Our last day visiting museums was wonderful in every way. We organized our itinerary at breakfast with the National Portrait Gallery as our first stop. It was fascinating to see how the museum curators wove a visual story of the people who have shaped the country…presidents, poets, activists, and visionaries. It was very powerful! I am sure everyone approaches museum visits in their own way and with their own unique lens. Paxton and Marla walk by the Andy Warhol portrait of American Indian rights activist, Russell Means in the photos above.

“The Four Justices.” Clockwise from bottom left: Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor. Nelson Shanks 2012

Dramatic Washington painting by Gilbert Stuart (1755 – 1828) in 1796.

Life-size painting of President Abraham Lincoln by artist W.F.K. Travers. Created from life in 1865, the 9-foot-tall oil on canvas is one of three known, life-size paintings of the 16th president.

“Taking office against the bleak backdrop of the Great Depression, Roosevelt responded quickly to this economic disaster with a host of regulatory and welfare measures that redefined the government’s role in American life. Among conservatives, the new federal involvement in matters traditionally left to the private sector was a betrayal of America’s ideals. But in other quarters, Roosevelt’s activism inspired an unwavering popularity that led to his election to an unprecedented four terms.

During the autumn of 1944, Roosevelt received a letter from artist Douglas Chandor, proposing that a painting be created of Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, to document the allied efforts at the Yalta Conference in Russia. Chandor arranged a sitting for Roosevelt in early April, less than a month before the president’s passing. This portrait is a study for the larger painting, The Big Three at Yalta,—a sketch of which appears at the lower left Chandor also painted a life portrait of Churchill, which is owned by the National Portrait Gallery, but Stalin would not sit for his portrait. Thus, The Big Three at Yalta was never painted.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Thomas Edgar Stephens, in 1955.

“Under Eisenhower’s leadership, the United States saw the end of the Korean War, the construction of the interstate highway system, and the beginnings of desegregation in the South. In 1957, he dispatched federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect African American students after  the desegregation of Central High School. It was the first time since Reconstruction that a president sent military forces into the South to enforce federal law. That same year, he signed a federal law granting protection for voting rights. Having once been criticized as too passive, Eisenhower now draws praise for his consensual and effective style of leadership. His years in office are remembered as a time of peace and prosperity. Moreover, he consistently accomplished what few modern presidents have done: balancing the national budget.”

Paxton and Marla admire the John F. Kennedy painting by Elaine de Kooning from 1963.

Paxton takes a photo of President Bill Clinton by Chuck Close painted in 2006.

I loved this unusual painting of President Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley in 2018.

Fascinating and supremely powerful wood sculpture of Rosa Parks by Marshall D. Rumbaugh in 1983.

“With a courageous act of civil disobedience, Rosa Parks sparked a challenge to segregation that culminated in one of the seminal victories of the modern civil rights movement. On December 1, 1955, while traveling on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, the seamstress was arrested for refusing the driver’s demand that she surrender her seat to a white male passenger. When Parks was convicted of violating local segregation laws, Montgomery’s African American community launched a massive one-day boycott of the city’s bus system. The boycott expanded with the help of Martin Luther King Jr. to last 382 days, ending only after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled bus segregation unconstitutional.“

Louis Briel painting of Dustin Lance Black in 2012.

“Praised as one of “the rare voices from within the film industry to speak…passionately and openly about gay activism,” Dustin Lance Black worked tirelessly to bring the story of slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk to the big screen. He not only wrote the Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Milk (2009) but also served as the feature film’s executive producer. It was during his undergraduate studies at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television that Black first embraced storytelling as a tool to humanize LGBTQ+ issues. Coming out during his senior year, he was inspired by Milk’s legacy to believe that he could live his life fully and authentically. While building a successful career with his work for stage and screen, Black also joined the fight for marriage equality by supporting a successful challenge to California’s Proposition 8. The 2008 ballot initiative that resulted in a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was overturned.”

Sylvia Rivera (center of the photograph) was a “forerunner in the fight against gender identity discrimination.” She was a transgender Latina activist and key figure in the LGBTQ+ movement. Photograph by Luis Carle in 2000.

Congressman John Lewis. (1940 – 2020) painting by Michael Shane Neal 2020.

“When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something,” Congressman John Lewis remarked in 2019. Born to a family of sharecroppers, Lewis spent his life in the vanguard, making what he called “good trouble” by working tirelessly for equality and nonviolent social change. He cofounded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, reinforcing his early dedication to combating injustice. Lewis was one of the thirteen original Freedom Riders in 1961, an organizer of the March on Washington in 1963, and a key figure in the Selma-to-Montgomery marches for voting rights in 1965. As a leader of the SNCC, he organized demonstrations to end racial segregation, and as director of the Voter Education Project, he helped secure voting rights for millions of disenfranchised African Americans. Lewis served in President Jimmy Carter’s administration before making his first successful run for Congress in 1986. He held his position as the representative of Georgia’s fifth congressional district from 1987 until his death. Painted during the final year of his life, this portrait, with its unfinished look, evokes the unending struggle for justice that Lewis made his life’s work.”

A powerful David Lenz 2009 painting of Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009). She was a creative force and organizer of the Special Olympics.

1961 Joseph Schwartz painting of Charlayne Hunter-Gault.

“In January 1961, following a two-year legal battle, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and fellow student Hamilton Holmes walked resolutely onto the University of Georgia campus as the first African American students to enroll at the all-white public university. Within forty-eight hours of their arrival, students opposed to the pair’s admission were rioting outside Hunter-Gault’s dormitory and hurling bricks and bottles through her window. Hunter-Gault and Holmes were suspended, ostensibly to ensure their safety. They soon returned under a new court order, “determined as ever to stay the course.” Joseph Schwarz, an art professor who helped organize a faculty resolution to reinstate the suspended students, created this portrait. It captures the cool determination that enabled Hunter-Gault to challenge entrenched segregation and earn the journalism degree she fought to pursue at the University of Georgia. In 1988, twenty-five years after her graduation, Hunter-Gault became the first African American to deliver the school’s commencement address.”

Marla has always been interested in the women’s rights movement! They are looking at the 1995 Alice Matzkin portrait of Betty Friedan (1921 – 2006) Ms. Freidan helped galvanize the modern day feminist movement.

Next up was a quick visit to the National Museum of American History. We were greeted by this spectacular installation at the entrance. We were fascinated by exhibits of early political campaigns.

The museum featured a number of exhibits on student demonstrations. I distinctly remember this demonstration which was close to home. We are seeing activist school boards and state governments doing the same thing in 2023!

An exhibit of protest signs.

We carved out more time to re-visit the Freer Gallery Of Art at the National Museum of Asian Art. The story of the Freer Gallery is fascinating:

“Charles Lang Freer made his fortune in the railroad car manufacturing industry in the mid- to late nineteenth century. His interest in the Aesthetic movement helped to shape his tastes in art, and in the late 1880s, Freer began to actively collect paintings and works on paper by James McNeill Whistler. Freer would collect more than one thousand works by Whistler, who, through his own interest in the arts and cultures of Asia, turned Freer’s attention East. Whistler introduced Freer to the arts of Asia, and by 1906, Freer had amassed a considerable amount of paintings and ceramics from Japan and China, and artifacts from the ancient Near East.”

“Freer spent several years researching museums to determine the best design for his art gallery. He eventually decided on a modified version of an Italian renaissance palazzo. In fact, in a meeting with architect Charles Platt at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, Freer jotted down his ideas for a classical, well-proportioned building on a piece of hotel stationery. An Italianate structure with a porticoed courtyard would reflect his ideas about art and aesthetics, including scale, proportion, harmony, and repose. When the building opened to the public and until the 1970s, live peacocks roamed the courtyard, creating, in effect, a living peacock room to rival Whistler’s painted masterpiece.”

“The Life of the Buddha”, late 2nd-early 3rd century CE, Pakistan or Afghanistan (“Buddha is shown being born of his mother, Queen Maya, miraculously emerging from his mother’s side.”)

“According to tradition, Siddhartha was the founder of Buddhism. His name means “he who achieves his goal”. He was born a prince of the Shakya clan in Lumbini, now in Nepal. Some scholars have questioned the long-accepted dates of Siddhartha’s birth and death, 563-483 BCE. They believe that he may have lived and died as much as a century later.”

“The Gandharan relief depicts the prince’s miraculous birth. The Hindu god Indra offers a cloth and attends the Buddha’s birth from his mother’s side. Queen Maya, the mother of Siddhartha, has the garments and hairstyle of a Roman matron. She stands in an Indian posture associated with female nature spirits who grasp tree branches to make them bloom.”

“The Cosmic Buddha”, Northern Qi Dynasty, 550-77. Click on the link for more information:https://asia.si.edu/research/cosmic-buddha/

“Guardians of Eternity” wooden sculpture 91″ tall. Japan 1185-1333. The guardians kept watch over Buddha and his followers outside a temple in Japan.

Paxton admires a sculpture.

The Peacock Room” took my breath away!

“In 1876, shipping magnate Frederick Leyland hired his friend, artist James McNeill Whistler, to redecorate the dining room of his London townhouse. Leyland also used the space to display his prized collection of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Whistler totally reimagined the space as a “harmony in blue and gold,” covering the doors, ceiling, and walls with peacock-inspired designs. Leyland was far from pleased with the transformation and the artist’s fee. He quarreled with Whistler, but he kept the room intact.”

“Collector Charles Lang Freer purchased the room in 1904. He had it taken apart, shipped across the Atlantic, and reassembled in his home in Detroit, Michigan. There, he gradually filled its shelves with ceramics he collected from Syria, Iran, Japan, China, and Korea. Unlike Leyland’s preference for intricately decorated blue-and-white porcelain, Freer favored objects in monochromatic tones with matte, textured surfaces, and he arranged them on the Peacock Room’s shelves largely by color. For Freer, the room embodied his belief that “all works of art go together, whatever their period.”

The “Peacock Room” is mesmerizing!

Time to head to the airport! We had such a fabulous time in amazing Washington DC! Thank you Paxton for joining us on this adventure!



Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.