Käsebier, Gertrude (1852-1934) : Born in Des Moines, Iowa 18 May 1852, Gertrude Stanton married Eduard Käsebier in 1874. At age 36, after raising three children, Käsebier began to study painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, but quickly shifted her focus to the art of photography. In 1894, she went to work in Germany as a chemist's apprentice, in order to master the technical aspects of the medium. Käsebier had her first solo exhibition of photography in 1896 at the Boston Camera Club. In 1897, after working briefly for a studio photographer, she opened her own portrait studio in Brooklyn. In 1900, Käsebier had the honour of being the first American woman to be elected a member of London's Linked Ring. A champion of photography as fine art, Käsebier, together with Alfred Steiglitz, Edward Steichen, Clarence H. White and Joseph T. Kelly, formed the Photo-Secession in 1902. The Photo-Secession's ideas were promoted and the work of its members was disseminated through its periodical, Camera Work. Steiglitz published several of Käsebier's photographer in the first issue of the publication, including six heliographs and three typogravures. In spite of their shared admiration of each other's work, Käsebier would break with Steiglitz in 1912 over the issue of "straight photography", and found the Pictorial Photographers of America with Clarence White and Alvin Langdon Coburn in 1916. Käsebier received numerous accolades during her career, and steadfastly promoted the careers of women photographers. In 1910, she was elected President of the Women's Federation of the Professional Photographers Association of America, and a major exhibition of her photographs was commissioned by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1929. Käsebier closed her New York photography studio in 1926. She retired from professional life the following year, and died 13 October 1934, at age 82. Her photographs are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, The Royal Photographic Society, London, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, The Library of Congress, Washington, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, George Eastman House, Rochester and the University of New Mexico Museum at Albuquerque.
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