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By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs

July 14, 2019 – January 5, 2020
West Building, Ground Floor - Galleries 22 and 22A

Loewy et Puiseux, Photographie Lunaire Rayonnement de Tycho - Phase Croissante, 1899, photogravure, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon and Patrons' Permanent Fund

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. Photography played a significant role both in preparing for the mission and in shaping the cultural consciousness of the event. An exhibition of some 50 works will include a selection of photographs from the unmanned Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter missions that led up to Apollo 11. The landmark event will be represented by glass stereographs, taken on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, showing close-up views of three-inch-square areas of the lunar surface, as well as iconic NASA and press photographs of the astronauts that were disseminated widely in the wake of the mission's success. Additionally, a select survey of lunar photographs from the 19th and early 20th centuries features works ranging from Warren de la Rue's late 1850s glass stereograph of the full moon to a suite of Charles Le Morvan's rich, velvety photogravures from Carte photographique et systematique de la lune, published in 1914, which attempted to systematically map the entire visible lunar surface. These photographs, from the 19th century to the "space-age" 1960s, merged art and science and transformed the way that we envision and comprehend the cosmos.

The exhibition is curated by Diane Waggoner, curator of 19th-century photographs, National Gallery of Art.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Passes: Admission is always free and passes are not required

De La Rue, Warren
British, 1815 - 1889
Le Morvan, Charles
French, 1865 - 1933
Loewy et Puiseux
French, 1833 - 1928

Film Programs
Moons and Celestial Bodies
July 20 – 21
East Building Auditorium

Lectures
Photographing the Moon: An Evening with Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Curators
October 3 at 6:30
West Building Lecture Hall

Apparent Retrograde: Reflecting on Lunar Photography
October 7 at 12:10 and 1:10
West Building Lecture Hall

The Moon in the Age of Photography
October 20 at 2:00
West Building Lecture Hall