The First Picture Book
The First Picture Book
Written and Photographed by Mary Steichen Martin and Edward Steichen
New York, Harcourt, Brace & Co., Inc., 1930
7.25" x 8.5"
Kerlan Collection, Children's Literature Research Collections
University of Minnesota Libraries
Edward Steichen created the photographs for this book for two-year-olds at the prompting of his daughter, Mary Steichen Martin. A visit to the Bank Street nursery school had made her an ardent believer in Lucy Sprague Mitchell's theory that the very young are "little empiricists" who live intensely in the world of their immediate surroundings. Just as the "unit blocks" pictured here were designed to offer such children "open-ended" play experiences, the left-hand pages of the book were kept text-free, the better for parent and child to improvise their own commentary. Other Steichen subjects include a clock, a telephone, and a pair of socks—everyday objects later reprised in the Great Green Room of Goodnight Moon.