Based on the popular and revolutionary PBS multiplatform documentary project, an inspiring and striking photographic portrait that brilliantly captures the tumultuous, historic year that was 2020, offering an intimate look at the heart and soul of our national life and what it means to be an American today, revealed through the stories of ordinary people from sea to shining sea. Everyone has a story . . . In January 2020, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, PBS launched an ambitious national storytelling project, American Portrait, inviting people across the country to participate in a national conversation about what it means to be an American today. The multiplatform experience, including a television series that will air on PBS stations nationwide in January 2021, has created a communal voice through the individual stories of participants—each one a unique stitch in the beautiful, diverse quilt that is America. A vivid yet nuanced snapshot of who we are, this visually striking companion volume features more than 400 entries and photographs, all which began with an answer to a simple cue: My American story started when . . . You don’t know what it’s like to . . . My greatest challenge is . . . The tradition I carry on is . . . I was raised to believe . . . What keeps me up at night is . . . I took a risk when . . . When I step outside my door . . . Most days I feel . . . Told by people of all ages, orientations, and walks of life, these unique stories of joy, adversity, love, sacrifice, grief, sharing, triumph, and grace, centered on the themes of family, work, fun, faith, and community, illuminate the struggles, hopes, dreams, and convictions of Americans today. The more we share with our fellow citizens, the more we can see a real, complex, and fascinating representation of our country that is far richer and deeper than headlines and elections tell us. As intriguing, thoughtful, and distinct as the nation it embodies, American Portrait is a photographic manifestation of Walt Whitman’s immortal words, “I am large. I contain multitudes”—and a vital and ultimately hopeful reminder that what we all share is much greater and enduring than what may divide us.

"Most often, portrait miniatures were painted in watercolor on thin disks of ivory. They were sometimes worn as jewelry, sometimes framed to be viewed privately. Many were painted by specialists, although renowned easel artists - including Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and Charles Willson Peale - also created them to commemorate births, engagements, marriages, deaths, and other joinings or separations. The book traces the development of this exquisite art form, revealing the close ties between the history of the miniature and the history of American private life."--BOOK JACKET.

Benjamin Franklin's portraits and colonial printing -- Phillis Wheatley and the durability of the author portrait -- Nationalist portraiture, magazines, and political books -- Picturing the seduction heroine in the U.S -- Gothic portraiture in Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland and Ormond

How well do we know our country? Whom do we include when we use the word "American"? These are not just contemporary issues but recurring questions Americans have asked themselves throughout their history--and questions that were addressed when, in 1935, the Roosevelt administration created the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. Although the immediate context of the FWP was work relief, national FWP officials developed programs that spoke to much larger and longer-standing debates over the nature of American identity and culture and the very definition of who was an American. Hirsch reviews the founding of the FWP and the significance of its American Guide series, considering the choices made by administrators who wanted to celebrate diversity as a positive aspect of American cultural identity. In his exploration of the FWP's other writings, Hirsch discusses the project's pioneering use of oral history in interviews with ordinary southerners, ex-slaves, ethnic minorities, and industrial workers. He also examines congressional critics of the FWP vision; the occasional opposition of local Federal Writers, especially in the South; and how the FWP's vision changed in response to the challenge of World War II. In the course of this study, Hirsch raises thought-provoking questions about the relationships between diversity and unity, government and culture, and, ultimately, culture and democracy.

A vibrant chronicle of the life and work of a prolific painter and bohemian eccentric.

Unveiling the unconventional : Kehinde Wiley's portrait of Barack Obama / Taína Caragol -- "Radical empathy" : Amy Sherald's portrait of Michelle Obama / Dorothy Moss -- The Obama portraits, in art history and beyond / Richard J. Powell -- The Obama portraits and the National Portrait Gallery as a site of secular pilgrimage / Kim Sajet -- The presentation of the Obama portraits : a transcript of the unveiling ceremony.

Over one hundred photographs from the renowned Kurt Koegler collection of Native American portraits taken between the end of the Civil War and the end of World War I are featured in this powerful compendium depicting a proud and defeated people. Native American Portraits presents a factual, anecdotal, and visual history of the evolving artistry and technology of a century of photographers, as well as of the tribes whose vanishing trappings and traditions they sought to capture with their craft. The photographers -- William Henry Jackson, Camillus Fly, Carleton Watkins, and Lee Moorhouse, among scores of others -- were intrepid adventurers, fiercely committed to their work, who hauled hundreds of pounds of photographic equipment across the mountains and faced many dangers; their subjects -- including such important warriors as Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Red Cloud, Geronimo, and Chief Gall (who led the Indians to victory against Custer) -- appear venerable, dignified, and beaten. Fascinating and provocative, this richly illustrated and painstakingly annotated volume documents the intersection of photography in its infancy and Native American culture in precipitous decline.