Suzannah Niepold: Alright, gather up where you can see this painting. I'm covering up the label on purpose; I want you to look before we get any sort of background information. What's the whole picture about? Teacher 1: I begin by looking for what's underneath the rainbow. Suzannah Niepold: Okay. What is underneath the rainbow? Teachers: A home. A church; it looks like a church. Suzannah Niepold: So you notice this tiny little house, sometimes that takes a while to see. And that's at the foot of the rainbow; so what's that about? Why did the artist do that? Teacher 2: Well, homestead. Out west that was the big American dream—have your own land, have your own house, and not be subject to anybody's control. Suzannah Niepold: Fantastic. So that's the American dream—to have your own spot surrounded by land. Okay. What else do you notice? We've used the words beauty, paradise, how else would you describe this particular landscape? Teachers: Vast, open. Teacher 3: You've got two little [unintelligible] over here. I mean, it's not totally alone but it's pretty [unintelligible]. Suzannah Niepold: You're not totally alone, but you don't have right next-door neighbors to deal with. The house is really small; it is really hard to see. What does the artist do to make sure your eye goes there eventually? How does he point it out? Teachers: The rainbow. Suzannah Niepold: Right, it's right at the end of the rainbow. But that really wasn't enough for him. How else does your eye go there? Teacher 4: You've got that slope coming from here too that angles up. Suzannah Niepold: You have what coming up? Teacher 4: The slope, the road. It comes up right here and you've got a lot of water right here. Suzannah Niepold: Absolutely. [unintelligible mummers and answers from visitors] Suzannah Niepold: Fantastic, you have all of these lines—this little sort of drop of light leading up here, the water, the path, the pointing. So that really let's you know that this is the main subject of the story. It's kind of the American dream. The title is Landscape with Rainbow, it was painted in 1859, and the artist is Robert Duncanson, Robert Scott Duncanson. So, if this is painted in 1859, why would you choose this subject at about that time in American history? Lets consider, first of all, what's going on. . . . Teacher 5: People are beginning to go West, also. Teacher 6: The American dream, with all the politics going on, is in some ways disappearing. Suzannah Niepold: The American dream, this idea has come up several times, so that's really maybe challenged, is that what you're saying? Teacher 6: I'm saying with the conflict, the regional conflict, some of the ideals of America are in question. Suzannah Niepold:: The other thing to add that isn't on this label—but it is available on our website in the biography of the artist—is that this artist is African American. Does that change the painting for you at all? Okay, I'm hearing "Oh, oh, interesting." Teacher 3: Going north to the promised land. Suzannah Niepold:: So it's not just the American dream, it's the promised land? Teacher 1: Yeah, but then why would he put two white people there? Teacher 3: Dominant cultures. Teacher 2: Because he's hiding behind his work. His work's not going to be respected. He's an African American. So he paints white people on it because a white man's going to look at a painting with white people in it, they're not going to look at a painting if there's a black one in it. Suzannah Niepold: It's going to change the meaning. If you’re thinking of contemporary viewers, you're right; it's going to change the meaning. Duncanson was funded by abolitionists, and their goal was to show how ridiculous this idea [was] that a race was lesser by showing how skilled an African American artist could be. So he's showing off technical skill, as well as maybe this dream—this kind of American dream on the eve of the Civil War. There are kind of three eras of African American art. Everything before the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s is kind of what you see here of trying to say, "We're just as good; this is ridiculous, we can do everything that you can do." It's not until the Harlem Renaissance that it's saying, "We don't have to show your world, we can show our own."

Teacher 1: Wouldn't you like to just be standing right there on the water? Teacher 2: Okay, that's the whole point. That's what you're supposed to do. That's what he was doing. He's been on traveling shows to encourage people go to out West. Teacher 1: Oh! Teacher 2: So you got it. Suzannah Niepold: In fact the way the curators hung this, with this curtain here is meant to kind of hint at that history. And that Bierstadt painted these giant landscapes and that he would tour with them, and he would keep them behind a curtain and you would pay admission. Then he would whip back the curtain. But how does Bierstadt accomplish what we just talked about? How does he make you want to step into this landscape and just say, "Wow!" Teacher 2: Its size. Teacher 3: It's a huge picture. It's not just a picture [where] you're like, "Hey, I wonder what that is?" Teachers: It's like a window; it looks peaceful. Suzannah Niepold: Peaceful. How does he create this idea of peacefulness? Teachers: The deer; the calm water; calm waterfalls; the light; the soft clouds; the softness of the whole picture. Teacher 3: It's almost alluding kind of like Heaven and angels right where all the top comes out and the clouds are. You kind of think you would see this in a church or whatever, and a church is supposed to be one of the most peaceful places. Teacher 1: And everything goes up. All the trees go up, the mountains go up, everything is pointing up. Suzannah Niepold: Things that you notice and the specific details that you're pointing out. Like how still the water is and how the deer—they're not spooked, there's nothing coming up behind them. And we have this . . . some people call it the "Godly light" kind of peeking through. What role does God play in this period of American history? Why might he have a part of this landscape, or why might he. . . . Teacher 1: Manifest destiny. God wants us to go there. Suzannah Niepold: Manifest destiny. God wants us to go there. Teacher 2: When was this painted? Suzannah Niepold: Look at the label over here. Teachers: 1868. Suzannah Niepold: 1868. Yes, it's called Among the Sierra Nevada. So it's California in 1868. So, again, why might he paint this in 1868? Teacher 3: It's after the Civil War. It's a calming . . . well, it's supposed to be calming because what's really going on between the South and the North during Reconstruction still is not very calm. And this is an escape. It's an escape for everyone. Teacher 4: But it's also the year that the Transcontinental Railroad is finished. Suzannah Niepold: But it's funny that you don't see any of that, right? You don't see the modernity, the advancement of civilization has no place here; it's still this ideal. And I think it's going to what you're saying is that the Civil War ripped up the East Coast. If you search our website for Civil War photographs, we have plenty, you'll see just destroyed landscapes. You just walked down that hallway past Niagara and all these sort of "New Eden"-y paintings. We sort of saw ourselves as the new world, new opportunity, and the Civil War maybe destroyed that image a little bit. And so the East Coast loses its "shininess" and we start looking out here for our peace and our majesty and our hope. Teacher 1: May I? Suzannah Niepold: Go ahead. Teacher 1: It's like a staircase almost, with the sides. It goes up there, and it goes on, and it takes you into. . . . Suzannah Niepold: To make sure your eye goes all the way back there.

Suzannah Niepold: Okay, let's start with this one just by looking at the right-hand side; just block out—just pretend the other half isn't there. Okay, so, it's nice and peaceful, how else would you describe it? Teacher 1: Old-school. You see the boats with the sails and the hand fishing in the rowboat. It's kind of the way they've always done it. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so the way it's always been done. And what is being done? What's going on on these boats? Teacher 2: In the front one they’re fishing. Suzannah Niepold: And how are they powered? Teacher 3: It's manual. Suzannah Niepold: Still on the right side. So [by] oar. It's manpower. Teachers: Sailing; wind; natural. Suzannah Niepold: Alright, switching to the left-hand side, what do you see over there? Teacher 4: Pollution. Suzannah Niepold: Yeah, it's funny when we look at it with our eyes you see smog, pollution, this horrible environmental travesty. How might they have seen it in 1866? Teachers: Progress; power of progress. Suzannah Niepold: So you have to consider the transition in how our modern eyes see things versus how they might have been perceived back then. Different kinds of power—maybe steam power, progress, industry. Look at the landscape on both sides, how is it different? Teacher 5: This over here [on the right] is clear, you can see… Teacher 6: It's greener. Suzannah Niepold: So which do you think the artist liked better, the "old school" or the "new school." Which did he support in this painting and how can you tell? I don't know the answer to this. It's a matter of. . . . Teacher 1: To me it looks like old school because he paints that front rowboat so very, very clear; sitting from back here you can see just about every detail of the gentlemen. Teacher 7: But the industry is made larger. It's much larger; more powerful. And it's closer to you. So he wants you to look at this. Suzannah Niepold: We talked some about light and dark, and how artists can use that. Which side has the sunlight? Teacher 5: They both do. You're focusing here, and then you're focusing there. It's almost like you're doing this— Teacher 7: When you look at the sky, this one is lighter [right side]; but when you look down, this one is lighter [left side]. Teacher 5: Yeah, on the water. He's presenting both sides of the issue. [Indecipherable, multiple teachers talk at once] Teacher 1: It's like you said, most of the sunlight is on this side [left side], but look at the smoke coming from it. It's changing it, it's turning it dark. Suzannah Niepold: I want to come back to what you were saying though; because look there is sort of this blue sky up here, and here it's the man-made smoke that's covering that up. But here [right side], we have the natural storm. So again, he's almost setting up that equivalent. Teacher 8: Well, you just said the word storm. Is the storm bringing in this change?

Suzannah Niepold: You came from Gettysburg—am I right about that? Teachers: Yes ma'am; yeah. Suzannah Niepold: So the Civil War is fresh in your mind, right? This is a tiny little scene of Appomattox—feel free to come closer, maybe, you know, take a look, and then let someone else come in. It is a challenge sometimes to work with these much smaller paintings. This is the scene of the surrender; Grant and Lee are meeting in order to officially end the war. Although of course, it wouldn't exactly end right at this moment. How has the artist chosen to present the scene? If you're all the way over here, feel free to come in and fill in the front. Teacher 1: You can tell who won. Suzannah Niepold: You can tell who won. That's very interesting. How can you tell who won? Teacher 1: Well, because the Union soldier is in the front, and he's got his hand on the desk and his whole chest is facing out towards the audience. It's almost like a teacher stance with somebody, if you're scolding a child. You're looking at them like, "I can't believe you just did this." That's what he's doing. Because Lee was such a highly regarded officer in the military at the time, it's almost like he's looking at him like "Why did you do this to yourself, and to us?" Kind of like he's being scolded. Suzannah Niepold: What about Lee though? It's not exactly like he's cowering in a corner. How does the artist show him? How did he show this highly respected, regarded man in this tough moment? Teacher 2: I think he's got his hands up like, "I can't believe I had to do this, that it came to this." Suzannah Niepold: So it's very hard for him to do this. What else do you notice about the scene? Teacher 3: You've got light right on the midline. So that . . . I don't know if that means like, the light, the focus is in the middle where they're agreeing, maybe, to quit fighting. Suzannah Niepold: That is, maybe, the highlight of the moment where the two sides are coming together. And let's use that to talk about composition. It is two sides, right? With the uniforms. How are those two sides equal? Are they? Teacher 4: We've got three soldiers on one end and two soldiers on the other end. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so there's a little bit more weight over here. Even if you just look at the height of the two generals, [it's] roughly equal the way they're presented. You're right that Grant is slightly forward in that sort of authority stance. But if you look into surrender orders, the fact that Lee was allowed to keep his sword is a huge step. What does this say about what the North was hoping for the end of the war? The way that this scene is presented in terms of a surrender. How did they want to treat the South now that everything was over? Teacher 1: In this moment, it looks like they want to . . . it's like brothers fighting, [it's] done, over, let's go back to the way things were, let's forget about it. And of course we're history teachers, and we know that doesn't actually happen. Teacher 4: Yeah, but when you look at this guy's— Teacher 3: He's not real happy. Teacher 4: [He's like,] "Hey, you know, I really don't care about this." Teacher 3: Grant wasn't wearing his general bars. Suzannah Niepold: A few things are historically accurate. We know that he had mud on his pants, he had rushed there on his horse. Teacher 3: He had borrowed a jacket, so he wasn't wearing his general's jacket. Suzannah Niepold: But he wasn't wearing his general's jacket. So anytime you see an inaccuracy—or you see something you know is actually wrong from the way it happened. For me, that's actually the most valuable part of an artwork because that's pointing out a decision that the artist made in order to help tell a story. Teacher 3: Washington Crossing the Delaware. Suzannah Niepold: Exactly! So actually if we read the accounts of this scene, and there are many of them, there were a ton of people in this room. So why might the artist have chosen just to show a few? Teacher 3: Make it more intimate. Suzannah Niepold: How does that help tell the story. Teacher 1: He had to illustrate the significance of the famous Lee having to surrender, which ultimately became the turning point in the war. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so it highlights him more if there are fewer people in the room, okay.

Suzannah Niepold: Here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to split you right down the middle here, and I want this group just to look at the land—and just look at the land, ignore the border that goes all the way around the side, but just the land in the main part of the painting. Try to figure out what story it's telling and how it's telling it. We talked a lot about light and dark and that's really key here. This half, I want you to look at the people. Again, ignore the border, but just the people in the main part of the painting. Who are they? What are they doing? How do they help tell the story? [Teachers commence group discussions] [Group 1:] Teacher 1: You see men chopping with their axes. Teacher 2: Clearing their way. [Group 2:] Teacher 1: It looks like the Sierra Nevada, doesn't it? Teacher 2: Yeah, it's still the Sierra Nevadas, I agree with you on that. Teacher 3: Coming here, and there's the promised land. Teacher 2: The promised land is out there on the other side of the mountains. [Group 3:] Teacher 1: Yep, they're all trying to cut a path through. Teacher 2: I mean that's what they're doing. They're all looking towards the sunlight. Actually it's probably California because they're coming out of the mountains. Teacher 3: The Rockies. Teacher 1: But yeah, they're forging ahead. That's what they're doing. Teacher 2: So this is along [indecipherable]. Teacher 4: I like the two guys who have reached the top of the mountain. Teacher 2: "We're here!" [Suzannah Niepold transitions to large group discussion] Suzannah Niepold: Let's start with the land groups. What can you tell us about the land in this picture? Teacher 1: Going from the darkness over here on the right, to the valley, it's very dark, cold colors—the blues and the purples right there. And it's coming in, it's getting golden, then it transitions over into the yellow and it gets brighter as it goes over. It's inverting, you've got a triangle with a peak at the top on the right, and then a peak at the bottom, [so] the landscape balances. And you have that division with the landscape . . . it reminds us of Moses parting the Red Sea, taking my people to the promised land. Teacher 2: You've got the mountains, too, the hardship of coming over mountains; and then the valley below on the left. So that the promised land, the easy land, is on the left, and the hardships are almost behind them. Suzannah Niepold: Now this group you got up to go check this, right, was it hard to see? There's a burial scene—there's a cross that someone has erected right here, and if you follow the cross down there's a burial going on. It's one of the harder things to see. What else? Teacher 3: You've got the guys on the left with the axes clearing the way for the people to go through. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so, they're sort of the head of the party, right? They're the one's clearing the way. What else? Teacher 3: We kind of thought it was interesting that the gentleman that seems to be holding the woman and the two children, she's got her hands like in prayer. He's the only one with that hat; he's the only one that's clean-shaven, that's an older-looking man, because the other ones are really young. So we almost said that maybe that he wasn't really there, maybe he's more like a guardian angel, since behind it's the burial scene. That he's pointing their way—she's in prayer, which is kind of symbolic of that. And he seems very calm, he's like the only one that's calm and just like, "This way!" Suzannah Niepold: So his role is important because he's pointing out the way. How does the artist make sure that you see this group? This is kind of an important group. Teacher 4: The woman's got a white shirt on. Suzannah Niepold: So you've got that bright contrast there. How else? Teacher 5: There's really nothing behind them other than the bright light. Suzannah Niepold: Yeah, that's another real key—you notice that his head and his hand, there's nothing really busy going on behind it so it really stands out.

Suzannah Niepold: The next thing that we're going to do is basically look at the same painting all over again, but here's the difference. This is actually just the study for a mural—this is like a sketch. And it was completed in 1861. The same artist painted the same scene; but instead of it being a painting, about yea big, it was a huge mural, wall-sized big. And it's in the Capitol Building; it's in the House of Representatives. So what I want you to do in your groups is compare the two and find the differences, because there are some pretty major differences between the two. [Visitors commence group discussions] [Group 1:] Teacher 1: Look at the head wound though. The head wound is barely a speck of blood in the first one, but then look, it's almost like— Teacher 2: They all look younger; even this man looks younger. Every one of them look younger. [Group 2:] Teacher 1: It's like there's . . . there's like smoke coming out right here. Teacher 2: Like in the distance there? But look at the difference in the mountains. Does that mean their struggles are less maybe? In this image the struggles being less. And are there more people? Teacher 1: It's spread out more. Teacher 2: Also notice what happened to the horses. Because historically they didn't use horses, pretty much they used oxen. So I guess he corrected it historically. [Group 3:] Teacher 1: I noticed the pose . . . the posture is different. It's almost more—his back is flatter, rather than more of a relaxed pose in the previous one. Here he looks like he's riding faster, or he's tired. Teacher 2: To me it looks like he's shocked, he's like, "Oh my god, is that really it?" And in this one it's like "I can't see it." [Suzannah Niepold transitions to large group discussion] Suzannah Niepold: Why did he take the burial scene out, do you think? Teacher 1: I think he lessened the harshness of the trip in lots of different places. The mountains are lower, so less of a hassle; there's greenery on the right side that he didn't have in the first one. So I think he's lessened the hardship of the journey. And that would be one way to do it. Teacher 2: And they've lowered their guns. In the first one the guns are up more, in this one they're down more. Teacher 3: What's the significance of the smoke in the [back]ground? Is it to show that there are more people moving west? Suzannah Niepold: Possibly. What else could smoke in the distance be? Teacher 4: Industry. Teacher 5: Indians. Suzannah Niepold: Indians. Why would he add American flags? [Unintelligible response] Teacher 3: So he's in the middle of the Civil War. Teacher 6: He's also got more historically correct because he's got oxen rather than horses. Suzannah Niepold: Ahhh, yes! Teacher 3: Everyone looks younger, and it seems like— Suzannah Niepold: Yes, I've noticed that as well. Why would he make everyone younger? What does that do? Teacher 7: To try to encourage the current age group to go that way? Suzannah Niepold: So it's encouraging people to go out West. Remember this is— Teacher 6: It's for the same reason he took the burial scene out; you don't want to scare them. You want to make sure that you can go, but everybody will live. Teacher 3: I think their dogs are interesting too. They have dogs in the painting. I guess it’s a "you can take your pet with you!" kind of mentality. Teachers: Bring your animals! Pets allowed! Suzannah Niepold: Sure. Sometimes in things like this I wonder . . . I mean if we're looking at this in real life it is now huge; and I wonder if translating it from this—which is isn't too much bigger than this reproduction—to the huge size if he's like, "Wow, there's a lot of space to full. What do I put in there?" There is a great video; an art historian who used to work in the museum—who actually used to be the director of the Birmingham Museum of Art—did a great little 10-minute video on this piece where he explains everything. So incentive for you to contact me and keep up with it, I can send you links to all this great stuff.

Suzannah Niepold: Just having lived in this country, you have all the background knowledge, all the tools you need, to analyze this and have some understanding of maybe what the artist is trying to say. It's a good starting point. I want you to use a really basic looking tool called the "Observation/Interpretation Chart," has anyone done anything like this before? Okay, yeah, it's pretty familiar. The goal is just to separate what you see from what you think it means. But it's more challenging for kids than you might think. Hopefully it will give them the tools they need to write a good historical argument, because you're essentially coming up with all your evidence, and then using that evidence to make an argument. So let's just start. Our goal is just to make a long list of observations based on this piece. What is it that you see here? Multiple Speakers: License plates. Suzannah Niepold: License plates. Okay, that's a— Speaker 1: State names. Speaker 2: Does spelling count? Speaker 3: Not for the HSA. Speaker 4: Somebody said state names. Speaker 5: ABC—yeah, alphabetical— Suzannah Niepold: Alphabetical order. The plates are in alphabetical order by. . .? Multiple Speakers: State. Speaker 2: Or district. Suzannah Niepold: There was some stuff over here I missed. Speaker 4: Common colors—white, blue, yellow, green. Speaker 5: It's "We the people of the. . . ." Suzannah Niepold: Ah, so it spells something out on the license plates. Speaker 1: It's the Preamble! Suzannah Niepold: The Preamble of the Constitution. Speaker 5: It's like each license plate has a state theme. Suzannah Niepold: How does it have a state theme? Speaker 5: On some of it. Like Alabama, "Heart of Dixie." Not all of them. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so some of them have text— Suzannah Niepold: What else do you see on individual license plates? Speaker 6: A year. Speaker 5: Yeah, the year. And the artwork behind, depending on if it's just the plain—some are just two colors, some have three colors, some have like a picture behind it. Speaker 7: It's on the seat of a car, right? That somebody flattened out. Suzannah Niepold: Ah, so looking at the background reminds you of a seat of a car. Speaker 7: Like at a rest stop, or that you'd see in a diner or a drive-in or something. Suzannah Niepold: What do you see that makes you think diner or drive-in? What is it about the— Speaker 4: The metal on the outside of the cushiony seat. Speaker 5: And the color coordination. Suzannah Niepold: So the materials in the background make you think of the diner/drive-in or car seat. Speaker 8: How about six, five, six, six, five, six, five—in terms of how many license plates are in each row. Suzannah Niepold: So there's a pattern, there's not always the same number of license plates in a row, but it does alternate sort of sixes and fives. Speaker 2: Some have natural features on them while others are political statements. Suzannah Niepold: So the types of things chosen by the state, some are natural features and some are political. Speaker 5: It looks like some of them actually have—like Alabama has a tag on when they had to renew it and some don't, like if you look at Colorado, there's no dates on Colorado. Alabama's actually—it depends. And the number one color of the license plates—the background—tends to be white. The dominant color. Suzannah Niepold: That's good. A couple of people are noticing the dates on them, some of them have them, some of them don't, there's a bit of a range. Speaker 10: On most of the individual plates the words don't make sense by themselves. A couple do, like Hawaii is "none" and South Dakota is "this," but for the most part if you just look at one plate it doesn't really make much sense, it's just a couple of letters or numbers. Suzannah Niepold: So, looked at individually it's rare that a single license plate will have a word on it that makes sense. Is there anything else design-wise that is common to the license plates? Speaker 2: They're rectangles. Suzannah Niepold: So all the same shape. Speaker 3: They're bolted in with four bolts. Suzannah Niepold: Bolted in with four bolts, and those bolts are in the same location, right? Speaker 7: Deal with mass production for cars. Suzannah Niepold: There's evidence that these were mass-produced instead of custom made. Alright, are we ready to start moving into this column? Thinking about all of this as evidence, what do we think the artist is trying to say? Why did he put these license plates together to spell out the Preamble? And what does that tell us about our country? Speaker 2: Because all of them together is what shows us what our country is made of and really is the foundation of the nation, that we can't really go back to the Civil War era—we're not divided, we have to be all together. Suzannah Niepold: It's putting them all together is, how did you say, the spirit of the country? Speaker 2: Spirit of the country, basically what makes us make sense. Suzannah Niepold: So we are indivisible, we've come out of the Civil War and we're still part of the Union. Now what—: Speaker 4: It's obviously the shift to car culture, and that, you know, we are a nation of highways that are interconnected and the car is the way we get to places, we move from the cities to the suburbs, we move from Route 66. It's become—we're a nation of cars and highways. Suzannah Niepold: So his choice to use license plates is not random? Multiple Speakers: Right. Suzannah Niepold: He's really using that material to make another point about how we're a car culture. And that's another connection, right? As you mentioned, the highways connect all the states. Speaker 5: I also think it brings out the individual characteristics and history of each state, but yet we're all, as everyone has said, connected and that's what makes us strong. Yet, we each have flavor and things that are unique that make each state special. Suzannah Niepold: Great, so everyone had the theme or the slogan that you noticed, the symbols, whether they're natural environment or political symbols. The "flavor" is a great way to put it, but as he said, we're all indivisible; we're all part of the Union. I think maybe that pattern emphasizes that as well.

Suzannah Niepold: What's going on in this picture? Speaker 1: Relaxing after a hard day of work. Suzannah Niepold: What do you see that makes you say that? Speaker 1: You see both of the gentlemen sitting there who are sort of resting, as well as this younger gentleman over here. The little girl looks like she's kind of tired too. Speaker 2: The boots. Hanging. Suzannah Niepold: There are boots hanging here, okay. Speaker 3: He's got like work clothes on, and they look undone. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so these look like his work clothes, how can you tell? Speaker 4: There are holes in them. Dirty shoes. Speaker 5: He's smoking a pipe. And the gun resting on the knee of the older gentleman. So maybe they were hunting? Speaker 6: They may be calloused, his hands [have] different coloration. So just outdoor work. Suzannah Niepold: So signs that they spend their time working outdoors. We noticed this man is smoking a pipe, this man is holding a gun. The pipe might add to the sense that they're relaxing after a hard day, and the gun might be an indication that they've been out hunting. Speaker 5: The black one looks like a hunting dog, the yellow one doesn't. Speaker 7: And there's another little one over underneath that the boy's playing with. Suzannah Niepold: This is one that's a little bit harder to see, especially if you're looking at this in reproduction, but there's a little tiny dog over here and then the two in the front. What makes this one look more like a hunting dog than the other two? Speaker 8: It looks like a Labrador. Suzannah Niepold: So it’s a breed we associate with hunting. Speaker 5: The yellow one looks like a herding dog. Suzannah Niepold: The title—which some of you might have noticed, we're not doing as much to cover it up this time—it's called A Dog Swap. What does that tell us about the picture? Speaker 7: So he's saying goodbye to his dog. Speaker 3: Or he's thinking about whether to go through with this or not. 'Cause he looks very pensive and the other guy looks like he's waiting for him to make up his mind. Speaker 8: He certainly has his gun there to make sure that he's— [laughter] Suzannah Niepold: You did something when you said waiting, you went forward a little bit, and I think that this man is leaning forward, which indicates that maybe he's waiting for an answer. As you said, this man is looking more pensive, more thoughtful. Speaker 1: Maybe that's why the little girl is sad? Maybe that's going to be her pet they're giving away. Speaker 5: Look at that little puppy, don't give him away! Speaker 1: They're going to give the black dog away because you can see he's kinda like comforting him, like don’t worry you'll be okay. Speaker 3: I think the little boy is interesting because he's kind of like fading into the background. Speaker 7: He's looking away. Suzannah Niepold: He's looking away, he's faded into the background a little bit. Why do you think the artist might have done that? Speaker 9: Maybe he's attached to the dog. Suzannah Niepold: Oh, he's attached to the dog. So why is he facing away? Speaker 9: It's his dog. Suzannah Niepold: Now what else is the little boy doing? Speaker 7: Playing with the other— Speaker 10: Focusing on a new dog. Suzannah Niepold: Yes, he's playing with this one. Speaker 10: Out with the— Speaker 9: Somebody's already said, we're getting a new dog. Suzannah Niepold: So he's coping with it by turning away, playing with the little puppy. Why do you think the choice of dog is important to this family? Speaker 7: It looks like they're in a field—so maybe, if the other dog is, like she said, a herding dog then it would be more working for them, for their livelihood, I guess. Speaker 10: Maybe this is a stretch, is that a fishing net? Suzannah Niepold: So they're using the land, they've got a fishing net. Speaker 8: You can see fencing in the background. Speaker 9: You've got your cabbage and collards up front. Speaker 7: One would assume that makes it a community kind of situation where people are helping each other; perhaps they are dependent on each other. Hunter-man brings meat, and this family farms. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so maybe it's a community exchange. Speaker 3: Some kind of sharecropping. Suzannah Niepold: What else can you tell about their daily life and the condition of their home? Speaker 1: A dirt entryway. Speaker 7: You can tell in terms of relationships, Mom's in the doorway kind of hovering in the back with what looks to be the older daughter. So the women are kind of back away from the decision making of this or in the home, so to speak. Suzannah Niepold: So the decisions are being made by the men, the women are a bit farther away. Speaker 7: Yeah, because even the boy is outside. Suzannah Niepold: Someone mentioned sharecropping, this painting is from 1881, the artist is from Warrington, VA, so not too far away. So if this is painted after the Civil War, a little bit even after Reconstruction, what do we know about the lives of these people? Speaker 8: They're very, very tough. Suzannah Niepold: Tough how? Speaker 8: They're having to make their own way in a segregated society where nobody's looking out for them. And sharecropping—very tough, very tough occupation. Suzannah Niepold: Tough life. As you noticed in the beginning, probably working outside, working the land, getting food however they can—whether it's growing things, fishing, hunting. What are maybe some of the advantages though? Multiple Speakers: Free; self-sufficient; freedom Suzannah Niepold: Self-sufficiency, freedom. Speaker 9: Autonomy. Suzannah Niepold: Autonomy. Speaker 7: You have the ability to build relationships, remember we were talking about the community. Before you could be sold off and not have a family and not be a part of a family. Speaker 3: And they're trading property that they have now, which before they would not have been able to. Suzannah Niepold: So they have property. So the dogs maybe represent that. Someone mentioned family; I think that's very important that you have a family group together.

Suzannah Niepold: This is a work that I find really interesting because even though it's really an everyday scene there's a lot of maybe kind of misconceptions that feed our interpretation of this work. So I'm interested to see what you can make of it. What's going on in this picture? Speaker 1: There are no men. Suzannah Niepold: There are no men, so it's all women. And what else? Speaker 2: These little girls are fighting. Suzannah Niepold: How can you tell that they're fighting? Speaker 2: Because the one girl is yelling at her, wearing red, and the little girl in blue has her hands at her hips and is like nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah. So, you can tell they're fighting. Suzannah Niepold: So the artist gives us some really clear body language. The girl in the red top sort of leaning forward, mouth wide open, the other girls have kind of squinchy faces. Speaker 3: It seems like school, like parents dropping their kids off or picking their kids up or something. Speaker 4: The moms don't look real happy. Suzannah Niepold: So there's not any sort of bright smiles on any of the women's faces. How about the scene as a whole, what do you think the mood of the whole picture is? Speaker 1: Well, could it be Sunday? Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm thinking it could be Sunday. Because the mother has a flower on her lapel. It could be Sunday. Suzannah Niepold: Without looking at the title, which is going to give it away, how can we tell if it’s a school-related thing, as you first thought, or a Sunday, like church perhaps. Speaker 6: There's no religious imagery in it. Speaker 3: A couple of them have books, but the books are different colors, and they don't say Bible. There's nothing that looks churchy, there are no crosses. Speaker 1: There's nobody wearing hats, that's churchy. Speaker 5: None of them are wearing hats. Speaker 2: Not all of them. Speaker 3: There's one woman in a hat. Speaker 7: Is that a graduation hat? Suzannah Niepold: You know, that's one of the misconceptions again because it has that kind of flat top. But if you look at it closely it's not a mortarboard, it’s a fancy hat. Speaker 7: They're all wearing dresses. Speaker 8: I was thinking '50s. Speaker 5: Girls didn't wear pants back then. Speaker 6: If it's Sunday, where are there husbands and sons and brothers? Speaker 5: It could be a Women's Day; I've gone to Women's Day events before. So it could be Women's Day. Suzannah Niepold: Someone mentioned there are no churches in the background, can you identify any types of buildings in the background? Speaker 5: I don't know—it looks like a school. Suzannah Niepold: But which part looks like a school and how can you tell? Speaker 7: The left. Speaker 5: But a lot of churches are in schools. I went to church in a storefront, so—back then, I don't see a storefront, but I used to go to church here in Maryland in a school. I think it's probably a school or a church event. So it doesn't necessarily have to be "school" because people don't always go—in urban settings, people don't always have access to a church building. They do church in different buildings. Speaker 2: I think their skirts are too short for church. Speaker 9: That's what I was thinking, that one girl kneeling— Suzannah Niepold: Some of the evidence I hear for school is that this fence was built maybe to control people, to keep them in, so maybe the playground is inside the fence. As you said, there's no men, it's all women and female children. The clothing will throw your students off, they're not used to an everyday scene where everyone is in dresses or everyone is dressed up. What else is going on, what else can you find? Speaker 4: It reminds me of Baltimore with the red brick and the stoops and the Federalist architecture. Speaker 6: The obvious thing to me is that there's black and white children and that right central there's an African American woman holding the hand of an African American child and what appears to be a white child has her arm wrapped around that woman. Speaker 3: It seems the African American women are the ones caring for the kids. And maybe the mom's coming to get her? Speaker 5: But they're not wearing maid uniforms. Suzannah Niepold: So the adults, unless I'm getting this wrong, are all African American—or the ones that I can see. Speaker 2: No. Speaker 4: She's raising her hand. Suzannah Niepold: But there are children, there are Caucasian children. Speaker 5: Well, wouldn't the Caucasian children be with their nannies? Speaker 9: That's what I was wondering, are they nannies? Suzannah Niepold: Are they nannies, or what other roles could they be filling? If it's a school scene— Multiple Speakers: Teachers. Suzannah Niepold: If this is a school, what do we know about the school based on the people that we see. Speaker 5: All girls. Speaker 6: It's mixed. Suzannah Niepold: It's mixed, it's not segregated by race, just by gender. Speaker 5: I don't know, African American people are all different colors, so when I see someone who's lighter I don't assume they're white. Suzannah Niepold: That's true, sometimes you can get into dangerous— Speaker 5: I'm not saying they are or aren't at this point, I'm not saying that. Suzannah Niepold: You're right, so we can leave it as an open question mark. But there are certainly children with—just literally white, not even peach-colored. Speaker 6: Right, because that girl with her hand up stands out to me in the back. She's like waving; I can't tell what she's doing. Speaker 7: It's almost designed to draw your attention. Suzannah Niepold: The title is School's Out, so whoever said end of the daym whoever said school, they're borne out by the title. It's 1936. What part of the country would we imagine this to be? You said it looks a little like Baltimore. Speaker 10: Gotta be in the North. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, why does it have to be in the North? Speaker 10: Because of the integrated school. Suzannah Niepold: And why does it have to be a big city? How can we tell that about the image? Speaker 4: Because of the Federalist architecture. Speaker 6: And that's a lot of people. You wouldn't have that many children of that age in a small town school. Suzannah Niepold: This artist—one of the reasons that we always put the birth and the death dates and locations of the artist is to try and give you a sense of where the scene might be and what their background knowledge is. Allan Rohan Crite spent most of his life in Boston. So we think, based on an interview with him, that this is a South Boston school in 1936. If you look at the history of segregation in the schools—because he is an African American artist, this is an African American show—is that the schools were desegregated in the 19th century, but the neighborhoods weren't. So because the schools were just organized by neighborhood they were still vastly majority African American school or white school. So here you see maybe a few who either are light-skinned or are white, but certainly the majority are African American.

Suzannah Niepold: So again, just take a minute to observe the detail before we talk about it. What's going on in this artwork? Speaker 1: It's looking kind of at a study of Africa, of African culture. Suzannah Niepold: What do you see that makes you say that? Speaker 1: The books that I can see from here are about—you've got Africa and Asia, The Soul of Africa, the book there Africa Since 1413. Suzannah Niepold: So the book titles are turning into a bit of a clue about the artist's intention or message for the entire work. And something that really pops out to you is Africa. Speaker 2: Americans in particular like W.E.B Du Bois and the language that of course then was used, so you certainly see like the African American experience. Suzannah Niepold: It's an African American experience but tied back to Africa, which is appropriate since we are in the American Art Museum. Speaker 1: Then you have some odd ones that seem out of place, like Pushkin. Speaker 3: And some of covers seem more worn than others. Suzannah Niepold: Some of the books are maybe more worn, more well read than others. Are there any in particular that look more worn? Speaker 3: The Du Bois book. Suzannah Niepold: Because the title is wearing off a little bit. Speaker 4: She has then N and the A Encyclopedias of Knowledge, Culture, and I don't know what that word is on the bottom shelf. Suzannah Niepold: Yeah, it doesn’t always give you the title. So there's a repeated theme in the encyclopedias, that the volumes on the shelf refer to the N words or the A words. Speaker 1: Well the n-word is right there. Suzannah Niepold: Yes. And that is an issue, obviously, if you're using this in schools, and if you want to talk about that we certainly can. I use it only on a kind of case-by-case basis depending on the teacher and the class in school. But this can be kind of a major point of discussion with kids, the language that's used in the text. What more can you find? Speaker 5: I think I'm in debate on "sob," if it's really "sob" or if it's son of a— Suzannah Niepold: So there are these words here that could be read as "sob" or could be read as "S.O.B." Again, with prior approval from the teacher I have taught that acronym to about 300 8th-graders at this point. Doing well! What else do you notice about the words, how are they painted? What are they? Speaker 4: Her thoughts. Suzannah Niepold: Her thoughts. Where do we recognize that as thoughts from? Where do we get that? Multiple Speakers: Comics. Suzannah Niepold: Cartoons, comic books, so that's one kind of influence on this artwork. What more can you find? Speaker 6: She seems to be looking out somewhere. We see this window here, I don't know if she's looking at someone or out the window. Suzannah Niepold: How can you tell where she's looking? Speaker 6: Well, I mean just from the way her face is turned, her eyes are directed someplace other than— Suzannah Niepold: Everything—her face and her eyes are directed up here and directed away from the books. Speaker 7: I don't think it's her house. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, tell me what do you see that makes you say that? Speaker 7: I just look at how she's dressed, she's got on heeled shoes, she might—from where I'm thinking—just be visiting and all of a sudden inspecting somebody else's library. And then she just starts pulling off these books, and then she turns and maybe she just has a question or a strong feeling. Suzannah Niepold: Ah, strong feeling. Well, we see her thoughts. Speaker 4: So she may be listening to someone and thinking. And then she's also sitting on the floor, you're right, she's dressed up, but she's sitting on the floor. Speaker 3: What about those two books on the second shelf? The Slavery of Freedom and Black Women and White America almost as like questioning of the future, what's been lost? Speaker 8: I see bookshelves like this every ay at the office because you're always trying to figure out who the occupant is based on what they're reading. One of the things that kind of connects the books for me is this idea that Africa is interesting and significant as long as it's impacting white people. Africa becomes interesting when we start exporting slaves, Slavery to Freedomm you know it's the ownership of African Americans that makes it important. It's not interesting in and of itself, but only in its implications. Which would make me say either "sob" or "S.O.B." Suzannah Niepold: Yes. That's interesting, first of all because by looking at a bookshelf we can tell a lot about the identity of the owner of the bookshelf, who has arranged or even curated that collection of books. And also that so many of these are focused on Africa after European contact and the impact on this country. All of these books, I don't know if you've ever read any of them, but they are all real. We did end up featuring this in one of our programs I work on with 8th-grade students because the teacher, when selecting works with me, came up and said my parents had the same bookshelf. Not literally the same bookshelf, this very kind of fragile—maybe it's meaningful that the artist put this one spindly leg out there so that the whole history is going to just crash down. But she really related to this and she wanted to kind of bring some ideas together in her classroom and she was comfortable bringing out some of the more uncomfortable history, which, depending on your class and your group and how well you know them, you may not be. So this is one of the more challenging works, but the result, the product we got, we had students write about this work, were in the end deeply meaningful and they found real relevance to their own histories here. So we found it worth it in that situation.

Suzannah Niepold: Some of you jumped right into this, but what's going on in this picture right here? Speaker 1: Segregation. Suzannah Niepold: Segregation. What do you see that makes you say that? Speaker 1: The big wall in the middle of the room. Suzannah Niepold: Big wall in the middle of the room. What more can you find? Speaker 1: Not equal. You've got the fan on the one side; the bartender is on the white side. Suzannah Niepold: The bar tender is on the white side of the bar; the fan is on that side of the bar. Speaker 2: Is the bartender holding a paper? Speaker 3: Yeah, I was trying to figure that out, it kinda looks like a face. Suzannah Niepold: What about his face? Speaker 3: No, this looks like a face, like, I feel like it's one of those cartoons, this is like the nose. We're trying to figure it out. Suzannah Niepold: Yes, it almost looks like there's a profile in possibly the newspaper he's holding; the shadow creates the image of a face. If that was intentional, what do you think the artist was trying to do there? What could it mean? Speaker 4: Have the white man looking at himself and actually reflecting upon what he's created, essentially. Looking at himself in the mirror, so to speak. Suzannah Niepold: Looking at himself in the mirror and reflecting on what he's created. And what has he created? Speaker 4: A segregated society, inequality, and divisiveness. Speaker 5: Unhappiness from the looks of all the people. Suzannah Niepold: So divisiveness, unhappiness, inequality. Are these kind of separate but equal? We talked about the fan and about the fact that he's sitting on this side of the bar. Is there anything else you notice that's different about the two sides? Speaker 3: There are physically more people on that side versus this side. Speaker 6: Am I mistaken, is this a woman on this side? Suzannah Niepold: In red, I believe. I would read that as a woman. Speaker 6: Okay, so that means something—I'm not sure what. Speaker 7: I don't know whether the character is either—I think he's dancing. Suzannah Niepold: The man with his hand up this way? Okay, that's one way to sort of read that pose. Speaker 7: And then over his shoulder there's another face. Suzannah Niepold: So there's maybe someone facing him and dancing with him. What does that tell you about this side of the room? There's a woman here, and maybe a second woman dancing with the man. Do you get a sense of the mood or the personality of this side as opposed to this side? Speaker 8: This one looks much more happy. This one, everyone looks angry or shady, or like something's going down. Suzannah Niepold: Shady, what do you see that makes you say shady? Speaker 8: I mean, this guy's like looking over his shoulder, that guy has his hat pulled down. And this side as much as it's not equal, they don't have the fan and things, I feel like they're having a better time. It's almost like they have their own—it's a different type of freedom. Suzannah Niepold: So some of the expressions and poses on this side are very—hat pulled down, over the shoulder, kind of angry looking or "shady," as you said. Speaker 9: The back of the bar's like lopsided—I don't know if that makes sense. Suzannah Niepold: How—well, tell me about the lopsided idea. Speaker 9: Well, it's not equal—it's not straight, I don't know. Speaker 10: I think it's really the white guy's perspective, too. You can tell that he's over here, if he's looking at it. So he painted himself on that side of the picture. Suzannah Niepold: So the artist put himself on the white half of the picture so that the person looking at it sees off to one side. We're not looking at it straight on, with the wall just being a thin shape, we're seeing the line of the wall. Speaker 1: A lot of bars have mirrors on the back, so, actually, the artist could be sitting— Suzannah Niepold: Yes, could be facing the mirror. Speaker 10: What's the year? Suzannah Niepold: 1941. Speaker 11: And the doorways, maybe it's just the angle, but the doorways are shorter—one's larger than the other, it appears. Suzannah Niepold: But we notice there's two doorways. Speaker 11: There's two doorways, exactly. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so what else does that tell us? Multiple Speakers: They have separate entrances. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so separate entrances. Almost trying to create two entirely separate spaces. What's interesting about the date this work was created is that Lawrence, as a Northern artist—he's born in New Jersey, he moves to Harlem, spends most of his life in Harlem. This is his first trip to the South, so it's his first experience with segregation. And he chooses to paint this. This is the year after his famous Migration Series, and if you know that series you know he's painted the South a great deal; he's kind of told those stories but he's never actually been there himself. So this is representing his first experience of being in a segregated place.

Suzannah Niepold: Next to this is another Jacob Lawrence, he painted this as a study for a mural for New York State on the theme of "Community." Notice again, it’s hard to see unless you come up a little bit closer to it. How is the mood of this piece maybe a little bit different from the mood of this piece? Speaker 1: It’s a little bit lighter; everyone’s together. Suzannah Niepold: Lighter, everyone is together. There’s not that big wall in the middle. Speaker 2: Lots of smiles. Suzannah Niepold: Yes, really exaggerated smiles on the faces of the people. Speaker 3: A sense of cooperation, people are bringing their tools, somebody’s already started working. Suzannah Niepold: So it’s a cooperative, productive environment of creation. Speaker 4: It’s not so much social, versus professional—for lack of a better term. Suzannah Niepold: And then the other contrast we can draw on this wall is this piece over here. This is later, this is 1962. And it’s interesting having it in the context of other works by African American artists, especially dealing with civil rights, because it is, of course, very different—it’s abstract. How can you read—in fact, come up closer, I'm sorry to make you keep moving, but you really need to see. What do you notice about this piece here? Speaker 1: Red, white, and blue. Suzannah Niepold: Okay, so red, white, and blue—we associate with America, American flags. Speaker 2: We’re looking at regionalism here in the United States? I don’t know. Speaker 3: Each color is in its own area. Suzannah Niepold: So how would you—where does the United States fit into this? Where do you see that? Speaker 2: Red, white, and blue, but then I can take West Coast, I can take the North, the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast. Suzannah Niepold: So are you saying that you see the shape of the country? Speaker 2: If you wanna see it you can, yeah. Suzannah Niepold: That is the joy of abstract art, right? No, you’re not the only one to see the shape of the country in the colors; so maybe we’re looking at regional differences. Knowing that this is about civil rights, does anything start to emerge with the colors? Speaker 4: Upside-down peace symbol? Speaker 5: Abstract Klansmen. Suzannah Niepold: Can you point any out specifically? Speaker 5: I don’t know, that kind of strikes me— Speaker 6: Horsemen there, and this turns into flames when you put— Suzannah Niepold: So then the white maybe represents the white robes of the Klan, what might the other colors start to represent? Blood, flames, smoke, absolutely. So the red, white, and blue is kind of transformed into something very different. The title of the work is “Evening Rendezvous.” Why choose the title “Evening Rendezvous” rather than, you know, "Meeting of the Klan"? Speaker 7: It sounds a lot better. Suzannah Niepold: But it sounds better in what way? Speaker 7: I mean, it doesn’t sound bad. Speaker 3: Nothing bad is happening. Suzannah Niepold: Nothing bad is happening, it’s part of what’s going on. Speaker 8: They did things in secret; if people knew they were coming, they’d probably run.