Alfred Stieglitz 1864-1946

large-format photogravure on tissue, as issued, in 291, Nos. 7-8 (New York: Published by '291,' 291 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y., September-October 1915, a projected edition of 100 deluxe copies and 1,000 regular copies), in the original printed wrappers, with texts by Paul Haviland and Marius De Zayas, 1915.  Folio, single sheet, folding 

The photographer to Georgia O'Keeffe

Doris Bry, New York, acquired from the above

Paul Katz, New York, as agent

Acquired by the Gilman Paper Company from the above, 1979

Other prints of The Steerage:

Greenough 310

Camera Work Number 36 (1911)

Dorothy Norman, Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer (Aperture, 1973), pl. XVI; Aperture edition, p. 65

Sarah Greenough, Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries (National Gallery of Art, 2000, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 30

Sarah Greenough and Juan Hamilton, Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings (National Gallery of Art,1983, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 18

Therese Mulligan, ed., The Photography of Alfred Stieglitz: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Enduring Legacy (George Eastman House, 2000), fig. 9

William Innes Homer, Stieglitz and the American Avant-Garde (Boston, 1977), pl. 34

Robert Doty, Photo-Secession: Photography as a Fine Art (George Eastman House, 1960), pl. I

Waldo Frank et al., America and Alfred Stieglitz (New York, 1934), pl. XXVII – B

Doris Bry, Alfred Stieglitz: Photographer (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1965 and 1996, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 8

Jonathan Green, ed., Camera Work: A Critical Anthology (Aperture, 1973), p. 307

Beaumont Newhall, The History of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (The Museum of Modern Art, 1964), p. 112

Barbara Haskell, The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-1950 (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1999, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 94

Martha A. Sandweiss, Masterworks of American Photography: The Amon Carter Museum Collection (Birmingham, 1982), pl. 74

According to Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Burty Haviland and Marius De Zayas, the two major forces behind the avant-garde publication 291, suggested that a large-format photogravure of The Steerage be featured in a double issue.  Stieglitz continually received requests for the image, and it was hoped that its appearance in 291 would satisfy those requests and also benefit the journal.  Stieglitz directly oversaw the printing of The Steerage on two types of paper: Japan vellum for the inexpensive regular edition, and thinner Japan tissue for the deluxe edition, as seen in the issue of 291 offered here. 

Stieglitz was chagrined to discover that beyond the 100 paid subscribers to the regular edition of 291, and 8 to the deluxe, there were no further purchasers of either edition.  After 291 had ceased publication, he destroyed most of the unsold issues; consequently, surviving copies of this double number of 291, and its attendant large-format photogravure on tissue, are scarce (cf. Dorothy Norman, Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer, p. 127).   

Haviland and De Zayas both wrote short texts to accompany The Steerage for its appearance in 291, and these appear in English on the front wrapper, and in French on the rear. De Zayas wrote, ‘The task accomplished by Stieglitz’s photography has been to make objectivity understood for it has given it the true importance of a natural fact.’  Stieglitz himself said of The Steerage, ‘If all my photographs were lost and I were represented only by The Steerage, that would be quite all right.’