Marie Kemp Steichen (1854-1933) was Edward Steichen’s mother, seen here in front of her house in Elmhurst, Illinois. Steichen’s biography A Life in Photography is dedicated to his mother, “the guiding and inspiring influence” in his life. This photograph accompanies the foreword, which is an homage to his mother, and is thus the very first picture in Steichen’s autobiography. Steichen praised his mother for her “great strength, and fortitude, her deep, warm optimism and human understanding,” and for teaching him the importance of equality and tolerance.