.