Washington History in the Classroom
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Washington History in the Classroom This article, © the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., is provided free of charge to educators, parents, and students engaged in remote learning activities. It has been chosen to complement the DC Public Schools curriculum during this time of sheltering at home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Washington History magazine is an essential teaching tool,” says Bill Stevens, a D.C. public charter school teacher. “In the 19 years I’ve been teaching D.C. history to high school students, my scholars have used Washington History to investigate their neighborhoods, compete in National History Day, and write plays based on historical characters. They’ve grappled with concepts such as compensated emancipation, the 1919 riots, school integration, and the evolution of the built environment of Washington, D.C. I could not teach courses on Washington, D.C. Bill Stevens engages with his SEED Public Charter School history without Washington History.” students in the Historical Society’s Kiplinger Research Library, 2016. Washington History is the only scholarly journal devoted exclusively to the history of our nation’s capital. It succeeds the Records of the Columbia Historical Society, first published in 1897. Washington History is filled with scholarly articles, reviews, and a rich array of images and is written and edited by distinguished historians and journalists. Washington History authors explore D.C. from the earliest days of the city to 20 years ago, covering neighborhoods, heroes and she-roes, businesses, health, arts and culture, architecture, immigration, city planning, and compelling issues that unite us and divide us. The full runs of Washington History (1989-present) and its predecessor publication the Records of the Columbia Historical Society (1897-1988) are available through JSTOR, an online archive to which many institutions subscribe. It’s easy to set up a personal JSTOR account, which allows for free online reading of six articles per month in any of their journals, or join the Historical Society at the Membership Plus level for unlimited free access to our publications. Primary Voices Picturing Metro A Look Back at the Photographs of Phil Portlock BY JOHN DEFERRARI onstructing the first legs of the vast Metro- rail system was a Herculean task that took Cdecades to complete. Begun with a ground- breaking ceremony in December 1969, the enor- mous project reached a peak of activity in the mid-1970s—the first stops on the Red Line opened in March 1976—and continued tearing up city streets and shaking up buildings well into the 1980s and beyond. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Metro’s parent, wanted to document its efforts, and its needs meshed with the aspirations of an up-and-coming, self-taught photographer named Phil Portlock, who found his dream job in 1975 as one of Metro’s two staff photographers. Portlock would spend the next quarter century taking photographs for Metro. “I got paid to do something that I love doing,” Portlock says. “I was truly blessed.” A native Washingtonian with a deep attach- Portrait of the photographer by Pat Sloan. ment to his hometown, Portlock was born at the old Garfield Hospital just north of Florida Avenue diately try to draw pictures of the animals I had NW in 1941, the second of four children. “At an just seen.” His first exposure to professional pho- early age, I can remember being curious about the tography was on a trip to the Scurlock Studio on world around me,” Portlock recalls. “On trips to U Street NW for family photos when he was about the National Zoo, I would return home and imme- five years old. At the time, he had no idea of how An eerie glow fills the just-completed Navy Yard station tunnel in 1990. A water line runs along the right side and the emergency walkway is at left. Photographer Phil Portlock, who spent 28 years documenting the construction of the Metrorail system and WMATA activities, was there. This album of his work looks back at the challenges and the joys of using film and various lighting in often difficult conditions to photograph the birth of Metro. All photographs, unless otherwise noted, are by Phil Portlock and appear courtesy, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. 16 WASHINGTON HISTORY Fall 2016 Picturing Metro 17 important the Scurlock Studio was for African Amer- the darkroom and learned a lot about photo- Earlier that same year—on Thursday, April 4, he later moved on to photographing subway ican portrait photography, nor did he realize the cen- graphic processing. 1968—the tragic news of the assassination of the construction, but he also gained an unexpected tral role photography would play in his own life. He also took it upon himself to learn as much Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., shocked the appreciation for ballet. “Those dancers were When he graduated from Dunbar High School in as he could from the great visual masters, nation and the African American community in par- some of the finest athletes,” he marvels. 1959, Portlock’s parents gave him a Voitlander 35mm spending hours in local museums and art gal- ticular. “I couldn’t believe it had happened,” Portlock Other freelance work included theatrical pro- range-finder camera as a graduation gift. It was his leries viewing and studying the composition says. “I had just seen him less than a week before” at ductions at Howard University and the Catholic first camera, and Portlock was soon taking lots of and lighting of great painters. He scanned mag- an event at the National Cathedral, where Dr. King University of America, a few basketball games pictures. He left Washington to attend Iowa State azines, newspapers, and books to study the spoke movingly about his plans for the upcoming for the Washington Star, and a multimedia presen- University but returned in 1965 to work as an works of prominent photographers, including Poor People’s Campaign. Portlock had not tried to tation for the 3M Company titled “The Many administrative assistant at the National Education Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, Maurice Sor- take pictures at the cathedral, but he knew he Moods of Health.” In 1971 Portlock was hired by Association on 16th Street NW. It was at the NEA rell, and Moneta Sleet, Jr. The NEA soon started needed to photograph the disturbances that were the administrative services branch of the Federal that Portlock got his first exposure to professional giving Portlock local photo assignments, includ- raging across the city on the night of April 4 as Afri- National Mortgage Association, where he served photography when, after lunching with the associa- ing shooting the opening day of the braille can American residents “lashed out.” Though his part-time as a photographer for several years. tion’s photographers one day, they hired him as an “Touch and See” nature trail at the National parents refused to allow him to leave the house for In February 1975 he came across a want ad evening darkroom assistant. It was tiring work. From Arboretum in 1968, an event that gave him the two days, for fear he might be injured or arrested, he for an audio-visual information specialist at 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. he carried out his regular duties chance to try his hand at nature photography. finally hit the streets on Saturday, April 6. “In a state WMATA. The ad said nothing about photogra- as an administrative assistant, then stayed on from 6 He would return to the Arboretum time and of sadness and shock,” as he puts it, he photographed phy, but Portlock decided to apply for it anyway. p.m. until midnight in the photo division’s darkroom again to photograph flowers, streams, fall foli- what he saw and talked to people he met along the Metro Director of Community Services Cody developing photos and making prints. He did not age, winter snow, spring azaleas, fish, birds, and way. “It was important to me to be there,” he Pfanstiehl called Portlock in for an interview and mind the long hours, he says; he enjoyed working in squirrels. explains. “I knew my camera could be used to docu- asked that he bring a portfolio of his photo- ment and record history.” graphs. Portlock brought his pictures of con- The events of April 1968 marked a turning point struction work at the National Cathedral. It for Portlock, who went on to attend many civil rights turned out that Metro only had one photogra- protests, both as a photographer and a participant. pher to document the construction of the Metro When the Poor People’s Campaign came to Washing- system. With construction ramping up, Pfanstiel ton that May and set up camps in West Potomac needed another photographer and offered Port- Park, Portlock and co-workers at the NEA established lock the job. He jumped at the opportunity. a “freedom school” in the NEA auditorium for approximately 50 children. While their parents lob- bied Congress for poverty relief, the children attended school at the NEA and received free lunches. The program continued for nearly six weeks, until federal and local law enforcement officers forced the protest- ers to abandon their encampment. After leaving the NEA late in 1968, Portlock spent the next couple of years freelancing as he mastered new aspects of his chosen vocation. In addition to his share of weddings and receptions, he took on new, unusual challenges. The Capital Ballet Company, the nation’s first predominantly African American pro- fessional ballet troupe, hired him as their photogra- pher. The job “really taught me about how to do lighting,” Portlock says.