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Katharine Graham, at her Washington Post desk in an undated photo is featured in a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Photo courtesy of Diana Walker

In June of 1971, the Washington Post was in heated controversy over whether or not to publish the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret history of the United States’ military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. Would making such information public bring on a slew of government lawsuits? Would it jeopardize national security?

One phone call to Katharine Graham, the newspaper’s CEO and publisher, resolved the controversy with two simple words: “Let’s publish.”

Graham (1917-2001) is the subject of the National Portrait Gallery’s new “One Life” exhibition, a fittingly black-and-white tribute to a woman whose keen editorial judgment and leadership rose to the top of the then male-dominated field of journalism. The exhibit opens tomorrow, and will remain on display through May 30, 2011.

An illustration on view in the exhibit is by Washington Post cartoonist Herblock (1909-2001). It depicts the CEO as a child playing with building blocks on the floor. Her father, Eugene Meyer, a banker who purchased the Washington Post in 1933, stands over her looking at her creation: two towers of lettered blocks that read “WASH” and “POST,” respectively. “I think she’s trying to tell us something,” Meyer says.

The cartoon is not far from the truth. Graham showed interest in journalism from an early age, working at her school newspapers, reporting for a San Francisco newspaper after college, and then winding up at the Post. Graham’s father turned the Post over to her and her husband Philip in 1938, and when Philip died in 1963, Graham became president of the company.

“She was the right person, in the right place, at the right time,” said Amy Henderson, lead curator of the exhibit, at a media preview yesterday.

Graham’s career spanned an important era in the nation’s capital. A few years after her decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, Graham was also instrumental in making public the Watergate scandal that eventually led to former President Nixon’s resignation. “Usually when you have a great story, everyone else jumps on it,” says Graham in a video clip of her speaking at the Portrait Gallery in 1992. “This was such a great story, I thought, where was everyone else?”

Of course, the story’s gravitas had much to do with the reporting of Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who gained exclusive access to officials such as Deep Throat, the informant later identified as former FBI associate director Mark Felt. “What we did,” says Graham, “was keep the story alive.” (Bernstein and Woodward presented Graham with an antique clothes wringer as a joke, which is on exhibit.)

In addition to news clippings and photos of Graham in the office, the exhibit also delves into her robust social life. Graham surrounded herself with the likes of Henry Kissinger, Truman Capote, Nancy Reagan and many other important figures of the 20th century. A costume mask designed by Halston, which Graham wore to a black and white ball Truman Capote put on in her honor, is on display. Other notable objects in the exhibit include Graham’s Pulitzer Prize for her 1998 memoir, Personal History and a handwritten page from the memoir.

The most prominent portrait in the exhibition is a photograph of Graham gazing sharply into the camera, arms crossed, holding her glasses in one hand. Honesty and forthrightness—two of Grahams’ finest virtues, according to Henderson—shine through in the publishing magnate’s unwavering gaze.

One Life: Katharine Graham is on view at the National Portrait Gallery from October 1 through May 30, 2011.

The work, Wah-Du-Sheh (Bundle), 1997 by Native artist Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk) is on view in the new exhibit, "Vantage Point" at the American Indian Museum. Image courtesy of the artist

When the National Museum of the American Indian opened it’s doors on the National Mall in 2004, the museum had already begun to amass a rich collection of contemporary art by Native Americans. Perhaps nobody knows this better than Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk), who served as the museum’s curator of contemporary art until 2008.

But Lowe wasn’t just a witness to the museum’s acquisitions during the past several years. NMAI’s newest exhibit, “Vantage Point”—a survey of 25 contemporary artists, comprised of those recently acquired works—features an installation by the former curator. The exhibit is organized according to four overlapping themes: personal identity, cultural memory, history/contemporary urban experience and landscape/place. Lowe’s work, “Wah-Du-Sheh,” is made of “bundles” of willow branches, paper and leather ties and explores several of the exhibit’s themes. I spoke with him from the road about this work and the exhibit as a whole.

Tell me about “Wah-Du-Sheh,” the installation you contributed to “Vantage Point.”

The piece is very influenced by a visit I paid to a particular site where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers meet. I think it’s an offshoot of the Cahokia Mounds. The site is a four-sided, pyramid-shaped [burial] mound, located right at the confluence of these two rivers. As we were walking around that space, it became clear to me that it was a unique site. There was a huge shelf, or a roof-like structure that looked like it was part of the site, so I inquired about it, and they said that archaeologists had been working there.

I was able to get entree into that space, and the most stunning image was a series of sand pedestals, of funerary size, enough to hold a body. On top of those sand pedestals were the remains of several different individuals that had been buried at that site. It was really a stark image. It was so strong that I really had to do something about it. So that’s really what the piece is about. The title of the piece in the exhibit is called “Wa-Du-Sheh,” which means “bundle,” and often times important objects or important clothing is wrapped in a bundle and kept close, and it’s a special treatment for special objects. Sometimes history has indicated that these bundles also kept particular kinds of medicine as well. That’s really what the piece is about, and I did it so that it would be without a base, giving the notion of the spirit as it transcends.

Do you have personal experience with bundles?

Yes. In particular, my mother was a great bundler of all kinds of her favorite things around the house. She didn’t really use suitcases or bags or anything like that. As plastic bags became available, that’s what she used, but everything was kept and wrapped in that kind of manner.

How was this piece a departure from your previous art, or else how is it in keeping with themes that you like to explore in your work?

It’s a continuation, but it is a bit of an offshoot to deal with anything resembling spirituality. I really don’t go into that, mainly because it’s not my particular expertise or area of tradition. I just wanted to give the illusion of the notion of how we as human beings really do function within our particular traditions and within our particular history. We’re involved in creating our own histories.

The piece is also really a meditative piece as well, so it’s intended to give a sense of thinking about who we are, where we are, and where we’re headed.

As the former contemporary art curator at NMAI, what are your thoughts on the “Vantage Point” exhibit as a whole?

The exhibit indicates that the museum is collecting works from contemporary native artists that will be very strong and important parts of the history, a documentation of this particular time period. Many of them are ancient artists like myself, and then there are young people who are carrying on that tradition of extreme creativity.

It represents in a sense what Native Americans have contributed to the art world, both historic objects as well as contemporary, but it is a voice that often times is stronger when it’s visual, as opposed to even the other forms of expression. So it’s really an important component of the museum, and the opportunity for me to have been a part of it was really an important part of my life as well.

“Vantage Point” is open now through August 7, 2011, at NMAI.

Accelerometers in iPhones can sense how to orient your display. Photo courtesy of the AirSpace blog.

For the record, October is American Archives Month—To celebrate, the Smithsonian Collections blog, SIRIS, is hosting a 31-day blogathon, where Smithsonian museums and affiliates will be blogging about their archives, giving an insider’s look at what goes into preserving and storing so many precious artifacts. The Institution is also hosting the “Ask the Smithsonian” program, where members of the community can set up appointments to bring in objects and learn how best to care for them. An online version of the program will be available on the Smithsonian’s Facebook page.

Cell Phones and Far Beyond—You know that nifty feature on your iPhone that flips your display vertically or horizontally depending on how you hold it? According to a post this week on the AirSpace blog, that mechanism is called an accelerometer, and consists of a tiny chip inserted into the phone that can sense the acceleration of gravity. This technology has apparently been used for years in automobiles, video games and even ballistic missiles, and was designed in 1970 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Charles Stark “Doc” Draper.

Skating Through the Week—It might be time to dust off those old roller skates and take them for a spin. As we emerge from the dog days of summer and enter early fall, there couldn’t be a better time for National Roller Skating Week, which the Smithsonian Libraries blog let us know about yesterday. They also posted a charming trade advertisement of Plimpton’s Patent Roller Skates from around 1879 (Plimpton’s roller skates were patented in 1863 and 1866).

It Has Been Fifty Years… Since Vice President Richard Nixon faced off with John F. Kennedy for the first ever nationally televised presidential debate. The Portrait Gallery’s Face to Face blog has two posts on the debates, and we published an article about the changing dynamics of debating on television this month as well.

Unexpected New Bird Species—Smithsonian researchers at the Conservation Biology Institute and Natural History have discovered that the magnificent frigatebirds living on the Galapagos Islands are genetically distinct from those living on the mainland of the Americas, and have been for over half a million years. This comes as quite a surprise, as frigatebirds are able to travel hundreds of miles and are not particularly isolated from those on the mainland.

Statue of Aphrodite, excavated at Salamis, Cyprus. Image courtesy of the Cyprus Museum.

According to legend, Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and fertility, was born in Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Walk through “Cyprus: Crossroads of Civilizations,” a new exhibition opening today at the National Museum of Natural History, and you can see how the worship of the deity has been deeply ingrained in the country’s history. Flat, plank-shaped ceramic figurines dating back to 2000 B.C. call to mind the “Mother Goddess,” as does the marble statue of Aphrodite that holds court near the rear of the gallery.

But perhaps the most interesting revelation when comparing the representations of the goddess across time is the extent to which international influences play out in Cypriot art. For example, the plank figures, though unique to Cyprus, may be a result of mixing the religious beliefs of incoming settlers from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and the island’s original inhabitants. Likewise, the marble statue of Aphrodite, excavated at Salamis, Cyprus, and dating from sometime after Cyprus was annexed by the Roman Empire in 58 B.C., has a clearly Romanesque style.

The exhibition, guest curated by former director of the Cyprus Department of Antiquities Sophocles Hadjisavvas, emphasizes how Cyprus’s location, at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, contributed to its melting pot culture. It also argues that out of the mixing of cultural influences came a uniquely Cypriot style.

The unveiling of the exhibition comes at the 50th anniversary of Cyprus’s independence from Great Britain. But, organized like a timeline, it spans 11,000 years of the island’s history. Through artifacts—vases, bowls, sculptures, gold jewelry and paintings, many of which have never been shown outside of Cyprus—the exhibition documents what life was like from the time Cyprus was first settled to the beginning of Ottoman rule in 1571.

“It’s an experience,” says Hadjisavvas. “Visitors can get in touch with the people of Cyprus through the antiquities. They can visit the island of Cyprus through this exhibition.”

From just outside the entrance of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the rhythmic Asian-inspired house music pours out into the night welcoming art-lovers to “Asia After Dark.”

Once inside, a video display shown on wall slowly updates with tweets using the hashtag #asiaafterdark. I made a quick stop at the bar for an Asian-infused cocktail—I opted for the “rise and fall melon ball”— and then it was on my way to see Fiona Tan: Rise and Fall.

Once downstairs and into the gallery, I joined a group being led by curator Carol Huh. As I listened to Huh describe the artist Fiona Tan’s work on the wall, I was looking at a bunch of  black and white photographs hanging on the wall of the gallery, but then I realized the people in them were moving, the scenery was slowly changing. The best way to describe it would be it’s similar to the paintings in Harry Potter.

The 22-minute, two-channel video installation Rise and Fall, got me thinking. When you walk into the room there are two vertically hanging screens, as Huh said, it’s as if the video screens are the last barriers for Tan to break through. I’m not really sure what that means, but the film focuses on a young and elderly woman with shots of water spliced in throughout, gorgeous shots of Niagra Falls were so real, so aloud I almost felt like I was getting doused with spray. It is a thought-provoking film with intriguing angles and the old woman and the young girl on the two screens seemed to play off of one another at times, doing the same thing, applying make-up, walking in the park. Like I said, it made me think, who are those women? Are they the same person? What does the water signify?

I moved on. Near the Tan exhibit was Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia. The works of art, dating from the prehistoric period to the post-Angkorian period, are in amazing condition and the level of detail is truly something to behold. But the night was slowly came to an end with dancing and cupcakes (Curbside Cupcakes stopped by on Independence Avenue later in the night). Talk of meeting and talking with Zac Holtzman and Senon Williams of Dengue Fever, who were hanging out in crowd, could be heard as the well-dressed assemblage slowly started to disperse. Many were still thrilled with their performance in the Artful Avatars activity where participants could pose in a retro photo booth and create a self-portrait.

This is the fifth Asia After Dark event, the previous one featured DJ Rekha, and offers those 21 and older a chance to enjoy fine art in a way completely different from the usual museum experience. Keep an eye out for the next Asia After Dark sometime in the spring of 2011.