Editing Edward Steichen (section)

==Early life==
Steichen was born '''Éduard Jean Steichen''' on March 27, 1879, in a small house in the village of [[Bivange]], [[Luxembourg]], the son of Jean-Pierre and Marie Kemp Steichen.<ref name="Niven 1997 4">Niven, Penelope (1997), ''Steichen: A Biography''. New York: Clarkson Potter. {{ISBN|0-517-59373-4}}, p. 4.</ref> His parents facing increasingly straitened circumstances and financial difficulties, decided to make a new start and emigrated to the [[United States]] when Steichen was eighteen months old. Jean-Pierre Steichen immigrated in 1880, with Marie Steichen bringing the infant Éduard along after Jean-Pierre had settled in [[Hancock, Michigan|Hancock]] in [[Michigan]]'s [[Upper Peninsula]] copper country. According to noted Steichen biographer, [[Penelope Niven]], the Steichens were "part of a large exodus of Luxembourgers displaced in the late nineteenth century by worsening economic conditions."<ref name="Niven 1997 4" />

Éduard's sister and only sibling, [[Lilian Steichen]], was born in Hancock on May 1, 1883. She would later marry poet [[Carl Sandburg]], whom she met at the Milwaukee [[Social Democratic Party of America|Social Democratic Party]] office in 1907. Her marriage to Sandburg the following year helped forge a life-long friendship and partnership between her brother and Sandburg.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/carl/learn/historyculture/lilian-sandburg.htm |title=Lilian "Paula" Sandburg |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=23 November 2019}}</ref><ref name="Niven 1997 6">Niven, Penelope (1997), ''Steichen: A Biography''. New York: Clarkson Potter. {{ISBN|0-517-59373-4}}, p. 6.</ref>

By 1889, when Éduard was 10, his parents had saved up enough money to move the family to [[Milwaukee]].<ref name="Niven 1997 16">Niven, Penelope (1997), ''Steichen: A Biography''. New York: Clarkson Potter. {{ISBN|0-517-59373-4}}, p. 16.</ref> There he learned German and English at school, while continuing to speak [[Luxembourgish]] at home.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Elçi |first1=Yasemin |title=From Bivange to Manhattan |url=https://en.calameo.com/read/00567858318694a028865 |access-date=3 January 2023 |work=Luxembourg Times |issue=6 |date=October 2020}}</ref>

In 1894, at fifteen, Steichen began attending [[Pio Nono College (Wisconsin)|Pio Nono College]], a Catholic boys' [[high school]], where his artistic talents were noticed. His drawings in particular were said to show promise.<ref>Faram, Mark D. (2009), ''Faces of War: The Untold Story of Edward Steichen's WWII Photographers'' Penguin. p. 15–16.</ref> He quit high school to begin a four-year [[lithography]] apprenticeship with the American Fine Art Company of Milwaukee.<ref name="Gedrim 1996 xiii">Gedrim, Ronald J. (1996), ''Edward Steichen: Selected Texts and Bibliography.'' Oxford, UK: Clio Press. {{ISBN|1-85109-208-0}}, p. xiii.</ref> After hours, he would sketch and draw, and he began to teach himself painting.<ref name="Niven 1997 28">Niven (1997), p. 28.</ref> Having discovered a camera shop near his work, he visited frequently until he persuaded himself to buy his first camera, a secondhand [[Kodak Brownie|Kodak box]] "detective" camera, in 1895.<ref name="Niven 1997 29">Niven (1997), p. 29.</ref> Steichen and his friends who were also interested in drawing and photography pooled their funds, rented a small room in a [[Milwaukee, WI]] office building, and began calling themselves the Milwaukee Art Students League.<ref name="Niven 1997 42">Niven (1997), p. 42.</ref> The group hired Richard Lorenz and [[Robert Schade]] for occasional lectures.<ref name="Gedrim 1996 xiii" /> In 1899, Steichen's photographs were exhibited in the second Philadelphia Photographic Salon.<ref>{{cite web|title=Edward Steichen|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/steichen-edward/|website=The Art Story |access-date=17 August 2022}}</ref>

Steichen became a U.S. citizen in 1900 and signed the [[naturalization]] papers as '''Edward J. Steichen''', but he continued to use his birth name of Éduard until after the [[World War I|First World War]].<ref name="Niven 1997 66">Niven (1997), p. 66.</ref>