Images of a Legend

Ask any eight-year-old girl in America who Susan B. Anthony was and you'll likely get a blank stare. But mention Pocahontas and the child's face will light up, no doubt with a vision of Disney's beautiful "princess" dancing in her mind. Few figures in American history are as legendary. For 400 years, playwrights and moviemakers, painters and sculptors, toy manufacturers and tobacco sellers have portrayed Pocahontas, shaping her appearance and narrative to suit their own purposes. To explore the wide-ranging representations and compare myth to verifiable history, the Virginia Historical Society, led by curators William Rasmussen and Robert Tilton, assembled more than 40 paintings, prints, drawings, sheet music, and other objects. The following slide show offers a sampling of their remarkable exhibit. For more background on their endeavor, read the introduction from Rasmussen and Tilton's exhibit catalog.—Susan K. Lewis

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