A Shortcut Across Time

08/09/22 • 25 min

2 Listeners

José Andrés is the Michelin-starred chef known for jumping into action to feed people affected by hurricanes, wildfires, and most recently the war in Ukraine. But he’s also a huge admirer of a woman whose photograph lives at the National Portrait Gallery– the Civil War nurse Clara Barton. Museum director Kim Sajet talks with Andrés about his call for ‘longer tables,’ and also takes us down the block to Barton’s old digs to see how their stories overlap.

See Clara Barton’s portrait here.

See Clara Barton’s portrait here.

Previous Episode

BONUS: Portraying The Presidents

1 Recommendations

The House committee investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has generated a lot of interest in one of the National Portrait Gallery’s latest commissions -- an official portrait of former President Donald Trump. So we decided to revisit an episode that takes a spin through the ‘America’s Presidents’ exhibition.

Director Kim Sajet digs into the thorny question of what a presidential portrait is meant to convey, especially if the president in question has been impeached. Should it carry the glow of prestige, or the markers of personal failings? Is this gallery hallowed ground, or a place to question power? "If you're in the business of showing these paintings," says Washington Post art critic Philip Kennicott, "you want to send people out a little hungry."

Also featuring former deputy director Carolyn Carr.

See the portraits we discuss here:

President James Buchanan

President Richard Nixon

President George H. W. Bush

President Bill Clinton

President George W. Bush

President Barack Obama

Next Episode

Postal Pairings

1 Recommendations

Before cable news and email and Twitter, it was the postal service that transmitted ideas and information across land, sea, and political divides. Kim speaks with National Postal Museum chief curator Dan Piazza about some of the messages that stamps themselves were communicating, including a few asides from Philatelist-in-Chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

We also pair some noteworthy stamps to original artwork that lives right here at the National Portrait Gallery.

See the portraits we discuss:

Benjamin Franklin by Duplessis

Franklin’s stamp

Roosevelt and the Little White House

Roosevelt at his desk

Susan B. Anthony, bronze bust

Susan B. Anthony, three cents

Susan B. Anthony, photograph

Susan B. Anthony, fifty cents

Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable

Benjamin Banneker