Face-to-Face, from the National Portrait Gallery

David Ward, historian at NPG, discusses Lincoln, and a selection of portraits in the exhibition "One Life: The Mask of Lincoln."Every Thursday evening, the National Portrait Gallery presents "Face-to-Face," a talk about selected portraits on view in the gallery. As part of this regular series, NPG historian David Ward discussed a few photographs of Lincoln on display in the recently opened exhibition "One Life: Mask of Lincoln." View the online exhibition at: http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/lincoln/ . Recorded at NPG, December 11, 2008. Image info: Abraham Lincoln / Alexander Gardner, 1861 / Albumen silver print / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

The exhibition "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography" is on view at the National Portrait Gallery, until September 27, 2009. This exhibition features works by six critically acclaimed photographers = Katy Grannan, Jocelyn Lee, Ryan McGinley, Steve Pyke, Martin Schoeller and Alec Soth. NPG associate curator of photographs, Frank Goodyear, sat down with photographer Jocelyn Lee to discuss her work. Lee's photographs for this exhibition were drawn from work that she has completed in Maine, a place where she has spent much time. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Lee has served as a professor of photography at Princeton University since 2003. View the online exhibition for "Feature Photography" at http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/feature . Recorded at NPG, December 8, 2008. Image info: Untitled (Kara on Easter) / Jocelyn Lee, 1999 / Chromogenic print / Collection of the artist / Copyright Jocelyn Lee

Warren Perry, researcher at NPG, discusses FDR and his role in turning back Prohibition. As part of the National Portrait Gallery's regular "Face-to-Face" portrait talks, NPG researcher Warren Perry discussed Roosevelt and his role in turning back Prohibition. This 1945 portrait of FDR, by artist Douglas Granville Chandor, can be viewed in the America's Presidents exhibition, on the museum's first floor. Recorded at NPG, December 4, 2008. Image info: Franklin Delano Roosevelt / Douglas Granville Chandor, 1945 / Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Francis Flavin, historian at the U.S. Department of the Interior, discusses a portrait of Sequoyah by Henry Inman. Sequoyah, the son of a Cherokee chief's daughter and a fur trader from Virginia, was a warrior and hunter and, some say, a silversmith. For twelve years he worked to devise a method of writing for the Cherokee language. His syllabary of eighty-five symbols, representing vowel and consonant sounds, was approved by the Cherokee chiefs in 1821, and the simple utilitarian system made possible a rapid spread of literacy throughout the Cherokee nation. Medicine men set down ceremonies for healing, divination, war, and traditional ball games; missionaries translated hymns and the New Testament into the native language; and in 1828 the Cherokee Phoenix, a weekly bilingual newspaper, began publication at New Echota, Georgia. This portrait of Sequoyah by artist Henry Inman, is on display in the "American Origins" exhibition on the museum's first floor. Recorded at NPG, November 11, 2008. Image info: Sequoyah / Henry Inman, c. 1830 / Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

The political cartoons of Herbert Block (1909-2001) appeared in American newspapers for more than seven decades under the pen name Herblock. He achieved his greatest prominence as the editorial cartoonist of the Washington Post, where he worked from 1946 until his death in 2001. The exhibition contains Block's original drawings of presidential cartoons from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton. The exhibition ran from May 2-November 30, 2008. Recorded at NPG, November 2008. See the online exhibiton at http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/herblock . Image info: "Look-Nice Tapes-Okay, Boy? Okay?"/ Herbert Lawrence Block, October 24, 1973 / Pencil on paper Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C./ Copyright The Herb Block Foundation

Martin Sullivan, director of NPG, discusses a portrait of George C. Marshall by Thomas Edgar Stephens. George C. Marshall was, according to one expert observer, the "perfect" soldier. Endowed with a quick mind, a good memory, and a superb sense of strategy, he did not particularly relish war. Yet as chief of staff during World War II, he proved to be a masterful orchestrator of military mobilization. In 1945 President Harry Truman remarked that millions of Americans had served the country well in that conflict, but it had been Marshall who "gave it victory." Recorded at NPG,November 13, 2008. Image info: George Catlett Marshall / Thomas Edgar Stephens, c 1949 / Oil on canvas / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the National Gallery of Art; gift of Ailsa Mellon Bruce, 1951

David Ward, historian at NPG, discusses "One Life: The Mask of Lincoln." Interview by Warren Perry. In the two-hundredth year since his birth, Abraham Lincoln remains as much a puzzle as he was to his contemporaries. "One Life: The Mask of Lincoln," a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, shows the changing face that Abraham Lincoln presented to the world as he led the fight for the Union. The exhibition runs until July 5, 2009. It is part of a yearlong Smithsonian-wide celebration of the bicentennial, exploring the life and times of the nation's most mythic and transformative president. Recorded at NPG, November 2008. See the online exhibiton at http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/lincoln . Image info: Abraham Lincoln/Alexander Gardner, 1865/Albumen silver print/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

David Ward, historian at NPG, discusses Joseph McCarthy. On February 9, 1950, a little known junior senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, proclaimed that he had a list of 205 Communist Party members who worked in the State Department with the full knowledge of the secretary of state. McCarthy's speech came shortly after the Communist takeover in China, the U.S.S.R's successful detonation of an atomic bomb, and suspected spy Alger Hiss's conviction for perjury. For many, McCarthy's charges explained why the West was experiencing setbacks, and made him a formidable political force. It marked the beginning of demagogic red baiting and made the term "McCarthyism" synonymous with hysterical anti-Communism. McCarthy had no evidence for his accusations and was censured by the Senate in 1954; "McCarthyism" would be remembered for its corrosive effect on America's ability to deal effectively with real Communists abroad and at home. You can see a 1954 portrait of McCarthy by photographer George Tames in the "Twentieth-Century Americans" exhibition on the museum's third floor. Recorded at NPG, October 30, 2008. Image info: Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn / George Tames, 1954 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Frances O. Tames / Copyright The New York Times/George Tames

Amy Henderson, historian at NPG, discusses Orson welles and the 70th anniversary of War of the Worlds. On Halloween night of 1938, Orson Welles brought to the airwaves the now-classic H. G. Wells's fantasy War of the Worlds (1898). Many tuned in late, missing the announcement that the program was fiction. As viewers listened to aliens taking over Manhattan, panic set in, and Welles had to interrupt the broadcast to assure listeners it was not real. You can see a portrait of Welles in the "Twentieth-Century Americans" exhibition on the museum's third floor. Recorded at NPG, October 31, 2008. Image info: Orson Welles/Unidentified artist, c.1938 / Gelatin silver print / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

David Ward, historian at NPG, discusses writer Dashiell Hammett. Inspired to try his hand at writing mysteries after his years with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, Dashiell Hammett met a warm reception when he published his first two detective novels in 1929. But it was the appearance of The Maltese Falcon a year later that secured him his reputation as one of America's most original mystery writers. The hard-bitten realism and crisp dialogue of that work led critics to compare its author's style to that of Ernest Hemingway. You can see the portrait of Hammett by artist Edward Biberman in the "Twentieth-Century Americans" exhibition on the museum's third floor. Recorded at NPG, October 16, 2008. Image info: Samuel Dashiell Hammett / Edward Biberman, 1937 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution /Copyright 1937 Edward Biberman

Brandon Fortune, curator at NPG, discusses a sculpture of Henry Wallace by Jo Davidson. On becoming Franklin Roosevelt's secretary of agriculture in 1933, Wallace told reporters that if he could not help the nation's Depression-ridden farmers, he would "go back home and raise corn." Wallace developed the controversial policy of limiting production, paying farmers to destroy crops and slaughter livestock. He became Roosevelt's running mate in 1940 but was dropped from the ticket in 1944. NPG curator Brandon Fortune discussed this bronze bust of Henry Wallace, by Jo Davidson. You can see this portrait in the "Twentieth-Century Americans" exhibition on the museum's third floor. Recorded at NPG, October 9, 2008. Image info: Henry Agard Wallace / Jo Davidson,1942 / Bronze/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mrs. Jean Wallace Douglas, Robert Wallace, and Henry B. Wallace

Warren Perry, researcher at NPG, discusses a portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald by David Silvette. David Silvette executed this painting, the only known life-sitting of Fitzgerald, in 1935. Although the writer had commissioned the portrait, he was unable to pay for it and never owned it. You can see this portrait in the "Twentieth-Century Americans" exhibition on the museum's third floor. Recorded at NPG, October, 2008. Image info: F. Scott Fitzgerald / David Silvette, 1935 / Oil on canvas / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

David Ward, historian at NPG, discusses a sculpture of Robert Frost. Robert Frost was one of the few modern American poets who combined critical with popular acclaim. His best poetry was written in the 1920s and 1930s, as America was discovering its national and regional histories.This sculpture, by Walker Kirtland Hancock, is on view in the exhibition "20th-Century Americans," on the museum's third floor. Recorded at NPG, September 2008. Image info: Robert Lee Frost / Walker Kirtland Hancock, 1969 cast after 1950 original / Bronze / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the artist

Maya Foo, researcher at NPG, discusses a photograph of actor Edwin Booth by Mathew Brady Studio. This 1864 photograph of Edwin Booth and his daughter Edwina was taken by the Mathew Brady Studio and produced as a carte de visite--a sort of trading card and celebrity collectable. The portrait is on view in NPG's "American Origins" exhibition, on the museum's first floor. Recorded at NPG, September 2008. Image info: Edwin Booth and daughter Edwina/Mathew Brady Studio, 1864/Modern albumen print from wet plate collodion negative/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Jim Barber, historian at NPG, discussed this 1944 bronze bust of World War II journalist Ernie Pyle. This sculpture, by Jo Davidson, is on view in the exhibition "20th-Century Americans" on the museum's third floor. Recorded at NPG, September, 2008. Image info: Ernie Pyle / Jo Davidson, 1944 / National Portrait Gallery,Smithsonian Institution; gift of Dr. Maury Leibovitz