Early Years (1864-1890)
Stieglitz was born in
Hoboken, New Jersey, the first son of
German-Jewish immigrants Edward Stieglitz (1833-1909) and Hedwig Ann Werner (1845-1922).
In 1871 Stieglitz was sent to the Charlier Institute, at that time the best private school in New York. He enjoyed his studies but rarely felt challenged by them. During the summers his family would leave the city and travel to
Lake George in the
Adirondack Mountains. As an adult Stieglitz would return frequently to this same area to rest and spend time with his family.
A year before he graduated, his parents sent him to public high school so he would qualify for admission to the City College where his uncle taught. He found the classes at the high school were far too easy to challenge him, and his father decided that the only way he would get a proper education was to enroll him in the rigorous schools of his German homeland.
[3]
In 1881 Edward Stieglitz sold his company for US$400,000 and moved his family to Europe for the next several years. Alfred Stieglitz enrolled in the Realgymnasium (high school) in Karlsruhe, while the other children studied in Weimar. Their parents, along with Hedwig Werner's sister Rosa Werner, traveled around Europe going to museums, spas and theaters. Alfred Stieglitz was reportedly entranced by the thought of his father being cared for and pampered by two different women.
[3]
The next year, Stieglitz began studying mechanical engineering at the
Technische Hochschule in Berlin. He received the then enormous allowance of US$1,200 a month and spent much of his time going around the city in search of the same type of intellectual discussions he enjoyed back home. By chance he enrolled in a chemistry class taught by
Hermann Wilhelm Vogel, who was an important scientist and researcher in the then developing field of photography. In Vogel Stieglitz found both the academic challenge he needed and an outlet for his growing artistic and cultural interests.
[4] At the same time he met German artists
Adolf von Menzel and Wilhelm Hasemann, both of whom introduced him to the idea of making art directly from nature. He bought his first camera and traveled through the European countryside, taking many photographs of landscapes and peasants in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
