INTRODUCTION
INTRO IMAGE -- G:\Press\CSV\Photos\Jamison.tif
EMBED: © Max Waldman
ALT: Dancer Judith Jamison (Max Waldman)
A virtual exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery celebrates American women who made important contributions to arts, science, sports, entertainment, business and politics in the 20th century. Following is a brief introduction to a few of these remarkable women.
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EMBED: © Ann Shanks
ALT: Physician Virginia Apgar (Ann Shanks)
CAPTION: It has been said that every baby born in a modern hospital is first viewed through the eyes of Virginia Apgar. A physician, Apgar developed the five-feature Apgar Score System in 1952. The system measures infant viability immediately after birth and helps catch defects while they can still be corrected. She was the first female full professor of medicine at Columbia University.
<i>Virginia Apgar</i>
By Ann Zane Shanks
Gelatin silver print, 1966
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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EMBED: © Philippe Halsman
ALT: Author Margaret Wise Brown (Philippe Halsman)
CAPTION: A former teacher and book editor, Margaret Wise Brown authored more than 100 children’s books during her short life. Her most famous work is the children’s classic <i>Goodnight Moon</i>, published in 1947. She enjoyed writing her stories from her bed, as seen in this photograph.
<i>Margaret Wise Brown</i>
By Philippe Halsman
Gelatin silver print on paper, 1946
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Steve Bello in memory of Jane Halsman Bello
IMAGE #3 -- G:\Press\CSV\Photos\Child.tif
EMBED: © Hans Namuth
ALT: Chef Julia Child (Hans Namuth)
Special directions: crop to photo
CAPTION: Julia Child is said to have introduced Americans to French cooking with her 1961 bestselling cookbook,<i>Mastering the Art of French Cooking</i>. While stationed with her husband in France during World War II, she took classes at the famed French culinary school Cordon Bleu, where she immediately fell in love with cooking. The success of her cookbook led to her television show <i>The French Chef</i>, which ran for 11 years on American public television.
<i>Julia Child</i>
By Hans Namuth
Gelatin silver print, 1977
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of the Estate of Hans Namuth
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EMBED: © Arnold Genthe
ALT: Dancer Isadora Duncan (Arnold Genthe)
CAPTION: Dancer Isadora Duncan changed the face of ballet. In the early 20th century, she pioneered interpretive dance as a serious art form and laid the groundwork for others like Martha Graham. Duncan was “more like a spirit than a woman,” said a dance critic. The tunic she wears in this photo was often worn during her performances.
<i>Isadora Duncan</i>
By Arnold Genthe
Gelatin silver print, 1916
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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EMBED: © Acme Newspapers
ALT: Pilot Amelia Earhart (Acme Newspapers)
Amelia Earhart made history as the first woman pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. She was an advocate for the development of commercial aviation and pushed for more women in aviation. In June 1937, determined to fly around the world, Earhart began her quest by piloting her aircraft out of Miami, but by July her plane had disappeared near the international date line. The facts of her disappearance remain unknown. She is shown here with the unfinished fuselage of that plane.
<i>Amelia Earhart</i>
By Unidentified Artist, Acme Newspapers, Inc.
Gelatin silver print, 1936
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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EMBED: © Bob Willoughby
ALT: Actress Judy Garland (Bob Willoughby)
CAPTION: Frances Ethel Gumm, better known as Judy Garland, was one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century. She got her start in musical theater as part of a singing trio with her sisters, but it was her starring role as Dorothy in the 1939 film <i>The Wizard of Oz </i>that made her a familiar face to generations of moviegoers.
<i>Judy Garland</i>
By Bob Willoughby
Gelatin silver print, 1954 (printed in 1977)
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Willoughby
IMAGE #7 -- G:\Press\CSV\Photos\Jamison.tif
EMBED: © Max Waldman
ALT: Dancer Judith Jamison (Max Waldman)
CAPTION: In 1971, choreographer Alvin Ailey created <i>Cry</i> — a piece meant to express the struggle of black women — expressly for Judith Jamison, a statuesque dancer in his company. Jamison performed <i>Cry</i> in the United States and abroad. She later became the artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as well as a distinguished professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
<i>Judith Jamison in “<i>Cry</i>”
By Max Waldman
Gelatin silver print, 1976
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Carol Gruenke, Max Waldman Archives
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EMBED: © Charles Whitman
ALT: Helen Keller (Charles Whitman)
CAPTION: Helen Keller became blind, deaf and mute as the result of an early childhood illness, but she overcame these disabilities and learned to read Braille, speak and write. She graduated <i>cum laude</i> from Radcliffe College in 1904, wrote a best-selling autobiography and became a revered symbol of the indomitable human spirit. As the official spokeswoman for the American Foundation for the Blind, Keller successfully lobbied Congress to fund reading services for the blind and also emerged as a popular speaker on the lecture circuit.
<i>Helen Adams Keller</i>
By Charles Whitman
Platinum print, 1904
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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EMBED: © Clara Sipprell
ALT: First lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Clara Sipprell)
CAPTION: <i>Time</i> magazine once called Eleanor Roosevelt “the most popular living American.” Roosevelt, one of the most active first ladies in U.S. history, tirelessly promoted equal rights for women and minorities and also advocated for child welfare and housing reform. In 1945, she was appointed to the United Nations, where she chaired the Commission on Human Rights and played a leading role in the drafting and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. See “<a href=" http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/publication/2008/04/20080427122906eaifas0.0318349.html ">Anna Eleanor Roosevelt</a>.”
<i>Eleanor Roosevelt</i>
By Clara Sipprell
Gelatin silver print, 1949
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Bequest of Phyllis Fenner
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EMBED: © Ira L. Hill
ALT: Activist Margaret Sanger (Ira L. Hill)
CAPTION: Margaret Sanger was a maternity nurse on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the early 1900s when she became committed to removing the legal barriers to dissemination of information about contraception. Sanger, who spearheaded the creation of today’s Planned Parenthood organization, was jailed several times for her activism.
<i>Margaret Higgins Sanger</i>
By Ira L. Hill
Gelatin silver print on paper, 1917
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Margaret Sanger Lampe and Nancy Sanger Pallesen, granddaughters of Margaret Sanger
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EMBED: © Peter Hujar
ALT: Author Susan Sontag (Peter Hujar)
Novelist and essayist Susan Sontag was a prominent analyst of American popular culture, first gaining national attention in the 1960s. Her stories and essays appeared in newspapers, magazines and literary publications worldwide. Of her profession, Sontag said: “Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom.”
<i>Susan Sontag</i>
By Peter Hujar
Gelatin silver print, 1975
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
IMAGE #12 -- G:\Press\CSV\Photos\Walker.tif
EMBED: © Addison Scurlock
ALT: Entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker (Addison Scurlock)
Special directions: crop to photo
Madam C.J. Walker founded a beauty empire in the early 20th century with her development of the “Walker Method” of hair care for African Americans. Walker hired agents across the country to sell her products, which carried her likeness on the labels. A well-known figure in the United States and Europe, Walker is recognized as the first female African-American millionaire in the United States.
<i>Madam C.J. Walker</i>
By Addison Scurlock
Gelatin silver print, c. 1914
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of A’Lelia Bundles/Walker Family
View the virtual exhibition on the National Portrait Gallery website.