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Mottled photographs of immigrants set against the Statue of Liberty.

The American Dream 100 Years After the National Origins Act

How a clerk on Ellis Island at the dawn of the 20th century documented discrimination through photography, and what that tells us about today’s malaise.
by Yousef O. Bounab via New Lines on February 17, 2025
A drawing of a slave revolt on a ship.

Rare Portraits Reveal the Humanity of the Slaves Who Revolted on the Amistad

William H. Townsend drew the rebels as they stood trial, leaving behind an invaluable record.
by Kate McMahon via The Conversation on February 3, 2025
Portrait of Ena and Betty Wertheimer by John Singer Sargent, 1901.

Friend of the Family

Jean Strouse explores the relationship between the Anglo-Jewish Wertheimers and John Singer Sargent, who painted twelve portraits of them.
by Ruth Bernard Yeazell via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024
Paintings by John Singer Sargent: Asher Wertheimer, 1898 (left) and Hylda, Almina and Conway, Children of Asher Wertheimer, 1905 (center), London. Portrait of Mrs. Asher B. Wertheimer, 1898 (right).

A Sudden, Revealing Searchlight

On Jean Strouse and the art of biography.
by Ruth Franklin via Harper’s on October 23, 2024
Painting of Mary Ann Tritt Cassell, a woman with pale skin and curled hair wearing a blue shirt with pink bow collar.

An Art Mystery is Solved, and a Historic Portrait Goes on Display

The painting of Mary Ann Tritt Cassell is likely the first known portrait commissioned by an American born into slavery.
by James Johnston via Retropolis on June 24, 2024
Ella Watson in American Gothic, photographed by Gordon Parks.

She Was No ‘Mammy’

Gordon Parks’s most famous photograph, "American Gothic," was of a cleaning woman in Washington, D.C. She has a story to tell.
by Salamishah Tillet via The Atlantic on May 8, 2024
Young girl triplets wearing identical clothes sitting on a bed.

Posed Riddles

Seeing through empathy with Diane Arbus.
by Max Norman via The Drift on February 28, 2023
Painting of classical ruins, called the 'Temple of Aphaea, Aegina,' by John Rollin Tilton.

18th- and 19th-Century Americans of All Races, Classes & Genders Looked to the Ancient Mediterranean for Inspiration

In a new land, the ancient past held special meaning.
by Sean P. Burrus via The Conversation on November 21, 2022
A.I. image of Benjamin Franklin, Audrey Hepburn and Al Capone if they were alive today.

Photographer Uses AI to Imagine What Historical Icons Would Look Like Today

Some of the stars depicted in Yesiltas’ portraits are instantly recognizable as modern-day sirens, while others are less obvious at first glance.
by Pesala Bandara via PetaPixel on November 14, 2022
Photograph of an African American family buying ice cream at a segregated ice cream shop

Gordon Parks' View of America Across Three Decades

Two new books and one expanded edition of Gordon Parks' photographs look at the work of the photographer from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
by Robert E. Gerhardt via Blind on October 28, 2022
Side-by-side presidential portraits of George Washington, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush

The Presidents Who Hated Their Presidential Portraits

Theodore Roosevelt said his made him look like “a mewing cat.” Lyndon Johnson called his “the ugliest thing I ever saw.” Ronald Reagan ordered a do-over.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on September 7, 2022
Daguerrotype of Robert Cornelius.

Portraits of Brotherly Love

Philadelphia portrait studios in the Age of the Daguerreotype (1840-1849).
by Rachel Wetzel via Library of Congress on July 1, 2022
Group portrait, "Elihu Yale With Members of His Family and an Enslaved Child," 1719.

Who Is the Enslaved Child in This Portrait of Yale University's Namesake?

Scholars have yet to identify the young boy, but new research offers insights on his age and likely background.
by Nora McGreevy via Smithsonian on October 15, 2021
A family posing for a picture on a porch

Porch Memories

An architectural historian invites us to sit with her awhile on the American porch.
by Federica Soletta via The Public Domain Review on August 4, 2021
Indian Congress installation

The Historic Indian Congress is Reunited in Omaha by Artist Wendy Red Star

The Apsáalooke artist has created a major new installation for her solo show at the Joslyn Art Museum using photographs of the 500 delegates taken in 1898.
by Karen Chernick via The Art Newspaper on February 1, 2021
Charles Milton Bell, Apsáalooke Delegation, 1880.

Apsáalooke Bacheeítuuk in Washington, DC

A case study in re-reading nineteenth-century delegation photography.
by Wendy Red Star, Shannon Vittoria via Panorama on October 1, 2020
Side by side portraits of LL Cool J and John D. Rockefeller, both sitting with left leg crossed over right, right hand on leg.

How a Maverick Hip-Hop Legend Found Inspiration in a Titan of American Industry

When LL Cool J sat for his portrait, he found common ground with the life-long philanthropical endeavors of John D. Rockefeller.
by Alice George via Smithsonian on July 24, 2020
The Bullion Mine, Virginia City, Nevada, in a village at the foot of a mountain.

Gold Diggers on Camera

Creating the myth of the gold rush with the help of daguerreotypists.
by Jane Lee Aspinwall via Lapham’s Quarterly on October 28, 2019
Chester Harding

Chester Harding’s My Egotistigraphy (1866)

Privately published memoir of an American portraitist who grew up in a log cabin and went on to paint presidents and Daniel Boone.
by Adam Green via The Public Domain Review on September 10, 2019
Engraving of Harriet Beecher Stowe in profile.

How the Camera Introduced Americans to Their Heroines

A new show at the National Portrait Gallery spotlights figures including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott and Margaret Fuller.
by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian on July 9, 2019
Emma Grimes Robinson

These Photo Albums Offer a Rare Glimpse of 19th-Century Boston’s Black Community

Thanks to the new acquisition, scholars at the Athenaeum library are connecting the dots of the city’s history of abolitionists.
by Dana Lorch via Smithsonian on May 29, 2019

A Lost and Found Portrait Photographer

What remains of Hugh Magnum's work documents how much was shared in common by people who racist laws treated as separate.
by Sarah Blackwood via The New Yorker on February 14, 2019

An Itinerant Photographer's Diverse Portraits of the Turn-of-the-Century American South

A new exhibit features photos by Hugh Mangum, whose glass plate negatives were salvaged from a North Carolina barn.
by Allison C. Meier via Hyperallergic on January 20, 2019

An Outline of Over 200 Years of Silhouettes

The oldest object on view shows on brown paperboard one of the earliest known images of a slave in the U.S.
by Claire Voon via Hyperallergic on August 13, 2018

Rarely Seen 19th-Century Silhouette of a Same-Sex Couple Living Together Goes On View

A new show, featuring the paper cutouts, reveals unheralded early Americans.
by Roger Catlin via Smithsonian on May 25, 2018

Henrietta Lacks, Immortalized

Henrietta Lacks's "immortal" cell line, called "HeLa," is used in everything from cancer treatments to vaccines.
by Allison C. Meier via JSTOR Daily on May 17, 2018

How Portraiture Gave Rise to the Glamour of Guns

American portraiture with its visual allure and pictorial storytelling made gun ownership desirable.
by Kim Sajet via Smithsonian on March 23, 2018

Where the Newly Unveiled Obama Portraits Fit in the History of (Black) Portraiture

An art historian explains how portraits can convey so much more than mere likeness.
by Richard J. Powell, Rachelle Hampton via Slate on February 12, 2018
Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe and the Power of a Portrait

Edgar Allan Poe knew that readers would add their visual image of the author to his work to create a personality that informed their reading.
by Erin Blakemore, Kevin J. Hayes via JSTOR Daily on February 13, 2017
Photograph of Chief Iron Tail.

American Indians, Playing Themselves

As Buffalo Bill's performers, they were walking stereotypes. But a New York photographer showed the humans beneath the headdresses.
by Michelle Delaney via What It Means to Be American on January 27, 2015
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