American Icons

Nighthawks

American Icons: Nighthawks

Arts, Culture & Media

The birth and ongoing life of a very American painting.

The inspiration for "Spoon RIver Anthology," Oak Hill Cemetery in Lewistown, Illinois.

American Icons: ‘Spoon River Anthology’

Arts
Cover to “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” 1892

American Icons: ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’

Arts
President Obama

American Icons: ‘Amazing Grace’

Arts
A daguerreotype of Walt Whitman is displayed at the New York Public Library

American Icons: ‘Leaves of Grass’

Arts

Special Thanks

Arts, Culture & Media

Special thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities for their support of Studio 360’s American Icons. Special thanks also to Mary Beth Kirchner, Sarah Lilley, Barbara Taylor, Andrew Delbanco Tom Lewis, Elizabeth Schultz, and Calvin Skaggs.

Warhol’s Soup Cans

Arts, Culture & Media

The soup cans are probably the most recognizable images in American art, and Warhol intended it that way. He borrowed the Campbell’s brand fame to help make his own; he appeared in Time in 1962 as part of the Pop revolution that was remaking art — destroying the serious, sublime aspirations of artists like Jackson […]

American Icons: Appalachian Spring

Arts, Culture & Media

In 1942, the composer Aaron Copland was commissioned to write a piece of music for the choreographer Martha Graham. Dance and music in America have never been the same.

American Icon: Appalachian Spring

Arts, Culture & Media

In the summer of 1942, Aaron Copland accepted a commission to write the score for a new dance by modernist innovator Martha Graham. Their now-legendary ballet, Appalachian Spring, looks at the tension between community and individualism through the story of a bride and groom in a straitlaced frontier town — complete with a revivalist preacher […]

American Icon: Barbie

Arts, Culture & Media

How did the Barbie doll become such a powerful symbol and ubiquitous toy? For our ongoing series on American Icons, we look at how Barbie started, how she endured, and what her future may hold. Produced by Studio 360’s Leital Molad with production help from Sarah Birnbaum