The Alice Austen House Museum on Staten Island recalls the world of an exceptional woman, photographer Alice Austen. Austen's quaint Victorian cottage-style home, where this black locust tree grows, has a magnificent view of New York Harbor and displays prints from the large glass negative collection of her work depicting turn-of-the-century American life. Taught by her uncle, Austen took up photography with a passion, shooting more than 7,000 pictures that captured a quieter Staten Island, as well as a growing, bustling New York City . The original house, one of the City's oldest, dates back to the 1690s.