From the Gilded Age to World War II
videos + essays
Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.
Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz
This portrait gives us a glimpse into the creative circle of Alfred Stieglitz in 1920s New York, with references to Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Henry McBride, and others.
The Chief Johnson Totem Pole
Learn about the story of Fog Woman and Raven and the generations of this totem pole from the Tlingit
Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Good Shepherd
Painted after the end of World War I and amid pressure to "represent his race" as a Black man, Tanner brings biblical scenes into the modern world
Walter Ufer, Hunger
Ufer, a German immigrant to the United States, seeks an authentic American art in New Mexico on the heels of World War I and the influenza epidemic.
Rosa Rolanda, Self-Portrait
Rolanda, a close friend of Frida Kahlo, explores her Mexican identity in the 1930s with surrealism and a volcano
Georgia O’Keeffe, Radiator Building—Night, New York
O'Keeffe takes on the New York skyline in the 1920s
An environmental crisis, Hogue’s Crucified Land
Gashes in the land and a scarecrow crucifix speak to the environmental crisis of the Dust Bowl
Stephen Mopope, Game of Skill
An ode to a taken homeland, this painting features a broad landscape of the Wichita Mountains and an everyday scene of the Kiowa people
Eldzier Cortor, Southern Landscape
A dream-like flooded landscape—does is suggest bleakness or hope?
Hale Woodruff, The Banjo Player
Woodruff reimagines racist tropes of Black banjo players with a figure who is confident and joyful
The Long History of Stone Mountain, Georgia
Perhaps the largest relief sculpture in the world, this Confederate memorial is an expression of 20th and 21st century racial politics.
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