videos + essays

Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.

Jonas Lie, <em>The Conquerors (Culebra Cut, Panama Canal)</em>
Jonas Lie, The Conquerors (Culebra Cut, Panama Canal)

Lie portrays man’s dominance over nature in his painting of the construction of the Panama Canal.

Armando García Menocal, <em>Campesino y soldado español (Peasant and Spanish soldier)</em>
Armando García Menocal, Campesino y soldado español (Peasant and Spanish soldier)

Following the Cuban War of Independence, Menocal seeks to create a distinct Cuban iconography.

Winslow Homer, <em>Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba</em>
Winslow Homer, Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba

A bright new technology and a devastating naval battle during Spanish American War.

Florine Stettheimer, <em>Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz</em>
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
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, <em>The Good Shepherd</em>
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, <em>Hunger</em>
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, <em>Self-Portrait</em>
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, <em>Radiator Building—Night, New York</em>
Georgia O’Keeffe, Radiator Building—Night, New York

O'Keeffe takes on the New York skyline in the 1920s

An environmental crisis, Hogue’s <em>Crucified Land</em>
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, <em>Game of Skill</em>
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, <em>Southern Landscape</em>
Eldzier Cortor, Southern Landscape

A dream-like flooded landscape—does is suggest bleakness or hope?