Alfred Stieglitz, 1897-1986, undated

From her notes and the affixed captions and photo-cropping markings made to much of this material, it appears Norman compiled this material for at least three publications about Stieglitz. These are "Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer" (1960), which Norman wrote and Aperture Book produced; "America Alfred Stieglitz: a collective portrait" (1934), which Norman edited along with Waldo Frank and others; and the revised edition of the latter (1979), which was published this second time by Aperture Book and for which Norman wrote the preface and supplied some of the works illustrated.

The first and second subseries consist of primary documentation of Stieglitz's career as photographer and gallery owner. "Exhibition announcements and checklists" cover almost all the shows Stieglitz staged at various galleries in New York, from 1896 to 1946. Documentation includes an almost complete run of announcements and checklists for exhibitions at Stieglitz's gallery, An American Place. Citing all the works exhibited by a particular artist or group of artists, the checklists recreate the exhibitions, and in a way chronicle the development of each artist's work and of America's notion of modernism. The "Publications" subseries consists primarily of works published by Stieglitz. Included here are copies of some of the bulletins produced by An American Place from 1933 to 1937 under the subtly-changing titles, "It must be said," "It has been said," "It might be said," and "It should be remembered." Artists, poets and other writers contributed. There are also a few clippings from Stieglitz's other publishing ventures, Manuscripts (MSS) and Camera Work. Other contemporary writings by or about Stieglitz are also reproduced here. The "Images" subseries consists primarily of copyprints of works by Stieglitz and by other artists. There are also images of exhibitions beginning with an 1899 show at New York's Camera Club, and including Steiglitz's earliest staged exhibition of the Photo Secession at the 291 Gallery. There are a number of images of exhibitions at An American Place. Copyprints pertaining to Stieglitz's childhood and family are also here, including drawings by his father Edward. As Norman used or intended to use most of these images to illustrate her writings, almost all are marked up or captioned. The final subseries, "Other material," consists of inventories and other notes about Stieglitz's private art collection as well as bibliographic information about Camera Work. There are also photocopies of early Stieglitz correspondence, written in German. These were provided to Norman by Stieglitz's niece, Flora Stieglitz Straus. Also of note here are the three versions of Stieglitz's recollection of "meeting" the late D. H. Lawrence in 1935.

In some of her notes, Norman mentions "Mike Hoffman" receiving or returning images. Beginning in 1965, Michael E. Hoffman was publisher of Aperture, the magazine and book imprint responsible for some of Norman's writings. He served as its Executive Director until his death in 2001. Hoffman also served as the founding curator and adviser to the Stieglitz Center at Philadelphia Museum of Art, which Norman helped to establish.