Portraying the Presidency

OAH has joined eight organizations providing nominations for the National Portrait Gallery’s (NPG) two Paul Peck Presidential Awards for 2004. One award recognizes individual excellence in portrayal of the president and the other is for excellence in service to the president. According to the NPG guidelines, “portrayal of the presidency” includes historical depiction or any other “visual or literary form,” such as by a “portrait artist in any medium, a journalist, a presidential biographer or a scholar.” As the National Portrait Gallery web site <http://www.npg.si.edu/news/peck2.htm> notes, the awards program is named for Paul Peck, the National Portrait Gallery’s chief individual donor.

Last year’s winners, career diplomat Thomas R. Pickering and former White House photographer Diana Walker, each received $25,000 and a specially designed Smithsonian medal. In 2002, the first year of the program, Richard Neustadt, emeritus professor of government at Harvard University received the portrayal award, and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft won for service.

Along with the National Coalition for History, OAH is participating to help ensure historians are represented in significant numbers among the nominees each year. Each of the nine participating groups may submit up to three names for either or both awards. Please forward any suggestions for consideration to .

Other participating organizations include the White House Historical Association, American Political Science Association, Center for the Study of the Presidency, American Society of Portrait Artists, Portrait Society of America, Junior State of America, and Close Up Foundation. As the presence of the latter two groups would suggest, Paul Peck created the award in part to inspire young people to study American government and democracy. Winners of the award are expected to talk with high school students at related events, and the NPG’s Paul Peck Fund for Presidential Studies also pays for scholarly panels, town hall forums for high school students, and other educational programs.

OAH member Robert Remini has served on the selection committee each year, in the company of individuals such as Geraldine Ferraro, Robert Dole, David Gergen, Cokie Roberts, Robert Samuelson, and Roger Wilkins.