BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Recent Acquisitions (2010)

DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Recent Acquisitions (2010):

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: Recent Acquisitions
November 19, 2010 – November 13, 2011
This exhibition of some 35 objects that have recently been added to the museum's collection spans centuries of American history and culture. The installation highlights a diverse group of journalists, artists, and leaders who have shaped the face of American society. The works include such individuals as Christopher Columbus in a rare engraving that lays claim to being one of the most authentic images of the explorer in existence; Ida B. Wells, the early American civil rights activist; poet Carl Sandburg; architect Philip Johnson, who was responsible for some of America's most recognizable skyscrapers; advice columnist Ann Landers; Major League Baseball pitcher Pedro Martinez; and Bill and Melinda Gates.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.144.17.45 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] SIPGRE_101120_002.JPG	[2] SIPGRE_101120_012.JPG	[3] SIPGRE_101120_017.JPG	[4] SIPGRE_101120_028.JPG	[5] SIPGRE_101120_033.JPG
[6] SIPGRE_101120_037.JPG	[7] SIPGRE_101120_040.JPG	[8] SIPGRE_101120_044.JPG	[9] SIPGRE_101120_052.JPG	[10] SIPGRE_101120_057.JPG
[11] SIPGRE_101120_079.JPG	[12] SIPGRE_101120_084.JPG	[13] SIPGRE_101120_093.JPG	[14] SIPGRE_101120_101.JPG	[15] SIPGRE_101120_108.JPG
[16] SIPGRE_101120_114.JPG	[17] SIPGRE_101120_123.JPG	[18] SIPGRE_101120_130.JPG	[19] SIPGRE_101120_137.JPG	[20] SIPGRE_101120_145.JPG
[21] SIPGRE_101120_154.JPG	[22] SIPGRE_101120_163.JPG	[23] SIPGRE_101120_170.JPG	[24] SIPGRE_101120_180.JPG	[25] SIPGRE_101120_187.JPG
[26] SIPGRE_101120_196.JPG	[27] SIPGRE_101120_203.JPG	[28] SIPGRE_101120_210.JPG	[29] SIPGRE_101120_216.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIPGRE_101120_002.JPG: Thomas E. Kirby, 1846-1924 Thomas E. Kirby, the art dealer and auctioneer with "the million-dollar voice," began his career in 1858 as a twelve-year-old assistant at a Philadelphia auction house. In 1883 he was one of the three founders of the American Art Association (AAA), a firm that soon came to dominate the New York gallery trade. The AAA sponsored five "Prize Fund" exhibitions, open only to American artists (one of whom was William Merritt Chase, the painter of this work). Ind 1886 the AAA displayed the first collection of French impressionist paintings seen in the United States. By the 1890s, Kirby was the sole active partner in AAA and concentrated exclusively on the auction business. His integrity and flair for showmanship-which included the production of lavish catalogs-attracted sellers and buyers of the highest caliber and made his evening auctions exciting events. William Merritt Chase, 1900
2. SIPGRE_101120_012.JPG: Hunter S. Thompson, 1937-2005 In February 2005, Hunter S. Thompson, famous for over-the-top "gonzo" journalism and his unrestrained Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, committed suicide. Ralph Steadman, his illustrator-collaborator and friend, created this print, Gonzo Memorial, imagining Thompson's funeral as a way to raise money to assist his widow. Here, Thompson is represented as a flying peacock wearing the writer's signature hat while the ink-trailing creature in the foreground is a stand-in for Steadman. The two-thumbed fist, a personal logo for Thompson, tops the tower planned to launch his ashes into space. Six months after Thompson's death, his final wishes were realized in a private funeral at his home in Colorado, during which his remains were successfully launched from a "gonzo tower." Below the print are signatures from Thompson's wife and some of his friends, including Bill Murray, Johnny Depp, and Kurt Vonnegut. Ralph Steadman, 2005
3. SIPGRE_101120_017.JPG: Hunter S. Thompson, 1937-2005 Throughout their long collaboration, Ralph Steadman drew journalist Hunter S. Thompson many times. The duo was first assigned to cover the Kentucky Derby in 1970 and continued to work together over the years, with Steadman illustrating Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and several articles for Rolling Stone magazine. In this print, created about a year after Thompson's death-titled Up, Up and Up Yours-Steadman pays tribute to his longtime friend. Thompson is depicted as a peacock, sporting his trademark hat, sunglasses, sneakers, and cigarette holder. Versions of this image were seen in the 1978 BBC program Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision and in the 2005 print Gonzo Memorial. Here, Steadman refines the image, accenting Thompson's sneakers with red detailing. The final touch is the profane gesture of the middle finger, evoking Thompson's flamboyant and irreverent personality. Ralph Steadman, 2006
4. SIPGRE_101120_028.JPG: Autographs on the Hunter S. Thompson portrait. ??? Bill Murray Anita Thompson L... ??? Bob ??? ??? Deborah Fuller ??? ??? Douglas Brinkley ??? (maybe Kurt Vonnegut)
5. SIPGRE_101120_033.JPG: Ralph Steadman autograph
6. SIPGRE_101120_079.JPG: Daniel Leonard, 1740-1829 Lawyer Daniel Leonard became one of the most notorious Loyalists in Britain's North American colonies. In 1774 Leonard published "Massachusettensis," a series of widely reprinted articles in support of British efforts to quash the colonial rebellion. The articles sparked one of the most famous debates of the American Revolution between Leonard and John Adams. Leonard fled to Bermuda when British troops evacuated Boston in 1776, months before the colonies declared independence from Britain. This tiny miniature, meant to be worn as a bracelet, remained in the possession of Leonard's descendants until the National Portrait Gallery acquired it in 2007. Unidentified Artist, c. 1770
7. SIPGRE_101120_084.JPG: William Linn, 1752-1808 After his graduation from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and his ordination, William Linn served as a chaplain in the Continental army. Linn, a Presbyterian, presided over several churches; he also served as regent of the University of the State of New York and as president pro tempore and trustee of Queens College (now Rutgers). As the first chaplain of the United States House of Representatives (1789-91), Linn continued the Continental Congress's tradition of beginning proceedings with a prayer. The artist of this miniature captures Linn's intense gaze and contrasts his ministerial collar, fair complexion, and somber clothing with the bold red background. Attributed to Archibald Robertson, c. 1790
8. SIPGRE_101120_093.JPG: Christopher Columbus, c 1451-1506 Christopher Columbus, as the first man to discover fast and reliable routes across the Atlantic Ocean, would forever link Europe and the Americas. Although there is no known life portrait of Columbus, this engraving from Andr� Thevet's volume of collected biographies, Les Vrais Pourtraits et Vies des Hommes Illustres (Paris, 1584), lays claim to being the most authentic image in existence. Visiting French and foreign collections, Thevet meticulously researched images to accurately illustrate his biographical essays. The engraving of Columbus, he asserted, was taken from an oil painting by a Dutch artist living in Lisbon at the same time as the explorer. Although some consider Columbus's reputation tainted by his harsh treatment of American natives, his skills as a navigator and his boldness in risking the unknown are still noteworthy, and his voyage was a turning point in history. Unidentified artist, 1584
9. SIPGRE_101120_101.JPG: Sir Walter Raleigh, c 1552-1618 British explorer Sir Walter Raleigh is remembered in American history for the English colony he attempted to establish on Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina in 1584, a venture that earned him a knighthood.After his initial expedition returned to England, Raleigh sent a second colony to Roanoke in 1587. The disappearance of this colony between 1587 and 1590 remains one of the great mysteries of American colonial history. This portrait was circulated on its own and then printed on the title page of several editions of Raleigh's immensely popular book The Historie of the World. Formerly a court favorite, Raleigh wrote his book-which details time from the Creation through the second century BC-during his imprisonment in the Tower of London. The print, which first appeared in a 1617 edition, was the only engraving of him published in his lifetime. Simon Von de Passe, c 1616
10. SIPGRE_101120_114.JPG: Elizabeth DePeyster Peale, 1765-1804 In April 1791, Elizabeth "Betsy" DePeyster, the daughter of a New York City merchant, travelled to Philadelphia where she met Charles Willson Peale, an American portrait painter. Peale, a widower, was searching for a new wife and a mother for his six children. Upon observing the "serious motherly appearance" of Betsy, then twenty-six, Peale knew he had found the right woman. On May 23, after a brief courtship and secret engagement, Betsy's father blessed their union. James Peale, 1795
11. SIPGRE_101120_123.JPG: Alfred Lunt, 1892-1977 Husband and wife Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne formed a dynamic actor-and-producer team that dominated early twentieth-century American theater. Together, the couple's effortless comedies delighted Broadway audiences. In 1928 "the fabulous Lunts" solidified their star power when they stipulated contractually that they must always perform as a pair. Critics praised their "infinite subtlety, resource and drollery" and declared, "Miss Fontanne and Mr. Lunt are a matchless pair of volatile comedians." Lunt's dashing appeal is captured in this portrait by the couple's friend, theater designer Claggett Wilson. The Lunts commissioned him to adorn the walls of their Wisconsin estate, Ten Chimneys, with painted murals. The original frame of this portrait matches woodwork used at the house. Lunt's beret may reference a 1928 trip that he, Fontanne, and Wilson took to the Basque country in Spain. Claggett Wilson, c. 1935
12. SIPGRE_101120_130.JPG: Minnie Maddern Fiske, 1865-1932 The drawings of prolific Kansas City-born caricaturist Ralph Barton, published in the leading magazines of the jazz age, helped define his era. Barton claimed to have drawn so many celebrities that he "must now wait for new subjects to be born." For the early twentieth-century humor magazine Life, Barton reduced the august actress Minnie Maddern Fiske to a vicious old scold. But in fact, at this stage of her career, Fiske was acclaimed as an innovator. With her husband she had managed her own theater in New York City; she had successfully resisted the monopoly of theatrical syndicates; and she had emphasized ensemble acting rather than a star system. As a champion of the works of Henrik Ibsen and his followers, Fiske also helped introduce plays that treated modern problems with psychological depth. Ralph Barton, 1929
13. SIPGRE_101120_137.JPG: Ed Wynn, 1886-1966 Richard B. Harrison, 1864-1935 Ralph Barton's drawing, published in the March 21, 1930, issue of the humor magazine Life, paired the renowned comic Ed Wynn with Richard B. Harrison, an African American actor who "spoke with a voice like a cello's." Wynn was appearing in Simple Simon, while Harrison was playing a famous role in The Green Pastures. Captioned "The Perfect Fool and A Perfect Actor," the image contrasted an almost dignified Harrison with the ridiculous Wynn, replete with pinpoint eyes, outsized glasses, multiple chins, and absurd flapping protrusions of hat, hair, collar, and tie. While such drawings exaggerated human anatomy and dress to preposterous extremes, Barton's characterizations were rarely malicious. "It is not the caricaturist's business to be penetrating," he wrote in 1925. "It is his job to put down the figure a man cuts before his fellows in his attempt to conceal the writhings of his soul." Ralph Barton, c. 1930
14. SIPGRE_101120_145.JPG: Ann Landers, 1918-2009 Born Esther Pauline Friedman, popular advice columnist Ann Landers came by her pen name in 1955, when she won a contest to write the syndicated newspaper feature "Ask Ann Landers." Audiences loved her practical advice on everything from "wedding etiquette and in-law troubles to cancer and cross-dressing." Spanning five decades, her column ran in more than 1,200 newspapers and reached more than 90 million readers. She competed with her twin sister, who was "Dear Abby." Landers's portrait was painted twice, in 1977 and 1988, by Roger Robles, a California artist patronized by celebrities and members of Chicago society. Landers preferred the latter portrait as being "less starchy looking," and it was displayed in her apartment until her death. Roger Robles, 1988
15. SIPGRE_101120_154.JPG: Philip Johnson, 1906-2005 After attending Harvard, Philip Johnson traveled in Europe, where he met with architects and absorbed their ideas. Back in the United States, he created an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, "The International Style" (1932), which introduced modern architecture to the American public. Later, he designed a series of masterpieces, including his own residence, the Glass House (1949), and the Seagram Building in New York City, with Mies van der Rohe (1956). His portrait was commissioned by a friend, who asked classically trained sculptor George M. Kelly to create this shimmering likeness, with Johnson's signature black glasses cast separately in bronze. It was displayed in the Glass House until Johnson's death. George M. Kelly, 1997, cast in 2000
16. SIPGRE_101120_163.JPG: Robert Duncan, 1919-1988 Poet Robert Duncan lived and worked mostly on the West Coast, where he was associated with both the Beat movement and the so-called "Bay Area Renaissance." During the 1960s he emerged as a major, post-Beat-era poet by publishing three important books in quick succession: Opening of the Field (1960), Roots and Branches (1964), and Bending the Bow (1968). He then vowed to avoid the "distraction" of publishing for fifteen years, a promise he kept; it was not until 1984 that he published his prize-winning Ground Work I. R. B. Kitaj's sensitive charcoal portrait of Duncan conveys his thoughtfulness through its depiction of the poet with closed eyes. Duncan was a friend of the artist's, who made the poet the subject of several other works, including a color screenprint and an etching. R.B. Kitaj, 1982
17. SIPGRE_101120_170.JPG: Carl Sandburg, 1878-1967 As a poet and author who championed the everyman, Carl Sandburg earned great acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize for Cornhuskers, Complete Poems, and Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. Sandburg's own life, an odyssey of the American experience, included time as a hobo, door-to-door salesman, and other odd jobs. At the time this portrait was made, Sandburg defined personal happiness as "To be out of jail. To eat and sleep regular. To get what I write printed in a free country for free people. To have a little love in the home and a little affection and esteem outside the home." Thomas Hart Benton's drawing of his friend, although dated 1957, appears to be a study for his 1956 oil painting. Benton's characteristic style infuses energy into Sandburg's likeness, bringing together two twentieth-century artists who celebrated the ordinary American. Thomas Hart Benton, c. 1956
18. SIPGRE_101120_180.JPG: Clay Felker, 1925-2008 Founder of New York magazine in 1968, editor Clay Felker was a transformative figure in print media. He began his career at magazines such as Life and Esquire before revamping a supplement of the New York Herald Tribune into a stand-alone magazine. Felker described New York, the first magazine devoted to covering a city, as documenting "how the power game is played, and who are the winners." A gregarious "sponge to the city," he counted writers Tom Wolfe and Gloria Steinem among his staff. Felker set the standard for "New Journalism," which used long, narrative articles written with novelistic techniques to give reporting a hip voice. The artist of this work, Byron Dobell, was also a respected magazine editor in New York. In 1994 Gail Sheehy commissioned him to paint this intimate portrait of her husband, posed in the living room of their New York City apartment. Byron Dobell, 1994
19. SIPGRE_101120_187.JPG: James Monroe, 1758-1831 Thomas Gimbrede's engraving served as the principal presidential image of James Monroe, becoming the most widely disseminated image during Monroe's years in office. Artist John Vanderlyn commissioned the print, based on his own painted portrait, in the spring of 1816, when he learned of Monroe's presidential aspirations. The engraving began circulating just after the president's inauguration in March of 1817. Vanderlyn, a houseguest and close friend of the then-secretary of state, had recently finished painting two almost identical portraits of Monroe. James Madison had commissioned the original, which pleased Monroe enough to request another for himself. From Monroe's version, now owned by the National Portrait Gallery, Vanderlyn made a quick sketch to function as the engraver's model. Guided by this drawing, Gimbrede offered the first engraved image of the fifth president in this print. Thomas Gimbrede, after John Vanderlyn, 1817
20. SIPGRE_101120_196.JPG: Stephen Decatur, Sr., 1752-1808 Like his better-known son-the War of 1812's naval hero Stephen Decatur Jr.-Stephen Decatur Sr. played an important role in developing American maritime military strength. During the American Revolution he sailed both as a merchantman, bringing in vital supplies, and as a privateer, successfully taking many prize English vessels. In 1798, Decatur became an officer in the American navy, combating incursions by the French. Made after his retirement in 1801, this portrait by the popular �migr� artist Charles Balthazar Julien F�vret de Saint-M�min clearly pleased Decatur. In addition to being engraved, copies of the engraving were hand-painted on two pieces of Chinese export porcelain: a punch bowl commissioned as a gift for him and a covered jug. It is seen here with a pendant portrait of his wife, Ann Pine Decatur. Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mernin, 1802
21. SIPGRE_101120_203.JPG: Ann Pine Decatur, 1752-1812? Ann Pine Decatur's portrait is a companion piece to that of her husband, Stephen Decatur Sr., whom she married in 1774. The popularity of French �migr� artist Charles Balthazar Julien F�vret de Saint-M�min and his presence in Philadelphia made him a natural choice to portray the Decaturs. Four other members of the family had their pictures made by Saint-M�min at this time, although the couple's famous son, Stephen Decatur Jr., was not among them. The portraits, which appear to be framed with their original verre �glomis�, or gilded glass, represent the National Portrait Gallery's first pendant pair of Saint-M�min drawings. Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mernin, 1798-1803
22. SIPGRE_101120_210.JPG: Harvey Penick, 1904-1995 Edwin "Bud" Schrake, 1931-2009 One of the best-selling golf books ever published, Harvey Penick's Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime of Golf, resulted from a fruitful collaboration between golfer Penick and writer Edwin "Bud" Shrake. Combining life lessons, golf tips, and autobiography, the Little Red Book showcased Penick's extensive knowledge of the game, delivering tips on stance and swing as well as observations about integrity and character. Penick spent almost fifty years as the head golf professional at the Austin Country Club and coached the University of Texas golf team for thirty-two years; his students included successful professionals such as Babe Didrikson, Tom Kite, and Ben Crenshaw. Shrake worked as a journalist and spent several years writing for Sports Illustrated. On assignment for Texas Monthly, Michael O'Brien photographed the pair for an article celebrating the publication of their second book. Michael O'Brien, 1993 (printed 2009)
23. SIPGRE_101120_216.JPG: William Cody and Lakota leaders at Wounded Knee This rare group portrait was taken at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on January 16, 1891, one day after the last Lakota surrendered following the Battle of Wounded Knee. It includes William "Buffalo Bill" Cody (at center, wearing a wide-brimmed hat), the famous showman who traveled there after the fighting to help negotiate a peace agreement and to recruit performers for his touring Wild West Show. The photograph also features many of the prominent Lakota leaders who were present at the battle, including Young Man Afraid of His Horses (seated with hat at center), a noted warrior who advocated negotiation with the United States, and Kicking Bear (seated next to him), one of the leaders of the Ghost Dance, a messianic religion that the Lakota had recently adopted. Regarded as the "last of the Indian wars," the Battle of Wounded Knee was a one-sided conflict that resulted in the death of approximately 300 Lakota men, women, and children. John Grabill, 1891
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].