By Popular Demand: Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present

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Logo, Portraits of Presidents and First Ladies
Annotation

The Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division selected this set of 156 portraits of presidents and first ladies from those items in the division's file of popular demand images for which no copyright restrictions are known.

Popular subjects, such as images of inaugurations and the White House, are included, as are such perennial favorites as Abraham Lincoln with Sojourner Truth, Calvin Coolidge at a baseball game, Warren G. Harding with his lively dog Laddie, and Dwight D. Eisenhower with American paratroopers in England.

The first ladies' portraits depict 36 wives of 35 presidents.

The collection is primarily illustrative.

Still Going On: Celebrating The Life and Times of William Grant Still

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Photo, William Grant Steel, Still Going On
Annotation

An exhibit devoted to William Grant Still (1895-1978), "the first African-American composer to have a symphony performed by an American orchestra." Includes annotations on more than 100 documents relating to his life and work, such as articles by Still, correspondence, scores, audio clips, programs, photographs, newspaper reviews, and testimonials. Also provides a complete discography, bibliography of 80 titles, and timeline of the "cultural connections" fostered by Still and his music. Of value to those with a specific interest in Still's life, work, and cultural milieu, and to students of 20th-century classical music and the experience of African-American artists in general.

Longue Vue House and Gardens [LA]

Description

Longue Vue features Classical Revival style buildings and landscaped gardens, a collection of European and American decorative and fine arts pieces, and museum exhibits. The estate itself was designed in 1939–1942 for philanthropists Edgar Bloom Stern, a New Orleans cotton broker, and his wife Edith Rosenwald Stern, an heiress to the Sears-Roebuck fortune.

The house offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and educational and recreational events.

Preservation Trades Network

Description

"The Preservation Trades Network (PTN) is a non-profit membership organization founded as an education, networking, and outreach organization. PTN was established on the principle that conservation of the built environment is fundamentally dependent on the quality, availability, and viability of the skilled trades. We believe that opportunities for education, employment, and compensation of people in the trades are directly reflected in the quality of the built environment, and the effective stewardship of cultural heritage."

Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964

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Photo of Ella Fitzgerald, Carl Van Vechten, 1940
Annotation

This collection presents 1,395 photographs by the American photographer, music and dance critic, and novelist Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964). The site consists primarily of studio portraits of celebrities, most of whom were involved in the arts, including actors, such as Marlon Brando and Paul Robeson; artists, such as Marc Chagall and Frida Kahlo; novelists, such as Theodore Dreiser and Willa Cather; singers, such as Ethel Waters and Billie Holiday; publishers, such as Alfred A. Knopf and Bennett Cerf; cultural critics, such as H. L. Mencken and Gilbert Seldes; and figures from the Harlem Renaissance, such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston.

More than 80 photographs capture Massachusetts and Maine landscapes and seascapes; others include eastern locations and New Mexico. Many photographs of actors present them in character roles. Searchable by keyword and arranged into subject and occupational indexes, this collection also includes a nine-title bibliography and background essay of 800 words on Van Vechten's life and work. A valuable collection for the documentation of the mid-20th-century art scene.

Hyde Hall State Historic Site [NY]

Description

Hyde Hall was built by George Clark and is one of the foremost examples of a neoclassical country mansion in the United States. The home was completed in 1833, and was placed on the national register of historic places in 1964 after the Glimmerglass state park was created around it. Today, the home is open to visitors year round.

The state historic site offers guided tours of the home. The website offers a photo-tour of the house as well as a history of the house.

History Museum of Western Virginia [VA]

Description

The History Museum of Western Virginia presents artifacts and information relevant to the history of the western portion of Virginia. The site also operates the circa 1905 Crystal Spring Pumping Station, which provided water-based power for Roanoke, VA.

The museum offers exhibits, interactive curriculum-based outreach programs, interactive curriculum-based programs, and research library access. The pump station is open May through September. Student program topics include immigration, African Americans in the maritime industry, Native American life and leisure, pioneer art, Mali, Civil War soldier life, patriotic symbols, early international conflict, archaeology, rural life, steam locomotives in Southwest Virginia, the work and labor of sharecroppers' children, trade, exploration, and navigation. The website offers a virtual exhibit and a searchable collections database with images.

Animating the Home Front

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1942 ad for the American Gas Association
Question

I am looking for an electronic copy of a cartoon which shows most of the different aspects of the home front effort in America during World War II.

Answer

America’s home front effort included recruiting for the military, participating in scrap drives, paying income taxes, buying war bonds, using rationing coupons, planting Victory gardens, encouraging sanitation, volunteering for civil defense work, increasing public morale, and participating in industrial retooling and production. The Hollywood studios that were making cartoons at the beginning of the war were quickly drafted into turning their art to the war effort, to mobilize the American public. Cartoons were just one part of a propaganda effort, which also included the production and distribution of feature films, posters, war-themed commercial radio, newspaper and magazine advertising, the organization of celebrity tours and war bond drives, the establishment of censorship offices, and the formulation and distribution of a barrage of information and directives from various government officials and agencies.

Leon Schlesinger Productions produced popular cartoons featuring Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny for Warner Brothers Studios, many of which had war themes, such as “The Ducktators” (1942), “Confusions of a Nutzy Spy” (1943), “The Fifth Column Mouse” (1943), “Tokio Jokio” (1943), “Daffy—The Commando” (1943), “Falling Hare” (1943), and “Draftee Daffy” (1945).

At least two of these Warner Brothers’ cartoons focused on home front activities and might be the cartoon you’re thinking of: “Scrap Happy Daffy” (1943), and ”Wacky Blackout” (1942).

Walt Disney also produced many war-themed cartoons with Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the gang, some of which were focused on the home front, such as “Out of the Frying Pan into The Firing Line” (1942), and ”Food Will Win the War” (1942).

A collection of short cartoons and movies from the Disney Studio during World War II, which includes many intended for the home front, was released (for purchase) in 2004 as a 2-disc DVD, “On the Front Lines,” in the series “Walt Disney Treasures.” This collection includes such titles as “Donald Gets Drafted” (1942), “Private Pluto” (1943), “Home Defense” (1943), “All Together” (1942), “Defense Against Invasion” (1943), and “Cleanliness Brings Health” (1945), as well as many others. The collection also includes Disney’s 1943 animated film, “Victory Through Air Power,” as well as a few of the hundreds of training films that the Disney studio made for the War Department or the National Film Board of Canada, such as “Four Methods of Flush Riveting” (1942).

For more information

Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Thomas Doherty, Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Bibliography

James J. Kimble, Mobilizing the Home Front. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006.

Steven Watts, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

Cass Warner-Sperling, Cork Millner, and Jack Warner. Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

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Sculpture, "Untitled (Big Man)," Ron Mueck, 2000
Annotation

Provides informative entries on more than 4,000 works of art—more than 500 of which include images—in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. "Conceived of as the nation's museum of modern and contemporary art," the Hirshhorn concentrates on the post-World War II period, with special focus on the past 25 years, though it also owns works by influential modern artists from earlier periods. Searchable according to artist, title, date, nationality, and 30 schools of art. Entries provide short essays of up to 200 words on artists and works. Previous and current exhibits are on display. An "Art Interactive" component explains ways that recent sculptors have used various methods and materials, and invites visitors to design their own creations. Useful for those seeking an introduction to modern and contemporary art history.

Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County [PA]

Description

The Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County presents the history of life in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The museum collection focus is the decorative arts used throughout Lancaster residences. The museum is housed within the 1790s former city hall and Masonic Lodge No. 43. The city hall served as the state capitol building between 1799 and 1812.

The museum offers exhibits, guided tours, an exhibit tour and activity program for students, 45- to 60-minute outreach presentations for students, a self-guided walking tour of Lancaster for students, traveling trunks, teacher professional development workshops, and summer camps. All groups interested in a guided tour must call ahead. Student educational opportunities are curriculum-based.