Washington, DC
Friday, July 6th

When I first looked at the schedule for today I saw; a Smithsonian Museum, I’ve been on at least five 8th grade trips to DC, a discussion of the Washington Post series on Dick Cheney, great series but a whole discussion?, and a debate on immigration. I thought to myself boring day. Man was I wrong.

This museum blows away any of the museums I have seen in DC, ever. The National Portrait Gallery has recently re-opened after being closed for renovations for the previous six years. Our guide, Wendy Wick Reaves, a curator, and mother of St. Albans alum opened up the museum two hours before it regularly opens to give us a private tour. The museum is located in Chinatown right next to the MCI Center. Despite Mrs. Reaves extremely informative tour there is no way a person could truly view and appreciate the items in this museum in anything less than two days. We had two hours. At least ten of the SPS students want to come back on Sunday and spend the day here. Mrs. Reaves sad that during the renovation the idea was for the Portrait Gallery to basically reinvent itself. Here is an article about the renovation.

We heard of how the National Portrait Gallery managed to save the "Lansdowne Portrait" of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Commissioned for the British Lord Lansdowne after the Revolutionary War, in recent times his descendants had loaned it to the National Portrait Gallery. When they decided to sell it, they gave the National Portrait Gallery the right of first refusal, but the $20 million price tag seemed out of reach until, almost by chance, administrators of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation saw a story about the issue in the media and came to the rescue with the $30 million grant that allowed the Portrait Gallery to purchase the painting and take it on tour all over the country. It is now back in Washington, resting comfortably, and we got a chance to see it today in all its life-sized glory

Lansdowne Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart

The Portrait Gallery is stunning in not only its architecture but collection as well. They have combined the historical with the contemporary. In fact during the renovation the museum ditched its long standing policy of waiting ten years after a person’s death to accept a portrait to now accepting living people. Some of the best exhibitions currently on display have the living.

Two exhibits caught my fancy. In most of the ext few paragraphs the links will have a much better explanation than my own. The first was an exhibition called Portraiture Now: A Framing Memory. The artist who caught my eye was Tina Mion. Her pieces are intriguing. My favorite was called, “Harvey Girls”, you can see an image of the painting below. (Description of Harvey Girls) The other exhibit that I enjoyed was called, “Being There” by Harry Benson. The photography, both technique and topic, were amazing. Here is a link to his web site which has a repository of some of his most famous pieces. I do not know why I chose the photo of the Watts Riot in 1965 to show. I guess it was the look on the cop’s face.
There are many more exhibitions that are wonderful; The Cold War is informative as it is grand and Great Britons which is on loan from the British National Gallery Museum. I could go on for days. It is a MUST see the next time you get to DC.

Harvey Girls by Tina Mion

Watts Riots, Los Angeles, 1965

Benson said about this photo, "Prowling the streets with police sirens wailing and buildings smoldering around me, I came across this scene in the early hours of the morning."

After their afternoon of their final public speaking and econ classes the students heard from St. Albans and West Point (04) Alumni Cpt. William Felder of the 10th Mountain Division. He was a last minute sub fro the Cheney article, and a good one. He was stationed in Afghanistan for the last two years and only returned to the states a few weeks ago. He gave us a pretty comprehensive briefing of what was going in Afghanistan in general and for him and his guys specifically. They operated in the southern districts near the Afghan border of Pakistan. His stories were frank and horrifying. He spoke of the 80 Mullah he got to know rather well who had in lifetime fought off the Russians, the Northern Alliance, and the Taliban. By the way this mullah has a 34 year old wife and if the father of six month old. Cpt. Felder, all of 26 years old, spoke of his admiration for this leader and fighter who was loyal to the idea of government. Cpt, Felder went into his observations of a two year deployment that were fascinating. His thoughts confirmed some of my thoughts, dispelled even more, and gave me a ton to think about.

In the evening the SPS students settles down for a debate on immigration. The students were divided in two even groups. The format took the form of the Government Club of St. Albans. I wrote about on the June 22nd entry. The debate was quite spirited. I served on a three person judge’s panel. In the end the vote was tight but the Immigration Bill on the formally named Group 2, won 12 to 11. Speakers could score points after the proposal of each speaker. The speaker would be open to a series of questions. If the question logically followed the proposal the team of the questioner scores a point. The speaker scores a point it they offer a sound rebuttal of the questioner. There are a few other ways to score points but they are even more dry than the previous sentence so I will move on. We finished around 9:30pm so we gave the students some free time around the Cathedral neighborhood.

Cpt. Will Felder, STA "00", West Point "04"

10th Moutain Division