((PKG)) NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY—RECENT ACQUISITIONS
((Banner: American Portraits))
((Reporter: Julie Taboh))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((NATS))
((ANN SHUMARD, SENIOR CURATOR OF PHOTOGRAPHS, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
Each year, the National Portrait Gallery features a selection of acquisitions that have come into the collection recently. It ranges from paintings to prints to photographs to sculpture. It's really quite a wonderful panoply of objects.
((ANN SHUMARD, SENIOR CURATOR OF PHOTOGRAPHS, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
I'm Ann Shumard and I'm the senior curator of photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
We have on view, a wonderful photograph of Edwin Hubble, probably best known to the world today because of the Hubble Space Telescope.
((ANN SHUMARD, SENIOR CURATOR OF PHOTOGRAPHS, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
He was really one of the premier astronomers in the 20th century and in the image, you see him looking through the eyepiece of a state-of-the-art telescope from 1949.
((ANN SHUMARD, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
Maurice Sendak is the beloved children's book author and illustrator. His most famous book perhaps is Where the Wild Things Are which was first issued in 1963. And he was a sickly child, and so from an early age, he enjoyed reading and drawing and that really translated ultimately into a career for him.
((ANN SHUMARD, SENIOR CURATOR OF PHOTOGRAPHS, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
Ellen Stewart was working as a freelance theatrical costume designer when she realized how difficult it was for fledgling playwrights to find performance spaces in New York City.
((COURTESY: BEYOND MY KENT))
And she founded a non-commercial performance space in a basement in the East Village that became known as the La MaMa Theatre and really fostered the careers of many significant actors and playwrights.
((ANN SHUMARD, SENIOR CURATOR OF PHOTOGRAPHS, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
George Walker trained as a classical pianist. He was the first black instrumentalist to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra and that was in 1945. And he scored all of his compositions by hand. We see two images of him, one framed by his piano in his home and the other using his hands as he is scoring his Symphonia number 5 which will have its world premiere next year.
((TAÍNA CARAGOL, CURATOR, LATINO ART & HISTORY, PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
My name is Taína Caragol. I am curator of painting and sculpture and also of Latino art and history here at the National Portrait Gallery. In this particular iteration, we have portraits of Latino historical figures in different media.
((TAÍNA CARAGOL, CURATOR, LATINO ART & HISTORY, PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
We have a wonderful color photograph by Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte and Tico Torres of salsa queen, Celia Cruz. We have two wonderful portraits by Harry Gamboa, Jr. of Rodolfo Acuña, the father of Chicano Studies, and musician Louie Pérez from Los Lobos.
((ANN SHUMARD, SENIOR CURATOR OF PHOTOGRAPHS, SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY))
I hope that people will see figures that are familiar to them, but also figures that they may not know as much about, and be intrigued to learn more about that individual’s biography and contribution.
