The Family of Man — CNA Steichen-Collections (English collections page)
Citation
Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA), Luxembourg. The Family of Man (English-language collections page). https://steichencollections-cna.lu/eng/collections/1_the-family-of-man — accessed 2026-04-29.
Relevance
The English-language counterpart to the CNA’s German collections page (src-cna-collections-deu-family-of-man). Anchors the Luxembourg-chapter chronology more granularly than the German page: it dates the partial-display period at Clervaux to 1974–1989, the permanent installation to 1994, and gives September 2010 → July 2013 as the bookends of the second restoration phase. It also names the conservation team (Studio Berselli, Milan — Silvia Berselli, Roberta Piantavigna, Francesca Vantellini, Isabel Dimas) and the architectural designer of the renovated rooms (Nathalie Jacoby / NJOY). These specifics are not present on the German page or on the CNA education portal.
Key excerpts / pages
- “1964–1966 — the US Government donates the last complete version of the travelling exhibition to Luxembourg. Edward Steichen visits his native country and expresses his wish for ‘The Family of Man’ to be exhibited permanently at Clervaux Castle.”
- “1974–1989 — Partial exhibition of the photographs at Clervaux Castle.”
- “1994 — Establishment of the collection as a permanent exhibition at Clervaux Castle.”
- “September 2010 — Closure of the exhibition for renovation purposes.”
- “July 2013 — Reopening following renovation of exhibition rooms and restoration of photographs.”
- “The restoration campaign has been led in collaboration with the Studio Berselli from Milan, Italy (Silvia Berselli, Roberta Piantavigna, Francesca Vantellini, Isabel Dimas).”
- “the exhibition rooms featuring a very sober architecture conceived by designer Nathalie Jacoby (NJOY).”
Fresh fetch 2026-05-09 — restoration narrative paragraph
Re-fetched via curl 2026-05-09 (HTTP 200); cached locally during the recep-2010s session. The page contains, immediately after the date bullets above, a narrative restoration paragraph not previously transcribed:
- “A second restoration period followed the closure of the museum in the years 2010-2013. Recent developments in the science and tools used in photography restoration enabled a state-of-the-art analysis and treatment of the photographs to be carried out. A lot of the damage noted was able to be dealt with thanks to restoration treatments such as cleaning, consolidation and retouching.”
This paragraph is the substantive (not just dated-bullet) account of the 2010–2013 restoration campaign and is what the reception-2010s essay (research/reception-2010s-turner-era.md) block-quotes.
Tour-period framing (re-verified 2026-04-29):
- The page describes The Family of Man as a “travelling exhibition, seen by 10 million people throughout the world” between 1955 and 1962.
Notes
- Fetched 2026-04-29 directly. Companion to
src-cna-collections-deu-family-of-man(German page),src-cna-education(English education portal), andsrc-cna-edu-steichen-bio(Steichen biographical page on the same education portal). The four CNA pages reproduce the same institutional voice across languages and contexts. - Perspective: institutional / curatorial (CNA inherits Steichen’s framing).
- Wording on Steichen’s 1966 wish — “expresses his wish for ‘The Family of Man’ to be exhibited permanently at Clervaux Castle” — is more conservative than the Tier-3 chronicle.lu lecture summary’s “this was the ideal place for the exhibition to reside.” Where the two diverge, prefer the CNA wording.
- The page does not name the 1994 curator of record nor give a specific inauguration date in 1994; those gaps are recorded in
research/clervaux.md§3 and §7. - The phrase “second restoration phase” on the German page implies an earlier (first) restoration phase; the English page does not address that earlier phase either, so its date and scope remain unattested in either page consulted this round.