Since it was founded over a long lunch in Boston in 1857, The Atlantic has featured presidents and poets, abolitionists and suffragists— men and women set on advancing The American Idea. This episode, Kim takes the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, on an ‘Atlantic alumni’ tour, stopping in front of a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. and a life-size painting of Mark Twain. Their conversation previews an upcoming collaboration between The Atlantic and the National Portrait Gallery that will look at the portraits of yesterday’s disruptors through the lens of today. See the portraits we discuss: Harriet Beecher Stowe Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Julia Ward Howe Mark Twain Martin Luther King Jr. 

PORTRAITS

Yesterday's Disruptors... Today

After having to destroy her family pictures during the Cultural Revolution in China, artist Hung Liu treasures old photographs all the more. In fact, they’re foundational to her work. She has described her portraits like a memorial site for people forgotten to history-- comfort women, farm workers, refugees. As the Gallery launches a retrospective of her artwork, we trace Hung's life through some of the images she's collected and created, from her rendering of a resident alien card in which she renames herself 'Fortune Cookie,' to her painting commemorating the violent Tiananmen Square crackdown. See the images we discuss: https://npg.si.edu/podcasts/Un-forgetting%20History

Un-forgetting History

These last few weeks brought jolting discoveries at residential schools in Canada— unmarked grave sites thought to contain the remains of hundreds of Indigenous children who went missing. The news was a visceral reminder that systemic racism and discrimination can literally bury the past. So we decided to revisit an episode about a woman who— unlike so many Indigenous people of her time— was celebrated by Colonial America, and actually had a portrait done: Pocahontas. Curator and author Paul Chaat Smith sifts through what we know, and what we think we know, about this iconic figure. See the portraits we discussed: Pocahontas, painting Pocahontas, engraving

BONUS: Who Was Pocahontas Really?

Dr. Ellen Stofan is a planetary geologist who has spent a lot of time looking up at the stars and thinking about life outside our planet. But in this episode, she talks with Kim about the portraits of some of her favorite earth dwellers. Among the trailblazers she highlights: a judge who fought for women's rights and a marine biologist who challenged the way we see ourselves in relation to the natural world. See the portraits: Rachel Carson and the Blue Marble Shot The Four Justices Althea Gibson

Ellen Stofan Sees Stars Here On Earth

The 1862 painting "Men of Progress" depicts a group of inventors credited with "altered the course of contemporary civilization.” Between them, they found more efficient ways to sew clothing, harvest crops and even send telegraph messages. In fact, the Smithsonian’s first secretary stands in the middle. But as cultural anthropologist Richard Kurin notes, many people have been left out of this tableau. To mark the Smithsonian’s 175th anniversary, we ask current Sec. Lonnie Bunch to give the painting an update. See the portraits: Men of Progress Solomon Brown James Smithson Frederick Douglass Eleanor Roosevelt Dorothy Height

People of Progress

Phillis Wheatley was a literary superstar around the time of the American Revolutionary War— a distinction she notched up while writing in bondage. But she never wrote an account of her own experiences, and there are gaps in her story. The Gallery’s Ashleigh Coren and writer Honorée Jeffers ask us to re-imagine her life, drawn in poetry. See Wheatley’s portrait here.

Phillis Wheatley Redrawn

When the early photographer William Mumler developed his glass plates, he sometimes found a ghost had slipped into the picture. Was he a fraud? A medium? A grief counselor? Author and curator Peter Manseau explains how Mumler found himself at the crossroads of an emerging technology, and a wave of grief for those lost during the Civil War, and how his spirit photography eventually landed him in court. See the portraits we discuss: P.T. Barnum, by the Mathew Brady Studio ‘Cracked-Plate’ Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner Mary Todd Lincoln, by William Mumler

Capturing Ghosts

Choreographer-in-Residence Dana Tai Soon Burgess traces his ‘hyphenated’ background— a journey that begins on a boat from Korea, disembarks at a Hawaiian pineapple plantation, meanders through Latino culture, and then arrives at a martial arts class in New Mexico… organized by Tibetan monks. Dana also discusses the hyphenated artists featured in two of his favorite portraits at the Gallery. Both were pioneers, both were outsiders, and both had their ‘American-ness’ challenged. See the portraits: Michio Ito Isamu Noguchi (“Tracings” duet music courtesy of Aaron Leitko.)

Hyphenated

Author Rick Atkinson brings to life two men who played outsized roles during the founding of the United States— one a rich slave trader, the other a pamphleteer who died penniless. They both stood for liberty and equality, but their stories illustrate how the democratic ideals written into the Declaration of Independence often clash with historical reality. See the portraits we discuss: Thomas Paine, by Laurent Dabos Henry Laurens, by John Singleton Copley John Laurens, by Charles Willson Peale

Foundational Truths

We look at the portraits on our money— the little history lessons we carry around in our pockets. But with such a limited array of people featured, what do our banknotes say about us? First up, curator Ellen Feingold takes us on a tour of our money’s vibrant early designs, including images of children, beloved pets, and George Washington in a toga. Then former Treasurer Rosie Rios tells us how she discovered that women have been missing from our bills for more than a century, and how she campaigned to get Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. See the images we discuss: Sanford Bank (Maine), $2 note Benjamin Franklin, by Joseph Siffred Duplessis Martha Washington, copy after Gilbert Stuart Martha Washington, $1 silver certificate George Washington wearing a toga, National Bank (New York), $3 note George Washington, Lansdowne Portrait “History Instructing Youth,” $1 silver certificate Indépendence des États-Unis, copy after Jean Duplessi-Bertaux

On the Money

As the National Portrait Gallery works on its latest commission -- an official portrait of former President Donald Trump -- we take a spin through the ‘America’s Presidents’ exhibition. This episode draws back the curtain on earlier commissions that have drawn controversy and acclaim: a portrait of Bill Clinton with a shadow of scandal painted into it, and the Obama portraits that transformed the museum into a pilgrimage site. Director Kim Sajet also digs into the thorny question of what a presidential portrait is meant to convey, especially if the president in question has been impeached. Should it carry the glow of prestige, or the markers of personal failings? Is this gallery hallowed ground, or a place to question power? "If you're in the business of showing these paintings," says Washington Post art critic Philip Kennicott, "you want to send people out a little hungry." Also featuring former deputy director Carolyn Carr. See the portraits we discuss here: President James Buchanan President Richard Nixon President George H. W. Bush President Bill Clinton President George W. Bush President Barack Obama

Portraying the Presidents

Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, draws back the curtain on the artwork that tells the story of the United States— from a presidential portrait with a shadow of scandal hanging over it, to a $3 bill featuring George Washington in a toga. Tune in starting March 23 as Kim chats with historians, journalists and educators to reveal key American figures as the flawed, complex, and at times, unexpectedly relatable human beings they were.

Season 3 Trailer

Operatic soprano Renée Fleming has been called ‘the people’s diva,’ performing at key moments in our nation’s story, like when she sang at ground zero after 9/11. For this special episode, she talks with Kim about how music can help us mourn, heal, and celebrate as we send off a particularly tough 2020 and nestle into the holidays. She also describes a few portraits that hold special meaning for her, because portraits are what we’re all about! See the portraits we discuss: Renée Fleming by Annie Leibovitz is here. Denyce Graves and Marc Mostovoy by Nelson Shanks is here. Leontyne Price by Bradley Phillips is here. Special thanks to Dr. Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian, and the Smithsonian National Board for making this podcast possible.

Holiday Edition: Renée Fleming on Music’s Special Place

Born just two years after the abolition of slavery, Madam C.J. Walker built a business empire by marketing her homemade haircare formula to the black community. Along the way, she became the United States’ first female self-made millionaire. Our guests, Janine Sherman Barrois and Elle Johnson, helped bring Walker’s story to millions of viewers in the Netflix limited series, “Self Made.” They discuss Walker’s barrier-busting entrepreneurship, as well as her decision to use her own portrait as part of her brand. See her trademark photograph here: https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2008.20

Self Made with Elle Johnson and Janine Sherman Barrois

We look at a black and white photograph that encapsulates a very American story— about the magic that can happen when you throw together people from different backgrounds and languages and… beats. The concoction that resulted is known as Latin Boogaloo. Eduardo Díaz, director of the Smithsonian Latino Center, explains how one of the genre’s pioneers, Joe Bataan, got his degree in ‘streetology’ and went on to establish himself as the King of Latin Soul. See the photo we discuss on our website: https://npg.si.edu/podcasts/joe-bataan

Bataan's Boogaloo with Eduardo Díaz

Art, biography, history and identity collide in this podcast from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Join Director Kim Sajet as she chats with artists, historians, and thought leaders about the big and small ways that portraits shape our world.

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PORTRAITS

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