Portrait Gallery Debuts First Exclusive Website Exhibit, A Tribute to Will Rogers

The National Portrait Gallery is about to debut its first exhibition to be presented exclusively on its website.

Since 2006, the museum has held seventeen exhibitions in the series One Life, which is dedicated to the biography of a single figure, Will Rogers (1879–1935). This latest exhibit, “One Life: Will Rogers” dives deeper into the life and career of the prolific political commentator whose comedic wit crossed social and political divides.

His career spanned vaudeville, silent films, “talkies,” radio, and newspapers. And he was tasked with lifting the nation’s spirits during some of the most trying times — from World War I, the recession that followed, and the Great Depression.

Born to a prominent Cherokee family on a ranch in Indian Territory near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma, Rogers could lasso anything. Defying stereotypes of the rugged cowboy, he was a great intellect, who authored six books, appeared in seventy-one films, wrote 4,000 syndicated newspaper columns, and hosted a popular Sunday evening radio program.

The precursor to Mickey Rooney, or today’s Stephen Colbert, Rogers voiced a perspective with broad appeal to the masses in the first half of the twentieth century.

“One Life: Will Rogers” is planned to be presented online from June 25, 2021 and ongoing.

The National Portrait Gallery’s “One Life: Will Rogers” exhibition is co-curated by retired Portrait Gallery Historian James Barber and Historian Kate Clarke Lemay. It was funded in part by the Guenther and Siewchin Yong Sommer Endowment Fund, with additional support received from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee.