A leading figure in the Pictorialist movement of art photography, Gertrude Käsebier was a founding member of the Photo-Secession. She was a noted portrait photographer, and the most discerning clients of the day, including Mark Twain, Evelyn Nesbit, and Booker T. Washington visited her Manhattan portrait studio. When her first grandson, Charles O’Malley, was born in 1900 Käsebier turned more of her attention to the subject of motherhood. She was also influenced by the author Kenneth Grahame and his collection of childhood reminiscences The Golden Age. Grahame described childhood by comparison to ancient Mediterranean culture. We know by their titles—like The Golden Age and The Road to Rome—that several of the photographs that Käsebier made of her grandson and daughter in the summer of 1903, were inspired by Grahame’s book.

from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)