Votives

Gertrude Tate lived with her intimate friend, Alice Austen, on Staten Island in the late 1800s, early 1900s. Given a camera at the age of eleven, Alice took over 1,000 photographs of life in Lower Manhattan and of her immediate surroundings on Staten Island. Her acute artistic and social sensibilities seal her passion for the art form. Gertrude was a dance instructor and devoted companion. The two women lived together for over fifty years until a fire forced them apart. Votives are selections from Gertrude's private daybooks.