Skip to main content

Link to Smithsonian homepage

Smithsonian Music

Main menu

  • Calendar
  • Listen
  • Learn
    • Ask Smithsonian
    • Collections Spotlights
    • Music Stories
  • Watch
  • Blog

Lillian Gish

Object Details

Exhibition Label
Lillian Gish never had the aura of glamour that other early Hollywood leading ladies enjoyed, and many actresses surpassed her as box office draws. Nevertheless, Gish may well deserve pride of place as the most capable actress of the silent-screen era, and her performances in such films as Broken Blossoms and The Scarlet Letter number among the most memorable moments of early American filmmaking. The movie with which Gish is perhaps most often associated is director D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, the movie industry's first feature-length drama, released in 1915.
In this photograph by Alfred Cheney Johnston, Gish is dressed for her role in Orphans of the Storm, the last of her many films made with Griffith. After the movie's completion, Griffith urged her to go to other moviemakers for parts because he could not pay her what she was worth.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Artist
Alfred Cheney Johnston, 08 Apr 1885 - 17 Apr 1971
Sitter
Lillian Gish, 14 Oct 1893 - 27 Feb 1993
Date
1922
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 33.1 × 25.5 cm (13 1/16 × 10 1/16")
Sheet: 34 × 26.3 cm (13 3/8 × 10 3/8")
Mat: 71.1 × 55.9 cm (28 × 22")
Type
Photograph

Featured In

  • Entertaining Women: American Women on Stage and Screen
  • Let's Go to the Movies
  • Let's Go to the Movies:Silent Era
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
View manifest View in Mirador Viewer

Link to Smithsonian homepage

  • About
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
Back to Top