Processing Edward Steichen's Celebrity Portrait Photographs at George Eastman House

This thesis is an applied project undertaken to process celebrity portraits by Edward Steichen that were gifted to George Eastman House by Steichen's widow, Joanna Steichen, in 2002. These photographs were made for Condé Nast Publications between 1923 and 1937. This thesis discusses processing donations of photographic materials, identifying acetate and nitrate negatives, handling gelatin silver contact prints, and rehousing procedures based on institutional-specific collections management policies. The analytical paper portion discusses processing methods, proposes future processing procedures, and addresses the relationship between the contact prints and printed images in Vanity Fair magazine in order to highlight the importance of creating relationships between objects in museum collections.