Even after Hopper achieved some status as a painter, he continued to keep a press for etchings in his studio. Each day he’d enter his studio and toss his fedora hat onto the rarely used machine. In countless photographs and interview footage of Hopper, that machine usually lurks in the background. Hopper never could bring himself to part with that press, like an old trusted friend. When he wanted to give a special gift to someone, he’d crank up the old press and run off a copy of Night Shadows, demonstrating the pride he felt in the etchings he once turned to as a way to make money when his paintings weren’t selling. (http://artblogbybob.blogspot.nl/2008/01/etched-into-history.html)