From the Kansas Museum of History website:
"A century ago, photography was much more difficult than point-and-shoot. In this podcast we hear about the challenges faced by a pioneering woman photographer. Alice Gardiner Sennrich documented her town—Valley Falls, Kansas—through the lens of a massive camera."
From the Constitution Center website:
"2009 marks the 70th anniversary of one of the most dramatic concerts in American history: world famous African American contralto Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. In a conversation moderated by scholar Sheldon Hackney, award-winning historian Raymond Arsenault tells the story of Marian Anderson, one of the most enduring and iconic figures of the civil rights movement. Through immense raw talent and unrelenting determination, Anderson overcame racial prejudice to inspire all Americans and to become one of the greatest singers of her time."
To listen to this lecture, scroll to the August 12th, 2009, program.
From the Library of Congress website:
"Dimitry Lyubin, Mellon Fellow, discussed the phenomena of the artists colony in Europe and the United States at the turn of the 20th century. According to Lyubin, these colonies were located in small towns, far from big cities, and the colony residents concerned themselves mostly with subjects of peasant life and country landscapes."
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's Laura Simo discusses a life portrait of George Washington by English artist Robert Edge Pine (1730-1788). Simo focuses on Pine's life, looking at his sympathy for Americans and their cause that brought him to the newborn U.S. in 1784 and the events that brought him to paint Washington's portrait.
Kansas Museum of History curators look at a story cloth, brought to Kansas by Hmong refugees from Laos. The cloth depicts the escape of Hmong from Laos across the Mekong River, fleeing attacks by the communist group Pathet Lao, after the U.S. military pulled out of Laos in 1974. The cloth, designed to appeal to a Western audience, represents a piece of Vietnam War history and a reminder of global contact and the impact of international relations on the lives of individuals.
From the Maine Humanities Council website:
"Donna Cassidy is Professor of American & New England Studies and Art History at the University of Southern Maine. Her most recent book, Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation, led to her current research on U.S. artists in Quebec and Atlantic Canada from 1890 to 1940. In this talk, co-sponsored by the Yarmouth and North Yarmouth historical societies, Cassidy describes the travels of those artists in the region, and discusses the influence of the landscape and people on their work."
Wendy Wick Reaves looks at two self-portraits by the artist Isabel Bishop (1902-1988), who focused on portraying women in the New York urban environment she worked in.
From the Lincoln Online Conference website:
"In this session, participants will be introduced to the idea of reading portraiture and, in this case, what a portrait might say about Abraham Lincoln and they era in which he lived. They will utilize what they learned from David Ward in the previous session and the Portrait Gallery’s 'One Life: The Mask of Lincoln' exhibition to brainstorm lesson ideas for classroom instruction. Participants [were] encouraged to share ideas about the use of portraiture in the classroom as presenter Briana Zavadil White facilitate[d] a highly interactive session with fellow educators."
Free registration is required to access the webcast.
From the Lincoln Online Conference website:
"In this online workshop, Museum Educator Jeff Meade uses images on United States postage stamps to create topical stamp collections based on the theme of Abraham Lincoln and Civil War history. Postage stamps contain a vast array of images commemorating President Lincoln, important Civil War figures and moments of history relating to the tumultuous Civil War era.
Teachers in Meade's workshop create virtual stamp collections available in the Postal Museum's on-line digital collection. This digital collection, named Arago, contains images of every U.S. stamp as well as nearly thirteen thousand objects from the Postal Operations collection. The Arago website allows users to create their own collections of digital images which can then be sorted into particular topics. Combining real stamp collecting with the images found in Arago provides teachers excellent opportunities to engage students in new and creative ways, with an emphasis on visual thinking strategies. Participants of the workshop build their own Arago collections based on suggested Civil War themes . . ."
Free registration is required to access the webcast.
From the Lincoln Online Conference website:
"In this online session, Smithsonian historian Pamela M. Henson examines how the public first heard of President Abraham Lincoln's death and how Lincoln's death was portrayed in popular images. Participants . . . view and listen to the diary of Mary Henry, daughter of Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry, as she describes her own reactions and the stories she heard about Lincoln's last moments. Participants . . . compare her diary with news accounts of the assassination, and popular paintings and lithographs of the deathbed scene to uncover what Lincoln's death meant to the American public. Participants . . . also learn how to evaluate primary and secondary sources in a variety of media—a diary, newspapers and visual images, analyze the symbolic meanings attached to important events, and draw conclusions about Lincoln's role in 19th century American ideas. The session will be of interest to teachers and students of history at any level and will be of particular interest to those interested in popular responses to important historical events. The confusion, misinformation, and symbolism surrounding this national trauma can be used to teach students how to critically evaluate information in their own lives."
Free registration is required to access the webcast.