Alice Austen Correspondence with George Rodney Booth
PI
Version: 4 (current) | Updated: 12/9/2025, 9:41:30 PM | Created: 12/9/2025, 7:27:04 PM
Added description
Description
George Rodney Booth Correspondence with Alice Austen (March 1892)
Overview
This collection comprises six digitized letters written by lawyer George Rodney Booth to photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen between March 15 and March 24, 1892. The items are scanned JPEG images of the original envelopes and handwritten pages, each accompanied by OCR‑derived text. The letters are in English and include postal markings that identify the sender’s locations (Burlington, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Delaware; South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and Staten Island, New York).Background
George Rodney Booth was a practicing attorney in the early 1890s and a close friend of Alice Austen, a pioneering American photographer from Staten Island. The correspondence reflects the social and professional circles of the period, linking legal practice, photographic commerce, and personal friendship. The letters are part of the Alice Austen Correspondence Collection housed by the Alice Austen House Museum.Contents
- March 15, 1892: Three letters from Burlington, NJ, discussing the shipment of photographic plates, Booth’s recent trip to Philadelphia and Delaware, and a comparison of Austen’s and Julia Booth’s intellectual interests.
- March 24, 1892: Three letters from Burlington, NJ and Staten Island, NY. Topics include a legal case involving a divorce hearing in South Bethlehem, a brief note to E. Allen Austin, and a reflection on the nature of legal arguments.
Scope
The collection covers a concise period (March 15‑24, 1892) and focuses on the intersection of photography, law, and Victorian social life. It includes correspondence that illustrates Booth’s professional activities, his travels across the Mid‑Atlantic, and his personal relationship with Austen. The material is limited to the six letters in the collection and does not extend beyond the stated dates or geographic locations.Raw Cheimarros Data
@alice_austen:person {full_name: "Elizabeth Alice Austen", birth_year: 1866, death_year: 1952, occupation: "photographer", residence: @staten_island_ny}
@george_rodney_booth:person {full_name: "George Rodney Booth", occupation: "lawyer"}
@julia_booth:person {full_name: "Julia Booth", relation: "friend of @alice_austen"}
@e_allen_austin:person {full_name: "E. Allen Austin", relation: "relative of @alice_austen"}
@burlington_nj:place {city: "Burlington", state: "New Jersey", country: @united_states}
@philadelphia_pa:place {city: "Philadelphia", state: "Pennsylvania", country: @united_states}
@delaware:place {state: "Delaware", country: @united_states}
@south_bethlehem_pa:place {city: "South Bethlehem", state: "Pennsylvania", country: @united_states}
@staten_island_ny:place {borough: "Staten Island", state: "New York", country: @united_states}
@rosebank_po:place {name: "Rosebank Post Office", city: "Staten Island", state: "New York", country: @united_states}
@new_brunswick_nj:place {city: "New Brunswick", state: "New Jersey", country: @united_states}
@clifton:place {city: "Clifton", state: "New York", country: @united_states}
@alice_austen_correspondence_collection:document {creator: @george_rodney_booth, date_range: {start: @date_1892_03_15, end: @date_1892_03_24}, subjects: ["Correspondence","Photography","Victorian social life","Legal profession","Friendship"], places: [@burlington_nj, @philadelphia_pa, @delaware, @south_bethlehem_pa, @staten_island_ny]}
@alice_austen_correspondence_collection -> contains -> [@file_1892_3_15_march_7002_booth_copy_jpg, @file_1892_3_15_march_7003_booth_copy_jpg, @file_1892_3_24_mar_11_1_booth_copy_jpg, @file_1892_3_24_mar_11_2_booth_copy_jpg, @file_1892_3_24_march_11003_booth_copy_jpg]
@file_1892_3_15_march_7002_booth_copy_jpg -> authored by -> @george_rodney_booth
@file_1892_3_15_march_7002_booth_copy_jpg -> addressed to -> @alice_austen
@file_1892_3_15_march_7002_booth_copy_jpg -> sent from -> @burlington_nj {when: @date_1892_03_15}
@file_1892_3_15_march_7003_booth_copy_jpg -> authored by -> @george_rodney_booth
@file_1892_3_15_march_7003_booth_copy_jpg -> addressed to -> @alice_austen
@file_1892_3_15_march_7003_booth_copy_jpg -> traveled to -> [@philadelphia_pa, @delaware, @south_bethlehem_pa] {when: @date_1892_03_15}
@file_1892_3_15_march_7003_booth_copy_jpg -> mentions -> @julia_booth {context: "similar minds"}
@file_1892_3_24_mar_11_1_booth_copy_jpg -> authored by -> @george_rodney_booth
@file_1892_3_24_mar_11_1_booth_copy_jpg -> addressed to -> @alice_austen
@file_1892_3_24_mar_11_1_booth_copy_jpg -> sent from -> @burlington_nj {when: @date_1892_03_24}
@file_1892_3_24_mar_11_2_booth_copy_jpg -> authored by -> @george_rodney_booth
@file_1892_3_24_mar_11_2_booth_copy_jpg -> addressed to -> @alice_austen
@file_1892_3_24_mar_11_2_booth_copy_jpg -> sent from -> @burlington_nj {when: @date_1892_03_24}
@file_1892_3_24_march_11003_booth_copy_jpg -> authored by -> @george_rodney_booth
@file_1892_3_24_march_11003_booth_copy_jpg -> addressed to -> @e_allen_austin
@file_1892_3_24_march_11003_booth_copy_jpg -> sent from -> @staten_island_ny {when: @date_1892_03_24}Metadata
Files (6)
OCR Text
Miss Alice Austin Rosebank P.O. 9 Da O I austen Union Ave New Brunswick New Jersey
OCR Text
Burlington Pan March 15th, 1896. My dear Miss Austen: I sent you a package by mail yesterday, containing the three plates and one of each set of pictures. I hope the plates will reach you unbroken. Egbert was rather slow about printing them, but there was a good deal of cloudy weather which threw him back. I have just
OCR Text
returned from a little trip to Philadelphia, to attend the sittings of the Supreme Court, and incidentally to Delaware, or vice versa perhaps. At any rate I went both places, whichever was the more (less) important. By the way, your mind and Julia Booth's run in remarkably similar channels. Some time about two weeks ago Julia took up the thread of your discourse, almost, one might say, where you dropped it, and urged upon me with arguments more or less logical and possible the same, that you were engaged in publishing the evening before you left here. I found by waiting a little time and asking some questions that who ever got a letter from you that day. In the face of it all, however, Julia insisted that there was absolutely no collusion. It seems strange how two minds should be so in sympathy. In half an hour I am due in South Bethlehem to hear a hearing and take testimony in a divorce case, which will probably result in my recommending the court to grant a divorce to you &c. I am doing some good to my fellow creatures. Believe me very truly yours, Geo. Rodney Booth
OCR Text
Buttehelm Pa March 24, 1892. My dear Miss Austin:— It was merely a statement of consecutive facts, a most natural inference therefore, and a question as to the correctness of that inference, which my letter to you contained. My imagination—which, so far as I am aware of its going on, does not indulge in most extraordinary
OCR Text
terms" (that's from your letter) had nothing to do with the matter at all. As you say, Julia must have overheard our conversation, or scraps of it, for it was quite loud enough to be heard in the next room, and that is the explanation of what would otherwise be a strange coincidence. I would about as soon lecture in the spontaneous beginning of life on the earth, as that the talking I had with Julia originated with her, as you suggest. I appreciate quite well all that you said upon the subject we were discussing that evening before you left here. I feel it much more seriously than perhaps I gave you to understand when we were talking together, perhaps more than I would be willing to express. But with all that there is much to be considered both pro and con, although you can only see like an advocate the affirmative side of the case that you are
OCR Text
Miss E. Allen Austin Clifton Rosebank P.O. Staten Island N.Y.
Version History (4 versions)
- ✓ v4 (current) · 12/9/2025, 9:41:30 PM
"Added description" - v3 · 12/9/2025, 8:35:02 PM · View this version
"Added knowledge graph extraction" - v2 · 12/9/2025, 7:49:15 PM · View this version
"Added PINAX metadata" - v1 · 12/9/2025, 7:27:04 PM · View this version
"Reorganization group: Correspondence_George_Booth"
Parent
No children (leaf entity)