Reconstruction Reconsidered: The Gordon Collection of the National Portrait Gallery
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New Perspectives on Portraiture: “Reconstruction Reconsidered: The Gordon Collection of the National Portrait Gallery” by Kate Clarke Lemay From the Edgar P. Richardson Symposium: New Perspectives on Portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery, Sept. 20, and Sept. 21, 2018 Day 1, Session 2: Dissemination: Furthering Social, Political, Economic, and Religious Agendas Kate Clarke Lemay Historian and Director of PORTAL= Portraiture + Analysis, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery “Reconstruction Reconsidered: The Gordon Collection of the National Portrait Gallery” Dr. Lemay examines the infamous portrait of a scarred slave, and the discourse which that image has inspired over the years. From the photograph’s use during the civil war to inspire abolitionist sympathy and recruitment into the Union Army, to its use by modern artists who examine the camera’s, as well as the viewer’s, role in the dehumanization of African-Americans. In “Reconstruction Reconsidered: The Gordon Collection of the National Portrait Gallery”, Dr. Lemay asks us to consider the difference between memory and reckoning, as well as the role of historic identity in contemporary activism.
