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Last Night
Jan. 27th, 2009 09:51 amI walked to Chinatown and had noodles. I brought home dumplings for today.
Before walking home, I stopped in at the National Portrait Gallery. It's in the same building as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is the only one of the Smithsonian's, that I know of, open until 7:00 pm every night of the year.
The ground floor, which is the only one I explored, had an exhibit about the Civil War and a curator's special on Lincoln. He was the first president after photography became relatively common, and he used the new technology. There are so many photos of him.
While I knew there were daguerrotypes and portrait photographs in Lincoln's time, I didn't know we were beginning to get news photographs. There's one of the crowd listening to his first inaugural address framed in such a way that you can see the scaffolding on the Capitol Dome. It wasn't completed until 1863.
It's the photograph of the second inaugural address that gives cold chills. It's difficult to see Lincoln, particularly the way the photograph is hung. There's one man who comes across clearly. Standing on a terrace behind Lincoln is John Wilkes Boothe. The second inaugural address was on March 4, 1865 and Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865.
Before walking home, I stopped in at the National Portrait Gallery. It's in the same building as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is the only one of the Smithsonian's, that I know of, open until 7:00 pm every night of the year.
The ground floor, which is the only one I explored, had an exhibit about the Civil War and a curator's special on Lincoln. He was the first president after photography became relatively common, and he used the new technology. There are so many photos of him.
While I knew there were daguerrotypes and portrait photographs in Lincoln's time, I didn't know we were beginning to get news photographs. There's one of the crowd listening to his first inaugural address framed in such a way that you can see the scaffolding on the Capitol Dome. It wasn't completed until 1863.
It's the photograph of the second inaugural address that gives cold chills. It's difficult to see Lincoln, particularly the way the photograph is hung. There's one man who comes across clearly. Standing on a terrace behind Lincoln is John Wilkes Boothe. The second inaugural address was on March 4, 1865 and Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865.
