291, the publication, was the brainchild of Paul Haviland, Stieglitz' close friend and patron; Marius De Zayas, the caricaturist and 291 artist; and Agnes Meyer, the art patron who was Aline Meyer Liebman's sister-in-law, along with influence from Dadaist Francis Picabia. In an effort to defeat the stagnating morale World War I had placed on Stieglitz' circle, the proposal was made to Stieglitz to publish, in addition to Camera Work, a monthly magazine more satirical in nature and more closely aligned to the new European avant-garde spirit. "291 was, in a simple sense, a melange of Camera Work and Guillaume Apollinaire's Les Soirées de Paris, to which Haviland had a subscription and which Picabia and De Zayas knew from direct contact with Apollinaire." (Peter Galassi in Photo-Secession, p. 8). Camera Work had ceased publication between the "What is 291?" issue (January 1915) and the Strand issue, Number 48 (October 1916).
The prospectus included in this lot announces the opening of The Modern Gallery, a short-lived commercial effort for Marius De Zayas.