PORTRAITS

In 1872, decades before women were legally allowed to vote, Victoria Woodhull made an audacious run for the White House. The press ridiculed her stance on 'free love' and she spent election night in jail. But she had put the first small crack in one of the thickest glass ceilings around. Twelve years later Belva Lockwood, the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court, took another swing at it. 

We celebrate Election Day with a look back at some of the first women who dared to run for the highest office in the United States, including Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and Rep. Shirley Chisholm. They ran against long odds, but they had grit and they got the ball rolling.

With Smithsonian curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy, and journalism historian Teri Finneman.

See the portraits we discussed:

Victoria Woodhull, unidentified artist

Get Thee Behind Me, (Mrs.) Satin! by Thomas Nast

Belva Lockwood, by Nellie Mathes Horne

Margaret Chase Smith, by Ernest Hamlin Baker

Shirley Chisholm, unidentified artist

Further reading:

Press Portrayals of Women Politicians, 1870s - 2000s, by Teri Finneman 

Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, by Jill Norgren

The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull, by Lois Beachy Underhill

No Place For A Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, by Janann Sherman

The Good Fight, by Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics, by Anastasia C. Curwood

With Election Day just around the corner, we go back in time to figure out how early presidential candidates got their message, and their image, in front of voters. It wasn't easy. Asking directly for people's vote was seen as undignified, so candidates mostly stayed home in the early 1800s. As a result, most Americans didn't know for sure what their candidates looked like, or sounded like.

Kim speaks with curator Claire Jerry,  from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, about the stream of new technologies-- from printing to photography to radio-- that transformed political advertising and gave candidates a more direct line of communication with the American people.

See the portraits and campaign materials we discussed:

William Henry Harrison campaign button

Abraham Lincoln, by Mathew Brady

Abraham Lincoln campaign button

Franklin D. Roosevelt at microphone

Ronald Reagan poster

We're back! Season six of PORTRAITS hits your feed Oct. 22 with a new slate of shows that use artwork to decode our world. Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, talks with guests about presidential campaigns, scientific discoveries and some of the currents running through today’s cultural landscape. 

As AI art gets more and more sophisticated, how do we tell the difference between a portrait that’s created by a human being – with a soul – and art that’s created by a complex algorithm? And if we can’t tell the difference, will artists be out of a job?

Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explains how AI art works, and why he thinks code can actually help artists to expand their creative universe.

But there’s one big question that remains: What does AI art tell us about the inner world of AI itself?

See the portraits we discussed:

Edmond de Belamy, published by Obvious Art

The Next Rembrandt, brainchild of Bas Korsten

Kim Sajet, generated by AI

Kim Sajet, by Devon Rodriguez

You can see Prof. Marcus du Sautoy’s ‘Creativity Code’ lecture here.

In this mini episode from our 'Blink' series, Rick Chapman shares stories from photographing elite athletes who have competed in the Olympic Games. The first step, he says, is to put the camera down. The second is not to talk about sports too much.

Rick's ESPY Collection, for ESPN, features 40 celebrity athletes, including boxers, tennis stars and basketball royalty. You can find it here.

See the portraits we discussed:

Venus Williams, black and white

Venus Williams, color

Shaun White, black and white

Shaun White, color

Dolley Madison was eight years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed, and 40 when her husband James became president. In her late 70s she sat for a photograph, becoming the first (former) first lady to do so. Then, this summer, the National Portrait Gallery acquired it.

In this mini 'Blink' episode, Kim speaks with Ann Shumard, senior curator of photographs, to hear how this rare daguerreotype came to light and how the Gallery was able to buy it.

See the photograph here.

There are not many portrait artists who get recognized on the street, but it happens to Devon Rodriguez all the time.

After quietly honing his skill for a decade, Devon started posting videos of his live drawings of New York City subway commuters to social media. The videos took off, earning him some 50 million followers and placing portraiture in front of a huge new audience.

Kim speaks with Devon about the mentors who had his back, and this new model for showing art— not in museums, but on screens.

See the portraits we discussed:

Kim Sajet, by Devon Rodriguez

John Ahearn, by Devon Rodriguez

“The Rodriguez Twins,” by John Ahearn

María Elena Estrada, by Devon Rodriguez

Devon Rodriguez draws Kim Sajet, Instagram

Next in our 'Blink' summer series, Kim speaks with Robyn Asleson, curator of the 'Brilliant Exiles' exhibition, about a dreamy painting that holds a secret code. Edward Steichen's mural assigns a flower to several female friends who planted themselves in Paris's modernist milieu. But where some see jewel-toned beauty, Robyn sees a minefield.

In Exaltation of Flowers, by Edward Steichen

A globe turned to Haiti. A glove on the ground. This life-size portrait of President Abraham Lincoln contains intriguing details that can be read as a freeze-frame of race relations at the time of his assassination. The oil painting was ‘hidden in plain sight’ for decades at a municipal building in New Jersey, until our guest Ted Widmer helped to re-discover it.

Travers’ Lincoln is currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery, on loan from the Hartley Dodge Foundation, and courtesy of the citizens of the Borough of Madison, New Jersey.

See the portrait, by W.F.K. Travers, here.

In our 'Blink' summer series, Kim takes listeners behind the scenes for a quick glimpse at some of the goings-on at the National Portrait Gallery. This first mini-episode finds staff in a tight spot. How do they fit a large, priceless work of art into a very old, very historic building with small doors?