Heap-o-Livin: Photography From Wyoming Mining Town In Early 20th Century On Display At Alice Austen House

The Alice Austen House Museum announces its new exhibition Heap – o – Livin: the Photography of Lora Webb Nichols

Learn more online: https://aliceausten.org/lora-webb-nichols-heap-o-livin/

Staten Island, NY—This exhibition considers the female gaze and role of photography in creating intimacy. Wyoming homesteader Nichols (1883–1962) created and collected over 24,000 negatives during her lifetime in the mining town of Encampment.

The images chronicle the domestic, social, and economic realities of the frontier, with a focus on the role of pioneer women of the early 20th century and their duties as mothers, homemakers, and community cultivators.

Heap – o – Livin: The Photography of Lora Webb Nichols is curated by Nicole Jean Hill. Heap-o-Livin features a selection of images by Wyoming photographer and diarist Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962). Nichols created and collected approximately 24,000 negatives and 65 years of diaries throughout her lifetime in the town of Encampment.

Lora W Nichols photo. Image Credit – AAH

This exhibition will be on view beginning Saturday November 4th  2023 in the contemporary galleries of the Alice Austen House.

An opening reception was held at the Alice Austen House on Saturday November 4th from 1-4PM

Gallery hours are Tuesday – Friday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm and Saturday 11:00am to 5:00pm. For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact the Alice Austen House at 718 816-4506 or [email protected]

Nicole Jean Hill: Nicole Jean Hill is the co-curator of the Lora Webb Nichols collections, housed at the American Heritage Center in Laramie, Wyoming. Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962) created and collected approximately 24,000 negatives over the course of her lifetime in the mining town of Encampment, Wyoming.

The images chronicle the domestic, social, and economic aspects of the sparsely populated frontier of south-central Wyoming throughout the early 20th century.

Nicole Jean Hill has been working on preserving this archive in collaboration with Nancy Anderson since 2013, including digitizing the photographs, organizing the corresponding text, recovering the photographer’s diaries and letters, and collaborating with the Grand Encampment Museum and the American Heritage Center to secure a permanent home for the negatives.

Her book Encampment, Wyoming: Selections from the Lora Webb Nichols Archive 1899-1948 was published by FW Books, Amsterdam and shortlisted for the Aperture/Paris Photo Photo Book of the Year in 2021.

Banner Image: Exhibit graphic. Image Credit – AAH

Alice Austen House

The Alice Austen House is a national landmark located in Staten Island, and is operated by the Friends of Alice Austen House, and owned by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. The museum is open to the public, where the photographs of Alice Austen are on display, and there are also group tours and special events. From their website: “The Alice Austen House fosters creative expression, explores personal identity, and educates and inspires the public through the interpretation of the photographs, life and historic home of pioneering American photographer, Alice Austen (1866-1952).”