<p>Why is Reconstruction relevant today? This collection engages learners with inquiry and object-based learning strategies to support conversations about our racial past and consider the relevance of Reconstruction's legacies. With a focus on drawing connections between past and present, this collection seeks to empower educators and students by introducing them to new ideas for integrating art into conversations about Reconstruction. </p> <p>This Smithsonian Education Summit workshop was facilitated by Elizabeth Dale-Deines (Smithsonian American Art Museum), Candra Flanagan (National Museum of African American History and Culture), and Briana Zavadil White (National Portrait Gallery).<br></p> <ul></ul> <p>#NationalEducationSummit #NPGteach<br></p>

<p>How do we teach a balanced, comprehensive, and complex history of the United States? In this collection, explore themes of civil rights, American imperialism, Native histories, the ethics of medicine, and more. Through document analysis and reading portraiture strategies, uncover previously unknown stories and consider the pressures and motivations that shaped historical controversies. <br></p> <p>This Learning Lab collection has been created in conjunction with the Teaching Difficult Histories Through Portraiture and Primary Sources professional development workshop, co-hosted by the National Portrait Gallery and the National Archives and Records Administration, in August 2023.<strong></strong><strong></strong></p> <p>#NPGteach</p>

<p>This collection focuses on a life-size, hand-cut silhouette representing Flora (1777–1815), a woman who was enslaved in Connecticut, and the bill of sale that transferred her ownership on December 13, 1796, when she was nineteen years old. Her life story invites us to consider the period from the American Revolution to the close of the War of 1812 from a rarely considered perspective—that of an enslaved woman. Flora is emblematic of vast numbers of enslaved women whose likenesses and histories have gone unrecorded.</p> <p>Her silhouette was traced at life-size directly from her cast shadow, lending a tangible sense of human presence to her portrait. But who made it? And for what purpose? We will explore these questions through consideration of the few facts known about Flora's life; the regional differences that distinguished the experiences of enslaved women in the North and in the South; the social conventions of silhouette-making; and the history of representing African American women in late eighteenth and nineteenth-century American portraiture.</p> <p>This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p>

<p>How can women's stories centered in the classroom? In what ways can portraiture spark civic change? This collection features portraits, strategies, and lessons for teaching about the history of women in the United States to support the 2022 <em>Smithsonian National Education Summit</em> session, "Exploring Women's History Through Portraiture: From Liliuokalani to Shirley Chisholm." With a focus on drawing connections to the present, this collection seeks to empower educators and students by introducing them to new ideas for integrating art, and civics that center on stories of women. </p> <p>Workshop facilitated by Ashleigh Coren (Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and National Portrait Gallery), Briana Zavadil White (National Portrait Gallery), and Amy Trenkle (Ida B Wells MS). <br></p> <p><strong>Learning Objectives</strong></p> <p>Educators will:</p> <ul><li>Identify elements of portrayal in order to read portraiture ​</li><li>Learn about hidden histories of women​</li><li>Examine the importance of sharing different historical perspectives​</li><li>Collaboratively brainstorm how to integrate resources into the classroom.</li></ul> <p>#NationalEducationSummit #TogetherWeThrive #NPGteach<br></p>

<p>Explore portraits from <em>The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today </em>at the National Portrait Gallery in this Learning Lab collection.</p> <p><em></em><em>The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today</em> presents 42 portraits selected through an open call that garnered more than 2,700 entries from artists working across the United States and Puerto Rico. The artists responded with works that engage contemporary society, many providing new insights into the unprecedented reality we have experienced in the time surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.</p> <p>The selected finalists create artworks in a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, textiles, video, and performance. They demonstrate how capacious and changing the genre of portraiture can be, and illuminate the genre's power to make visible a multitude of life experiences.<br></p> <p>To best view the video and performance pieces, visit the <em>The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today</em><em>'s </em><a href="https://portraitcompetition.si.edu/exhibition/2022-outwin-boochever-portrait-competition/?lang=eng">website</a>.</p> <p>Every three years, the National Portrait Gallery invites both emerging and established artists working in the U.S. to submit a recent portrait to the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Around fifty works are then selected by expert jurors who, on average, review more than 2,500 entries. The competition has evolved since its inception in 2006 to include performance art and time-based media alongside painting, photography, drawing, and sculpture.</p> <p>As part of its deep commitment to supporting contemporary artists working in portraiture, the National Portrait Gallery looks to the Outwin to share the genre’s remarkable relevance and strengthen the visual representation of American history. Each iteration of the competition gauges portraiture’s progression while underscoring the potential of one person to make an impact.</p> <p>The Outwin is made possible through the Virginia Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, established by Virginia Outwin Boochever (1920–2005), who served as a docent for the National Portrait Gallery for nearly two decades. Mrs. Boochever’s vision for the Outwin is now carried out by her children.</p> <p>Educators, to explore these portraits with your students through close looking and visible thinking routines, see the resources at the end of this collection for ideas.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p>

<p>A portrait is a type of artwork created by artists that illustrate the likeness or image of a person or persons. They can lend insights into history and biography. Portraits can also prompt writing in the classroom, inspire students to create self-portraits, and even offer fruitful ties to multiple disciplines, such as science and mathematics.</p> <p>In this Learning Lab Collection, educators will learn how to teach students to spot visual clues in portraits and respond to them. In order for students to do so, they need a set of tools to guide them. In this section, educators will find the following tools:<br></p> <ul><li><em>Defining Portraiture</em> provides educators with a basic lexicon on portraiture.</li></ul> <ul><li><em>Elements of Portrayal</em> are a series of visual clues that can help students observe and analyze portraiture. Moreover, these different elements relay not only the story of a portrait’s sitter but also the historical and social context in which the portrait was created.</li></ul> <ul><li><em>Teaching Strategies</em> are a series of protocols that educators can use alongside portraits to bolster learners’ engagement and study. Some of these will be used in some of the lessons throughout the Out of Many curriculum guide.</li></ul> <ul><li><em>Introducing Portraiture to Students</em> describes an activity that educators can use to begin working with portraits. Students may also fill out the <em>Reading Portraiture</em> graphic organizer as they investigate each portrait.</li></ul> <p>Reading Portraiture 101 is associated with the Out of Many Curriculum Guide Series, of which <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/pPEjlxzvSDYKI29e">Expanding Roles of Women</a> is the first.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p>

<p>In this Learning Lab collection, suffragists featured in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery exhibition,<em> Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900 </em>are used as entry points to teach about the history of the suffrage during this time period. </p> <p>During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many women sought voting rights as the foundation of women’s rights, and they were often viewed as radical for having such a goal. As daughters and wives, women in the United States had few decision-making rights, let alone the right to own and control land, so having the power to make political decisions through suffrage was seen as extreme. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton initiated the first woman’s rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848, some attendees expressed this concern. The struggle for women’s suffrage was rooted in the abolition movement and anti-slavery societies, where Black and white women organized together to end slavery. White suffragists learned from leading Black women abolitionists like Sojourner Truth and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, who had been organizing and speaking publicly for many years before Seneca Falls. By the end of the Civil War, when voting rights for Black men were written into law, racism began to divide the suffragists.</p> <p>Although Susan B. Anthony worked with Stanton to end slavery, they did not believe that Black men should gain suffrage before white women. In this set of Teaching Ideas, students will examine the details of this divide and discover how suffragists fought for women’s rights and social justice issues. For example, the journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett advocated for Black women’s rights, including suffrage, and protested the lynching of African Americans. Lawyer Belva Ann Lockwood not only believed in women’s right to political representation but also in their capability of holding the highest office in the land: She ran for president in 1884 and 1888.</p> <p>Throughout this collection, students will examine not only the portraits subjects but will also; gain insist into the larger historical time period in which the subjects lived, understand how the women in these portraits lived and located agency, and reflect on the present by considering how women continue to make changes in society.</p> <p>This collection contains three lessons that highlight the American suffragist movement: "Reading Portraiture: Striking a Pose," "Engaging History: Unity and Division Within the Women's Suffrage Movement," and "Connections to the Present: Women Presidential Candidates."</p> <hr> <p><strong>Reading Portraiture: Striking a Pose</strong></p> <p>In this lesson, students step into the roles of two leaders of the American women’s suffrage movement: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Ida B. Wells. One of the most famous suffragists, Stanton was a founder of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and a prolific writer and theorist of feminist thought. Wells was an investigative journalist and newspaper editor who led an antilynching campaign and fought for women’s suffrage. In addition, she founded the politically influential Alpha Suffrage Club, which aimed to give a voice to African American women who were excluded from mainstream suffrage organizations.</p> <p>Inspired by the suffragists’ political use of the tableau vivant, or a carefully posed, motionless scene with living actors, this lesson will ask students to closely study—and bring to life—Stanton and Wells’ portraits and polemics.</p> <p>Essential Questions</p> <ul><li>Which Elements of Portrayal lend visual power to a portrait?</li><li>To what extent does a sitter’s pose convey a sense of authority and selfhood?</li></ul> <p>Objectives </p> <ul><li>Study the social and historical implications of primary sources and original works of art.</li><li>Extend the analysis of nineteenth-century portraits of suffragists into a dramatic, kinesthetic interpretation.</li><li>Identify some of the primary principles of the women’s suffrage movement.</li></ul> <hr> <p><strong>Engaging History: Unity and Division Within the Women’s Suffrage Movement</strong></p> <p>Students will gain an understanding of the unity and division within the women’s suffrage movement through a two-part lesson. They will enter the lesson by considering how history is told through portraits, in terms of who is represented and who is not. The notable absence of African American abolitionists and suffragists from the Coronation of Womanhood group portrait provides a launching point to investigate why these individuals were sidelined from the women’s suffrage movement. At the same time, students will learn about instances when African American and white women came together in their struggle for equal rights.</p> <p>The first part of the lesson involves gathering background information from a short video and reading. Then, students will analyze primary sources that convey the unity within the women’s suffrage movement. For the second part of the lesson, students will do more in-depth investigation into the various perspectives and debates around strategies for achieving women’s suffrage, which exemplify division within the movement. During an interactive “Chalk Talk,” students will respond to both quotes from these historical debates as well as to the opinions of their fellow classmates.</p> <p>Essential Questions</p> <ul><li>How has portraiture been used to represent the history of women’s suffrage?</li><li>How can we account for the missing or underrepresented perspectives in history and what can we do to change the narrative?</li><li>What caused division within the women’s suffrage movement?</li></ul> <p>Objectives </p> <ul><li>Students will explore how portraits present history.</li><li>Students will analyze additional primary sources to understand changes within the women’s suffrage movement.</li><li>Students will investigate suffragists’ differing perspectives.</li></ul> <hr> <p><strong>Connections to the Present: Women Presidential Candidates</strong></p> <p></p> <p>Students will conceptualize portraits of women who ran for president in the late nineteenth century and more recently. They will begin by examining former presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm’s portrait. During the main part of the lesson, they will make connections between women who have run for presidential office in recent years and Belva Ann Lockwood, a suffragist who was a two-time presidential candidate in the 1880s.</p> <p>Students will delve into women’s biographies by reading articles and conducting independent research. Afterward, they will create a portrait of a woman presidential candidate based on the Elements of Portrayal and the biographies they have read.</p> <p>Essential Questions</p> <ul><li>How do the experiences of historical women who ran for president compare to those of women today?</li><li>Which factors does an artist consider when creating a portrait of the president or presidential candidate of the United States?</li></ul> <p>Objectives </p> <ul><li>Students will investigate women’s biographies to understand what motivated them to run for president of the United States.</li><li>Students will apply their knowledge of reading portraiture and the Elements of Portrayal to create portraits of women candidates for presidential office.</li></ul> <p></p> <hr> <p>#NPGteach #OutOfMany</p> <p>Keywords: Suffrage, Suffragists, Suffragette, Women's Suffrage, Portraiture, Voting Rights, Enfranchisement, Nineteenth Amendment, Seneca Falls, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Abigail Scott Duniway, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, American Equal Rights Association (AERA), Belva Ann Lockwood, Shirley Chisholm, Female Presidential Candidates, Female President, Campaign, See/Think/Wonder, Strike a Pose, Tableaux Vivants, Chalk Talk, Portraiture, Making Portraits<br></p>

<p>Explore portraits of astronauts and activists, scientists and star athletes—and discover the stories behind them! Use the following collections to engage young learners with portraiture through close looking, movement, and art-making.</p> <p>Choose a portrait, open the collection, and explore art, history, biography and more!</p> <p>#NPGteach</p>

<p>In this Learning Lab collection, professionals featured in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery exhibition,<em> Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900 </em>are used as entry points to teach about the history of the women's work.<br></p> <p>In the nineteenth century, women increasingly took on roles in public life. During the early Republic, Sarah Weston Seaton, the wife of a newspaper publisher, became a consummate host of political elites in her Washington, D.C., home. Women artists, such as Sarah Miriam Peale and Mary Cassatt, painted commissioned portraits of powerful individuals and ordinary scenes of domestic life, respectively. Writers like Charlotte Perkins Gilman advocated for fundamental shifts in women’s economic and social power. According to Gilman, women’s labor should not be restricted to the domestic sphere. Rather, they deserved the freedom to pursue professions outside of the household. In this collection, students will study women’s entrance into the professional sphere, where they set forth their ideas through the arts, public speaking and events, and campaigning.</p> <p>In addition, students will examine not only the portraits subjects but will also; gain insist into the larger historical time period in which the subjects lived, understand how the women in these portraits lived and located agency, and reflect on the present by considering how women continue to make changes in society.</p> <p>This collection contains three lessons that highlight themes relating to women and work: "Reading Portraiture: Claim, Support, Question," "Engaging History: Valuing the Work of Women," and "Connections to the Present: Tracking a Journey in the Public Eye." </p> <hr> <p><strong>Reading Portraits: Claim/Support/Question</strong></p> <p>Students will gradually uncover Mary Cassatt’s life through the “Claim, Support, Question” strategy from Reading Portraiture 101. They will enter the lesson by analyzing the portrait without knowing the identity of its subject or any background information.</p> <p>As more evidence is revealed to students, they will make truth claims about who they think Mary Cassatt was. Second, they will use evidence to support or question their claims. Students will then synthesize all the evidence they have examined in a written reflection on Mary Cassatt’s life and values. Teachers will conduct a class discussion about what they have learned. To supplement this history, Sarah Miriam Peale and Edmonia Lewis will be introduced as the predecessor to and contemporary of Cassatt, respectively. Students will have the opportunity to explore additional professional women artists from the nineteenth century to the present through a variety of extension activities.</p> <p>Essential Questions</p> <ul><li>What can a portrait tell us about someone’s life?</li><li>How can historical evidence help us make inferences about a person’s story?</li></ul> <p>Objectives </p> <ul><li>Students will interpret the message an artist conveys through their self-portrait.</li><li>Students will analyze and synthesize visual and written evidence to draw conclusions about their claims</li></ul> <hr> <p><strong>Engaging History: Valuing the Work of Women</strong></p> <p>Students will explore the portraits and lives of Sarah Weston Seaton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Working in groups, students will identify the spaces these women carved out for political and creative work in a society that largely relegated them to the home.</p> <p>Seaton, the wife of a prominent Washington, D.C., newspaper editor, was a keen observer and host of political life in the early Republic—all while raising eleven children.</p> <p>Born in 1860, over seven decades after Seaton, Gilman shunned the confines of nineteenth-century domesticity. Instead, she pursued a robust career as a writer, lecturer, and artist, often addressing the topic of women’s unacknowledged economic contributions. </p> <p>Even with their considerable racial and class privilege, Seaton and Gilman grappled with the restrictions and expectations of their times: marriage, child-rearing, running a household, and entertaining guests, among myriad other duties. By examining</p> <p>Seaton’s and Gilman’s portraits and related primary sources, students will determine which activities counted as labor for these women.</p> <p>Essential Questions</p> <ul><li>What counts as work?</li><li>What kind of work is valued in your society? What kind of work is undervalued?</li><li>How do women locate agency, even when they are held back by a society’s norms?</li></ul> <p>Objectives </p> <ul><li>Use primary sources to infer the conditions of women’s lives and livelihoods.</li><li>Prepare a claim about women and work that is based on primary sources.</li></ul> <hr> <p><strong>Connections to the Present: Tracking a Journey in the Public Eye</strong></p> <p>In this lesson, students will learn about contemporary women who have played prominent roles in American politics and culture.</p> <p>To what extent do these women, especially those with proximity to power, draw on their lived experiences to fuel their platforms? By focusing on a living first lady, students will outline how women in power navigate life in the public eye.</p> <p>Essential Questions</p> <ul><li>How does prior experience shape a life in public service?</li><li>Which biographical factors inform the aims of women in politics?</li></ul> <p>Objectives </p> <ul><li>Track the biography of a first lady and study how prior life experiences shaped her life in the White House.</li><li>Summarize key findings from web-based research; categorize research and make judgments.</li></ul> <hr> <p>#NPGteach #OutOfMany</p> <p>Keywords: Professionals, Mary Cassatt, Women Artists, Sarah Miriam Peale, Edmonia Lewis, Impressionists, Impressionism, Working Women, Sarah Weston Seaton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Phillis Wheatley, Anne Catherine Hoof Green, Betty Friedan, First Ladies, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump, Web Research, Primary Sources, Claim/Support/Question</p>

<p>Este <em>Learning Lab</em> (Laboratorio de aprendizaje) complementa el programa para estudiantes de la National Portrait Gallery 2020-2021. Esta colección complementa la serie de programas que ofrece la National Portrait Gallery para estudiantes de tercer grado del DCPS (Escuelas Públicas del Distrito de Columbia), “Figuras dinámicas: antes y ahora”.</p> <p>La serie “Figuras dinámicas: antes y ahora” recurre al retrato para establecer relaciones transversales en el plan de estudios. A lo largo del año académico, las clases de tercer grado del DCPS tendrán la oportunidad de conocer la Galería Nacional de Retratos a través tres visitas únicas durante el otoño, el invierno y la primavera. Más allá de que asistan a una, dos o tres sesiones, los estudiantes podrán apreciar el poder del retrato en sus diversos aspectos. Este programa se ajusta directamente a los objetivos de aprendizaje del tercer grado. A través de debates interactivos, así como de actividades de dibujo, escritura y motoras, los estudiantes leerán, resolverán problemas, compararán y contrastarán los distintos retratos de la colección. Los estudiantes aprenderán a interpretar retratos y a reconocer el valor del arte del retrato en una variedad de escenarios y circunstancias. </p> <p>Una vez que completen esta lección, los estudiantes estarán mejor capacitados para:</p> <p>Identificar a estadounidenses importantes y analizar sus contribuciones a la historia de los Estados Unidos</p> <p>Identificar los elementos clave de un retrato y conversar sobre las cosas que se pueden aprender acerca del modelo retratado a través de ellos.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p> <p><br></p> <p>La traducción de este recurso fue posible gracias al generoso patrocinio de Bank of America.</p>

<p>The National Portrait Gallery tells the story of the United States of America by portraying the people who shape the nation’s history, development and culture.</p> <p>This collection organizes the portraits found within student programs chronologically. Learn more about The National Portrait Gallery's <a href="https://npg.si.edu/teachers/school-groups">virtual 2021-2022 student programs </a> and explore more of the <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/org/npg">National Portrait Gallery's Learning Lab collections</a>.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Portraits, Portraiture, Identity, Visual Arts, History, Famous Americans, Important People, Self-Portraits, Symbols, Artist, Medium, Model, Sitter, National Portrait Gallery, Paintings, Sculptures, Photographs</p>

<p>Este Laboratorio de aprendizaje (Learning Lab) es un complemento del programa escolar 2020-2021, Detectives de Retratos, de la Galería Nacional de Retratos.</p> <p>Los estudiantes se transformarán en detectives de retratos, e investigarán retratos y analizarán pistas para ampliar sus conocimientos acerca de personajes relevantes de los Estados Unidos. A través de debates interactivos y actividades de dibujo y escritura, los estudiantes podrán interpretar, comparar y contrastar retratos de toda la colección. Para ofrecer un mejor apoyo para el plan de estudios y favorecer los intereses de los estudiantes, este módulo está dividido en los siguientes temas: presidentes, activistas, íconos y científicos.</p> <p><strong>Objetivos:</strong></p> <p>Después de completar esta lección, los estudiantes estarán mejor preparados para: </p> <ul><li> Identificar a estadounidenses importantes y analizar sus contribuciones a la historia de los Estados Unidos </li><li> Identificar los componentes claves de un retrato y analizar lo que podemos aprender sobre la figura retratada a través de estos componentes.</li></ul> <p><strong></strong><strong>Enlaces de los planes de estudios:</strong></p> <p>Este plan de clases es adecuado para alumnos de jardín de infantes a 3.er. Grado (K-3) en las áreas de estudios sociales, artes del lenguaje y artes visuales.</p> <p><a href="https://npg.si.edu/teachers/school-groups">Prepare</a> un programa virtual de Detectives de retratos con educadores de la Galería Nacional de Retratos.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p> <p>Palabras clave: estadounidenses famosos, presidentes, íconos, activistas, promotores de la justicia social, científicos, inventores, músicos, artistas, retratos, arte, celebridades, cantantes<br><br></p> <p>La traducción de este recurso fue posible gracias al generoso patrocinio de Bank of America.</p>