Steichen, Edward (1879-1973). American photographer and museum curator. Born in Belgium, Steichen immigrated to Milwaukee, WI, with his family in 1881. He learned lithography and design through an apprenticeship, studied painting at the Milwaukee Art Students League, and began to teach himself photography in 1895. From 1900-1902, he studied in Europe, returning to New York City in 1902 to exhibit his work with Alfred Stiegletz. He served as commander of the photographic division of the U.S. Air Force during World War I. In 1922 Steichen’s first wife divorced him and he permanently renounced painting. In 1923, he married Dana Desboro Glover and was appointed Chief of Photography of Condé Naste Publications, producing fashion photographs for Vogue and celebrity portraits for Vanity Fair; his portrait of Cather appeared in Vanity Fair in 1927. Also in 1923, he began taking advertising photographs for the J. Walter Thompson Co. advertising agency, producing images for the Jergens Lotion account on which Edith Lewis was the copywriter. Steichen abandoned commercial photography in 1938 but was appointed director of the U.S. Naval Photographic Institute during World War II. He served as director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art from 1947-1962 and married Joanna Taub in 1960 after Dana’s 1957 death from leukemia.