Edward Steichen said in his 1963 autobiography, “I have always felt that, when my little sister acquired a husband, I acquired a brother.” These three people remained inextricably tied throughout their lives. They were bound together by personal and professional relationships and believed that art should be a civilizing force and a humanizing power in the modern world. Steichen believed that, “We will make real progress in the arts in America only when various artists in different arts learn to collaborate on a project together.” Collaborating on projects was nothing new to these two artists. Sandburg wrote a biographical sketch of his brother-in-law in a 1929 book entitled Steichen the Photographer, accompanied by Steichen’s photographs. Steichen assisted Sandburg in selecting images for Sandburg’s Lincoln biographies. Their most important collaboration was the 1955 Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man. Steichen, who was then director of photography at the Museum, curated this unprecedented exhibit that featured 503 images from 273 photographers in 68 countries. Steichen was instrumental in helping to establish photography as art, introducing modern art to America, defining American culture with his celebrity portraits of the 1920s and 1930s, and documenting the human drama of World War II.
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