DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center for Amer Art & Portraiture -- Portraits -- Notes:

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[3] SIPGPO_100131_19.JPG   0640x0480 2048x1536

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• Various Signs: By the middle of the seventeenth century, the eastern seaboard of North America was a patchwork of empires. Florida, first settled in 1565, was subject to Spain. The Dutch held sway over New Amsterdam, which covered parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Swedes settled in Delaware in 1638.
  Simultaneously, the English were settling throughout the Carolinas, Maryland, and Virginia. Jamestown was established in 1607, and the first Africans in bondage were brought there in 1619. More English settlements lay to the north, including the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Rhode Island. Beyond this "New England" were territories claimed by France, including the city of Quebec, established in 1608.
  Native American nations interacted with the newcomers in numerous ways. Some formed strategic alliances with the Europeans; other resisted their increasing presence. Eventually, England would become the dominant power in this complex colonial tapestry. Such was the mix from which the United States of America would emerge.
  
  By the mid-eighteenth century -- 250 years after Columbus arrived in the New World -- the idea of establishing an independent nation in the Americas had not yet taken form. North America continued to be regarded as the prize in an international rivalry among Spain, France, and England, which all looked to solidify and expand their burgeoning empires. Inevitably, conflicts arose. Wars in Europe leapfrogged the Atlantic and involved colonists in the Americas. In the middle of these conflicts were the hundreds of native nations whose traditional ways of life were dramatically altered by the increasing presence of European colonists.
  When the Seven Years' War between Britain and France ended in 1763, the French had lost their bid for empire in the New World. The British and Spanish still held vast and seemingly secure colonial domains. Within two decades, however, Britain would lose its thirteen colonies, and a new nation, the Unit ...More...
• Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
  1. SIPGPO_100131_02.JPG: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 1921-2009 Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the creative force and organizer of Special Olympics, Inc., a nonprofit charitable organization that provides training and competition in Olympic sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. In 1957 Shriver became director of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, which was created to deal with issues of mental retardation, and several years later she established a summer day camp at her home that became the basis for Special Olympics. In 1968 the Kennedy Foundation, working with the Chicago Park District, organized the First International Special Olympics Summer Games. Currently more than 1.3 million children and adults from more than 150 countries participate in the program. Shriver received numerous awards and honors for her work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Theodore Roosevelt Award of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. David Lenz was commissioned to paint this portrait as part of the first prize in the inaugural Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Lenz 's winning painting, Sam and the Perfect World, portrays his son, an active participant in Special Olympics events. For this commission, Lenz embraced the idea of making a portrait of Mrs. Shriver that would also include five persons with intellectual disabilities who have been involved in Special Olympics and the Best Buddies program: (left to right) Airika Straka, Katie Meade, Andy Leonard, Loretta Claiborne, and Marty Sheets. David Lenz, 2009
  2. SIPGPO_100131_16.JPG: Airika Straka: Airika (pronounced "Erica") Straka of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, is a twelve-year-old Special Olympics athlete. She competes in bowling, snowshoeing, and track events at local and state levels; in 2008 she won first place in the fifty-meter and third place in one-hundred-meter snowshoeing races. She conquered her fear of the telephone when her school called her mother to ask why Straka and her six siblings were not in class. Straka answered the phone for the first time in her life and gave the school enough information about her mother -- who was in diabetic shock -- for them to call an ambulance. Straka is an enthusiastic Special Olympics athlete and an encouraging team member who is always proud that she had competed, whether or not she wins an award.
  3. SIPGPO_100131_19.JPG: Left to right: Katie Meade: Twenty-five-year-old Katie Meade of Des Moines, Iowa, was a Special Olympics athlete for thirteen years and is now a Best Buddies International friendship ambassador. Meade, who was born with Down syndrome, spent the first three years of her life in a hospital and has survived two open heart surgeries, three cardiac arrests, and multiple thorocotomies. In addition to traveling around the world as a Special Olympics International global messenger, Meade is also a participant in the Audi Best Buddies Challenge, and annual cycling and foot race fundraiser. Meade has credited Special Olympics and Best Buddies with developing her speaking ability, and to raise awareness, she regularly speaks on behalf of the intellectually disabled. At the 2003 Special Olympics World Games in Ireland, she introduced the rock group U2. Meade has been working at the Polk County Treasurer's office in Des Moines since 2002. Andy Leonard: Andy Leonard of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, is a forty-year-old Special Olympics athlete. He has competed in track events and soccer, but his specialty is weight-lifting: he can dead lift more than 400 pounds. Leonard was born in Vietnam in 1968, and after his biological parents were killed in a blast, he was sent to an orphanage in Saigon. He was later adopted by a couple in the United States and diagnosed with a language-processing disability. Leonard, who has competed in Special Olympics and International competitions since 1986, is a charter member of the Pennsylvania Special Olympics Hall of Fame and the only Special Olympics athlete to hold a non-Special Olympics national title -- that of the American Drug-Free Powerlifting Association, which he won in 1994 and 1995. Loretta Claiborne: Loretta Claiborne of York, Pennsylvania, was born in 1953 and is a Special Olympics athlete and motivational speaker. Even though Claiborne could not walk or talk until she was four years old, she was physically stronger and faster than her peers and started running at an early age. Claiborne began participating in Special Olympics in 1970 and met Eunice Kennedy Shriver in Virginia early in her Special Olympics career. She has competed and won medals in six Special Olympics world games and in 1981 was honored with the Spirit of the Special Olympics award. Claiborne has run in twenty-six marathons, including those in Pittsburgh and Boston. She frequently speaks on behalf of Special Olympics and the intellectually disabled and candidly shared her story of struggle and accomplishment. Recently, she testified before the US Senate on the important of health care for people with intellectual disabilities. Eunice Kennedy Shriver Martin "Marty" Sheets: Marty Sheets of Greensboro, North Carolina, is a fifty-six-year-oild Special Olympics athlete who has Down syndrome. In 1968 he attended the first Special Olympics competition, where he met Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Since then he has remained active in the program and has won more than two hundred medals in local, state, national, and world Special Olympics competitions. While his favorite sport is golf, he has competed five times in world games in several events, including swimming and skiing. In addition to his athletic successes, Sheets has been recognized by his community for his civic achievements and by Macy's, his longtime employer. In 2000 Governor Jim Hunt of North Carolina presented Marty the highest civilian award given in the state, the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, which honored him for being a good state ambassador.
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• Generally-Related Subject: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center for Amer Art & Portraiture
• Generally-Related Subject Description: The country's original patent office building burned down in 1836. From 1839 to 1866, another was built. Designed by Robert Mills who also designed the Capitol and Treasury buildings, it was based in part on the design of the Parthenon with marble hallways and Doric columns. During the Civil War, it was used as both a troop barracks and a hospital; both Clara Barton and Walt Whitman nursed wounded soldiers here. Abraham Lincoln held his second inaugural ball in the main gallery in March 1865, one month before his assassination. When the building's construction was finished, it was the largest building in the country. The Patent Office moved to the Dept of Commerce building in 1932. The Civil Service Commission took over until they moved to their new headquarters in 1960. Saved from destruction by the Commission of Fine Arts, the building was turned over to the Smithsonian which established two galleries -- the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American Art -- in the building.
  
  The building closed in January 2000 for a $200 million renovation. It reopened on July 1, 2006. In the interim, it beefed up its virtual presence on the Web at http://www.npg.si.edu and had a number of exhibits have been touring the country. One of those is on American woman and "A Brush with History: Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery". In the spring of 2001, a generous $30 million donation from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation of Las Vegas, Nevada allowed it to purchase the "Lansdowne" portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart.
  
  The building closed well before I purchased my first digital camera and once it reopened, I found myself taking lots and lots of pictures. For example, during the reopening day on July 1, 2006, I took over 3,500 pictures. To keep the numbers on each page smaller, I separated them out by theme, sometimes somewhat arbitrarily, so you'll see separate listings for:
  -- America's Presidents (paintings, sculpture, etc ...More...
• Generally-Related Subject Pages: Other pages here that have content somewhat related to this one:
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• Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: Museums (Art) Smithsonian -- Museums
• 2010 photos: Yee ha! A new year!
• Photo Contact: Email Bruce Guthrie.