The Brass Bowl

1904

First experiments with colour photography

He begins experimenting with colour photography and becomes one of the earliest in the United States to use the Autochrome Lumière process.

1 July 1904

Daughter born: Mary Calderone

1905

The Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession

With Stieglitz he creates the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession in what had been Steichen’s portrait studio; the gallery later becomes known as 291 after its address and presents some of the first American exhibitions of Rodin, Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso and Brâncuși. Constantly crossing between Europe and the US by steamship, he becomes, in the art historian William A. Ewing’s words, one of the earliest “jet setters,” bringing European art to America.

1908

His sister marries Carl Sandburg

Lilian, whom the poet Carl Sandburg met at the Milwaukee Social Democratic Party office in 1907, becomes his wife; the marriage helps forge a life-long friendship and partnership between Steichen and Sandburg.