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PROFILESmithsonian National Portrait Gallery News Summer 2004 From the DIRECTOR I think it is fair to say that while scien- tists have been in the forefront of Amer- ican achievement from the nineteenth century on, they have not always been in the forefront of American attention. There have always been a few, of course, like Albert Einstein or Jonas Salk, who are known to a wide range of their fellow citizens. But mostly, except for moments of Nobel Prize recognition, they labor unnoticed and uncel- ebrated outside of their own fields. This is a situation the National Portrait Gallery hopes to address—and redress—in this issue of Profile, and in future programs and exhibitions. As members of the Smithsonian community, we are aware that our very institutional existence is because of the generosity of James Smithson, a gentleman scientist in the era before professionalization, who saw the pro- motion of science as at the heart of the goals of the Enlightenment. It was his conviction that America would be center stage for a democratic experi- ment that would have to include “the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” which led to his extraordinary gift to the American people. Led by our first Secretary, the physicist Joseph Henry, the Smithsonian established a strong commitment to scientific research that has continued to our own day. And the Smithsonian, too, benefited from the collecting associated with the historic Wilkes Expedition to the South Seas (1838–42), initially displayed in NPG’s own Patent Office Building and described in this issue. The Portrait Gallery’s “problem” with the proper recognition of the contribution of scientists has never been a lack of will but more a lack of vital examples of scientific portraiture. Were it not for the welcome place of photography in our collections, we would be poor indeed in our capac- ity to even suggest the range of fields and personalities that have made science one of the glories of American culture. It is perhaps not surprising that scientists have been less likely to sit for striking portraits in other genres than, for example, artists and politicians. This has been one of the principal motivations for the Gallery to begin planning a commissioning program, in which great contemporary Americans, selected by our board in consultation with our staff, would be matched with first-rate contem- porary portraitists. Our sister organizations in England, Scotland, and Australia have already begun such programs, with great success. These are not inexpensive, but we will find a way. So consider this issue of Profile our statement of commitment to portray the role of science in America. We look at such towering figures as Ein- stein, of course, and our cover figure, James Watson, but also the equally important Charles Drew, whose research saved countless lives through the establishment of blood banks but who then confronted a preposterous national policy of separating blood by race, and Rosalyn Yalow, whose work proved equally absurd the notion that women should not partici- pate in cutting-edge science. Science comes out of the commitments of American society, revealing its strengths and, on occasion, its limitations. No telling of our nation’s history is complete without it. 2 PROFILE Contents Vol. 5, No. 2. Summer 2004 4 10 Cover: Molecular biologist James Nobel Prize Winners in A Moment in Dewey Watson posed for Francis Science and Medicine American Science Bello with a model of the DNA molecule for Fortune’s June 6 12 1954 article, “The Young Scien- Book Review Science in Our Lives tists.” See page 10. Arthur Miller: His Life and American Research Gift of Steve Bello ©Estate of Francis Bello Work by Martin Gottfried Pioneers Correction: 7 14 The caption on page 12 of the Book Review NPG on the Road spring 2004 issue should read (left to right): unidentified Theodore Roosevelt: 15 man; Mississippi lieutenant Champion of the American governor Paul Johnson; Chief Spirit by Betsy Harvey Kraft NPG at Home U.S. Marshall James McShane; Justice Department official 8 16 John Doar (with face hidden), Curator’s Choice Portrait Puzzlers and James Meredith. Thomas Edison 9 In the next issue Titian Ramsay Peale • Presidential politics And the Great U.S. South • Recent acquisitions Seas Exploring Expedition • Upcoming exhibitions Marc Pachter Commission Director Daniel Okrent, Chair PROFILE Carolyn Carr Anthony C. Beilenson, Vice Chair Deputy Director and Chief Curator David M. Childs Eloise Baden Sally G. Chubb Associate Director for Administration Jeannine Smith Clark Joan Kent Dillon Editor Ella Milbank Foshay National Portrait Gallery Carol Wyrick Manuel L. Ibáñez Smithsonian Institution Office of Education Jill Krementz 750 Ninth Street, NW Review Editor Jon B. Lovelace P.O. Box 37012, MRC 973 Sidney Hart Joan A. Mondale Robert B. Morgan Washington, DC 20013-7012 Department of History Roger Mudd Phone: (202) 275-1738 Editorial Committee Constance Berry Newman Fax: (202) 275-1887 Anne Christiansen V. Thanh Nguyen E-mail: [email protected] Office of Public Affairs Barbara Novak Website: www.npg.si.edu Dru Dowdy R. Theodore Steinbock Office of Publications Jack H. Watson Jr. Readers’ comments are welcome. Pie Friendly Ex Officio Members To receive Profile, please send your Office of External Affairs Marianne Gurley Earl A. Powell III name, home address, and e-mail address Office of Photographic Services William H. Rehnquist (if applicable) to [email protected] or Ellen G. Miles Lawrence M. Small the post office box listed above. Department of Painting and Sculpture Ann M. Shumard Honorary Commissioners Unless otherwise noted, all images are from Department of Photographs Julie Harris the National Portrait Gallery collection. David Levering Lewis ©2004 Smithsonian Institution. Design Bette Bao Lord All rights reserved. Leslie London, London Graphics Fred W. Smith 3 Nobel Prize Winners in Science and Medicine Anne Collins Goodyear exhibit the properties of a wave, Assistant Curator of Prints could also be described as con- and Drawings sisting of particles (known today First awarded in 1901, the Nobel as photons). Prize was established by the 1895 A year after Jacobi created will of Alfred Bernhard Nobel. this portrait, Einstein, a pacifist, The Swedish inventor of dyna- encouraged President Frank- mite wished to honor annually lin D. Roosevelt to pursue the “those who, during the preced- building of an atomic bomb to ing year, shall have conferred the ensure victory in World War II. greatest benefit upon mankind.” After the war, however, Einstein Since 1901, well over 200 Amer- joined other scientists in oppos- icans have received awards for ing any future use of this weapon. chemistry, physiology or medi- Unwilling to compromise his cine, and physics. Each of the convictions, even when they put five scientists featured here trans- him at odds with other physicists, formed his or her area of study. ©Lotte of Jacobi N.H. Archive, Univ. Einstein concluded at the end of Albert Einstein by Lotte Jacobi, Their portraits offer unique per- 1938 his life: “What I seek to accom- spectives on these achievements. plish is simply to serve with my feeble capacity truth and justice ALBERT EINSTEIN at the risk of pleasing no one.” When photographed by Lotte Jacobi for Life magazine at his SELMAN WAKSMAN Princeton, New Jersey, home, Appropriately seated outdoors Albert Einstein (1879–1955) had in this photographic portrait already lived in the United States by Dan Weiner, microbiologist for five years, having fled Nazi Selman Waksman (1888–1973) Germany and joined the Institute studied the behavior of micro- for Advanced Study in 1933. He organisms in the soil. In 1941, would become an American citizen Waksman invented the term in 1940. An admirer of the work “antibiotic” to describe a new of Jacobi, who had already photo- class of medications, includ- graphed the scientist in Germany, ing penicillin, which relied on Einstein had personally recom- one microbe to destroy another. mended her to Life. Ultimately, Stimulated by the research of his ©Sandra Weiner graduate student, René Dubos, however, the magazine deemed Selman Waksman by Dan Weiner, Jacobi’s portrayal of Einstein too c. 1950 and inspired by the wartime informal to publish. urgency of treating deadly dis- Einstein attained international eases, Waksman investigated the prominence in 1919 when obser- antibiotic potential of microor- vations made during an eclipse ganisms in the earth. In 1943, in confirmed for many the validity conjunction with another of his of his general theory of relativ- graduate students, Albert Schatz, ity, which postulated that gravity Waksman identified Streptomy- was an expression of curvature in cin, which proved effective in the space-time continuum, rather treating tuberculosis, one of the than an independent force. Two world’s most lethal illnesses. In years later, Einstein would receive 1952, Waksman received the the Nobel Prize for physics. Ironi- Nobel Prize in physiology or med- cally, however, the award did not icine for this discovery. Waks- recognize his controversial gen- man later praised the power of eral theory of relativity. It hon- the organisms he studied: “One ored instead his work on the can visualize no higher form of life without the existence of the photoelectric effect, which estab- ©Estate of Alice Neel lished that light, long observed to Linus Pauling by Alice Neel, 1969 microbes. They are the universal 4 Nobel Prize Winners scavengers. They keep in circula- trigger the atomic explosion. tion the chemical elements which Bethe later joined his peers who are essential to the continuation opposed the use and testing of of plant and animal life.” atomic weapons. Seated at his desk in Halsman’s photograph, LINUS PAULING with equations on a black- The only recipient of two board in the background, Bethe unshared Nobel Prizes, for emanates the satisfaction of chemistry (1954) and peace one inspired by his work.