My Dear Alice
Chapter 2: 1880s Recreation
.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}
Chapter 2: 1880s Recreation
(tennis-mania & summer resorts)
Image attributions: (HRT) Historic Richmond Town archive; (AAH) Alice Austen House Museum collection.
22-year-old Alice Austen in 1888
1888 portrait by Austen’s Uncle Oswald Muller. (HRT)
Bradish Carroll letter
The opening letter from this episode. Bradish Carroll danced the Santiago Waltz with Alice – it is the music from which this podcast theme music was derived. (AAH)
1888 Tennis Group
Carrie Ward (top row, left); Nellie Janssen (top row, right); and Bradish Carroll (seated with cane.) (HRT)
1888 Dance Card
Dance card showing Alice danced the Santiago Waltz with Bradish Carroll. (AAH)
Emily Babbitt & Lieutenant Edwin Babbitt
Alice’s tennis doubles partner with his wife, who wrote Alice congratulating her on winning her tennis match. (AAH)
1888 letter from Emily Babbitt
Fragment from letter from Emily Babbitt, as part of this chapter’s narrative. (AAH)
1889 Costume Party at a Catskills summer resort
Alice & Trude Eccleston dressed as nuns, advertising Pear’s Soap. Charlie Barton seated in military costume. (HRT)
1889 Catskill costume party detail
Detail showing Alice & Trude Eccleston dressed as nuns, with Charlie Barton in military costume. (HRT)
1889 in Costume
(HRT)
1888 Staten Island’s best women tennis players
Published in Outing Magazine, Alice Austen is standing at far right in the top row. (AAH)
1885 Katie with Punch & Chico
Alice Cornell Austen often wrote of Katie, the Austens’ live-in helper who, among other duties, tended to the dogs. (HRT)
Alice Cornell Austen (Alice’s mother) in 1887
Alice Cornell Austen with Tristan, the cat. (HRT)
1887 scrapbook page
Alice’s scrapbook showing 1887 & 1888 tennis news, obituaries, and other items. (AAH)
1887 scrapbook page detail
Detail showing Alice’s tennis results, her grandmother’s obituary, and her aunt Mary Austen’s obituary. (AAH)
Tennis Club receipts
Facing pages showing membership receipts for the Staten Island Ladies Club & the SI neighborhood club, Ladies Tennis Club of Clifton. (HRT)
1888 Tennis Group
The photo Nellie Janssen asked for – she is seated at top right. Bradish Carroll is at middle left with striped beanie. (HRT)
1888 scrapbook item
Badge to attend the 1888 tennis matches. (AAH)
Lake Mahopac, 1888
Lake Mahopac, where Alice joined Trude Eccleston in the summer of 1888. (HRT)
Lake Mahopac today
Lake Mahopac in 2022. Photograph by Pamela Bannos.
1888 letter from Effie Emmons
Fragment from letter from Cushings Island, Maine, as part of this chapter’s narrative. (AAH)
1889 the Ward family
Violet Ward (standing, looking right), Carrie Ward (seated far right) and their father, a Civil War general, standing with bugle. (HRT)
1889 Tennis Group
Group photo showing several of Alice’s correspondents. (HRT)
1889 Bessie Strong
Detail from group showing Bessie Strong. (HRT)
1889 Charlie Barton
Detail from group showing Charlie Barton. (HRT)
1889 Effie Emmons
Detail from group showing Effie Emmons. (HRT)
1889 Lou Alexander
Detail from group showing Lou Alexander. (HRT)
1889 Trude Eccleston
Detail from the group showing Trude Eccleston. (HRT)
1888 scrapbook item
Clipped cartoon in Austen’s 1888 scrapbook. (AAH)