Collections Fall 2013 Volume 97 | Page 6

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, 2009. © Annie Leibovitz. From “Pilgrimage” (Random House, 2011)

haunting, holding associations with death
and the weight of history: ripples playing
across the surface of the River Ouse near
the home of Virginia Woolf, the meditation
garden at Graceland where Elvis is buried
alongside his beloved mother, the farm
house of Jacob Lott on the battlefield of
Gettysburg.
Many visitors, too, will find themselves
retracing their own steps to the historic sites
on view, or imagining a distant place and
time where history was made. One such
site is the battlefields of Gettysburg where
so many thousands perished, while the
gloves Lincoln had in his pocket when he
was shot at Ford’s Theater evoke a second
in time that changed America forever. We
see a concert gown worn by the AfricanAmerican singer Marian Anderson and
envision her historic performance on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 that
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solidified the association of this monument
with the Civil Rights movement.
Annie Leibovitz became famous for taking
pictures of people, and in this stunning
exhibition she has taken people out.
Instead, the viewer sees what she saw on a
given day in a given place and, in a sense,
shares in her travels. These subjects have
shaped Leibovitz’s distinctly American
view of her cultural inheritance. Visiting
the homes of iconic figures, including
Eleanor Roosevelt, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Louisa May Alcott, Pete Seeger and Elvis
Presley and places such as Niagara Falls,
Gettysburg and the Yosemite Valley, she
let her instincts and intuitions guide her to
related subjects—hence the title Pilgrimage.
A limited quantity the exhibition
companion books signed by the author is
available in the Museum Shop. n

Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage is organized by the
Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Bernie
Stadiem Endowment Fund provided support for
the exhibition. The C.F. Foundation of Atlanta
supports the museum’s traveling exhibition
program, Treasures to Go.
Presenting Sponsors:
The Chapman Family Charitable Trust
Hannah and Ron Rogers
Supporting Sponsors:
Columbia Marriott
Dr. Suzan D. Boyd and Mr. M. Edward Sellers
Ethel S. Brody
Harriott Hampton Faucette
Governor and Mrs. James H. Hodges
Dr. and Mrs. Allen A. Montgomery
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen G. Morrison
Susan Romaine
Susan Thorpe and John Baynes
Contributing Sponsors:
Adams and Reese
HoFP Gallery
Lisa and Ben Arnold
Mr. and Mrs. David E. Dukes
Toni M. and Sam Elkins
Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Harpootlian
Michel G. Moore
Ginny Newell and Bob Wilkins