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Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 1999 



National Portrait Gallery 



Alan Fern, Director 



The National Portrait Gallery is dedicated to the exhibition 

 and study of portraits of people who have made significant 

 contributions to American history and culture and to the 

 study of the artists who created such portraiture. It collects, 

 documents, and preserves portraits in all media as both his- 

 torical and artistic artifacts. 



An important exhibition exploring the world of science in 

 the years surrounding the Revolutionary War — "Franklin & 

 His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth- 

 Century America" — was organized by Brandon Brame 

 Fortune, Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and 

 Deborah J. Warner, Curator, Division of Science, Medicine, 

 and Society, NMAH. Other exhibitions presented included 

 "Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century," 

 "Philippe Halsman: A Retrospective," "Paul Robeson: Artist 

 and Citizen," "George and Martha Washington: Portraits from 

 the Presidential Years," "Hans Namuth: Portraits," "Picturing 

 Hemingway: A Writer in His Time," "Edward Sorel: Unau- 

 thorized Portraits," and "A Durable Memento: Portraits by 

 Augustus Washington, African American Daguerreotypist." 



Major acquisitions included a bequest of the painting of 

 Thomas Jefferson by Mather Brown. Gifts included porttaits 

 of Lafayette attributed to Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, General 

 George S. Patton Jr. by Boleslaw Czedekowski, Henry James 

 by Ellen Emmet Rand, Richard Watson Gilder by Cecilia 

 Beaux, Washington Irving by Charles Loring Elliott, draw- 

 ings of Edna Ferber, Gordon Bunshaft, David Sarnoff and 

 William Paley by Louis Bouche, and Jamie Wyeth by Andy 

 Warhol. Purchases included a donative purchase of 25 pho- 

 tographs by Philippe Halsman, a full-length portrait of John 

 F. Kennedy by Elaine de Kooning, a silhouette of Rufus 

 King attributed to William Bache, and an oil sketch of Mike 

 Mansfield by Aaron Shikler. A photograph of Rosa Parks by 

 Ida Berman was acquired, along with photographs of Mo- 

 hammed Ali, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael by- 

 Gordon Parks, Ernest Hemingway by Yousuf Karsh, and a 

 daguerreotype of Lemuel Shaw by Southworth & Hawes. 



On January 9, 2000, the Gallery will close its doors to the 

 public for approximarely three years while the Old Patent 

 Office Building, which houses the museum, undergoes a ma- 

 jor renovation. Four new exhibitions drawn from more than 

 18,000 images in the Portrait Gallery's collection and four 

 shows previously exhibited in Washington will travel 

 throughout the United States and to Japan and Europe while 

 the museum is closed. The new exhibitions include a major 

 group of portraits of the U.S. presidents based on the mu- 

 seum's renowned Hall of Presidents; 75 paintings spanning 

 more than two centuries, including works by the most im- 

 portant portrait artists the nation has produced; a 

 wide-ranging group of 60 photographs of notable American 

 women of the twentieth century portrayed by the preemi- 

 nent photographers of our time; and a collection of 

 extraordinary portrait drawings beginning with a luminous 

 watercolor self-portrait by Mar)' Cassatt. 



The Director's Circle, the first formal group of individual 

 donors, was successfully created to bring a broad range of 

 supporters together in an organized manner to support the 

 Gallery's programs. In addition, an NPG Council is being 

 planned to broaden the base of support by opening doors to 

 foundations, corporations, and individuals on a national and 

 international basis. The Gallery appreciates the funds it re- 

 ceived this yeat from the Smithsonian's Center for Latino 

 Initiatives, Educational Outreach Fund, Scholarly Studies 

 Program, and the Special Exhibitions Fund; American Her- 

 itage Magazine, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz 

 Foundation, The J. Paul Getty Trust, Home Box Office, 

 J.M. Kaplan Fund, Thomasville Furniture Industries, Inc., 

 the Washington Post, the Washington Times, and WBIG-FM. 



The Education Department teceived a major grant to de- 

 velop, implement, and evaluate an expanded menu of 

 outreach programs for our Washington, D.C., metropolitan 

 area and national audiences. A series of 48 living history per- 

 formances drew a combined audience of 3,230, and Hispanic 

 Heritage Month programs featured a series of panel discus- 

 sions and a series of U.S. -made Latino films, shorts, and 

 documentaries. Close to 3,000 visitors enjoyed the varied 

 sounds of July's Courtyard Concert series, "The Age of Elvis: 

 The Roots of Rock & Roll." Visits to NPG's award-winning 

 Web site averaged approximately 180,000 per month. More 

 than 4,000 digital images now accompany records on the 

 newly implemented Collections Information System with 

 various scanning projects in progress. 



The Charles Willson Peale Family Papers submitted final 

 page proofs and index to Yale University Press for volume 5 

 of the Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family, 

 The Autobiography of Charles Willson Peale. Publication is 

 scheduled for spring 2000. Plans for volumes 6 and 7, to be 

 comprised of selected letters and documents from the chil- 

 dren of James and Charles Willson Peale, have been 

 approved by the Advisory Board. 



National Postal Museum 



James H. Bruns, Director 



The National Postal Museum, through its collection and li- 

 brary, is dedicated to the preservation, study, and presentation 

 of postal history and philately. The museum uses research, ex- 

 hibits, education, and public programs to make this rich 

 history available to a wide and diverse audience. 



Remembering a Titanic Year 



Since opening its doors in July 1993, the National Postal 

 Museum has continued to work vigorously to improve its ex- 

 hibits, exploring new, innovative methods for interpretation. 

 The museum prides itself on its development of engaging 

 and informative public programs, and interactive digital ex- 

 hibitions for the Internet to expand the scope and reach of 

 our exhibitions. The National Postal Museum regularly par- 



