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Margaret Chase Smith

Margaret Chase Smith
Usage Conditions Apply
Artist
Ernest Hamlin Baker, 1889 - 1975
Sitter
Margaret Chase Smith, 14 Dec 1897 - 29 May 1995
Date
c. 1953
Type
Drawing
Medium
Graphite pencil on paperboard
Dimensions
Image: 23 × 18 cm (9 1/16 × 7 1/16")
Topic
Costume\Jewelry\Necklace\Pearl
Nature & Environment\Plant\Flower\Rose
Personal Attribute\Teeth
Margaret Chase Smith: Female
Margaret Chase Smith: Politics and Government\US Senator\Maine
Margaret Chase Smith: Politics and Government\US Congressman\Maine
Margaret Chase Smith: Presidential Medal of Freedom
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Copyright
© Ernest Hamlin Baker
Object number
NPG.88.TC177
Exhibition Label
Born Skowhegan, Maine
On February 7, 1950, more than four years before the Army-McCarthy hearings, first-term senator Joseph McCarthy sparked a Senate investigation by claiming (without evidence) that the U.S. State Department was riddled with Communists who posed a dire threat to national security. Several months later, Margaret Chase Smith was among a group of seven senators who first challenged the abusive tactics employed by McCarthy.
Addressing the Senate on June 1, 1950, in what she called her “Declaration of Conscience,” Smith decried that “the greatest deliberative body in the world” had been “debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination.” She called out the harm already done “with irresponsible words of bitterness and selfish political opportunism,” and added, “the American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as ‘Communists’ or ‘Fascists’ by their opponents.”
Nacida en Skowhegan, Maine
El 7 de febrero de 1950, más de cuatro años antes de las audiencias Ejército-McCarthy, el senador Joseph McCarthy, entonces en su primer término, dio paso a una investigación senatorial al alegar (sin pruebas) que el Departamento de Estado de EE.UU. estaba infestado de comunistas que amenazaban la seguridad nacional. Meses después, Margaret Chase Smith estuvo entre los siete primeros senadores que impugnaron las tácticas abusivas de McCarthy.
Hablando ante el Senado el 1 de junio de 1950, en lo que llamó su “declaración de conciencia”, Smith denunció que “el mejor cuerpo deliberativo del mundo” se había “rebajado al nivel de un foro de odio y difamación”. Asimismo, condenó los daños ya infligidos “con palabras irresponsables de amargura y un egoísmo político oportunista”, añadiendo que “los norteamericanos están hartos de tener miedo a expresarse, no sea que sus oponentes los tilden de ‘comunistas’ o ‘fascistas’”.
Collection Description
In 1978, Time magazine donated approximately eight hundred works of original cover art to the National Portrait Gallery. The museum is dedicated to telling the stories of individuals who have shaped the United States, and the Time Collection—featuring prominent international figures and events—enriches our understanding of the United States in a global context.
En 1978, la revista Time donó a la National Portrait Gallery cerca de 800 obras de arte originales creadas para sus portadas. Nuestro museo se dedica a narrar la historia de figuras que han contribuido a forjar el desarrollo de Estados Unidos, y es así que la Colección Time, que incluye retratos de importantes personalidades internacionales, nos ayuda a comprender mejor a nuestra nación en un contexto global.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Exhibition
20th Century Americans: 1930-1960
On View
NPG, South Gallery 321