ROSEBANK -- A rare small photo portfolio shot by noted Staten Island photographer Alice Austen (1866-1952) was acquired recently at auction by the Alice Austen House, the Rosebank museum established as her legacy nearly 30 years ago. 

A highly motivated female photographer at a time when such a thing was rare, Austen is best known today for her photographs of genteel New Yorkers.  But she spent considerable time in the mid-1890s photographing blue-collar street scenes in Manhattan. 

She eventually published 12 of these images as “Street Types of New York,” a bound portfolio that is valuable today. 

When one surfaced for auction recently at Swann Gallery in Manhattan, Austen museum director Janice Monger and a board member attended and submitted the winning bid.  The figure was not disclosed. 

The specimen is “in very good shape,” Monger said, adding, "We didn’t want to see it possibly going into public hands and out of public view.” 

The museum already has one copy in its collection.  Acquiring a second, allows it to consider occasional loans to other institutions. 

Austen’s original “Street Types” were shown in 2013 and in 1994 in the museum.  A facsimile was published in 1994. 

The acquisition does not represent museum business as usual. “ We don’t have an acquisitions budget at the moment,” Monger said. “ But we’re hoping to change that.”‘ 

For “Street Types,” Austen made the trip from her home in Rosebank to Manhattan by ferry and bicycle, carrying 50 lbs.  of equipment.  From Whitehall Street downtown, she sought out immigrant enclaves and market blocks, places like Hester Street and the Fulton Fish Market.