Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson) calculates orbital insertion trajectories for the Mercury program using Euler’s method in this scene from the movie Hidden Figures. Credit: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
AL HARRISON:
You think we can get to the moon?[Katherine nods, with all the certainty in the world:]
KATHERINE:
We’re already there, sir.
— Hidden Figures (2016)
cf. Alphonse François (After Delaroche), “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” (1851) and
Dihl et Guérhard, “Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul” (ca. 1800)
Unknown, “Elizabeth Tappenden” (1876)
In Memory of Elizabeth Tappenden
Elizabeth,
I reach across time
to tell you
Cassius was wrong —
the fault is not yours.
–J.S.
“In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” by The Allman Brothers Band
Lewis Wickes Hine, 7 year old Alec applying for job on tobacco farms… (1917)
Dorothea Lange, Young family, penniless, hitchhiking… (1936)
Left: Cave painting at Lascaux (ca. 15,000 B.C.)
Right: Franz Marc, Little Blue Horse (1912)
If I could go back in time
Well, I know somehow you’d still be mine
I wouldn’t be so blind
To that wonderful
’65 Love Affair
When rock ‘n’ roll was simple and clear
Oh, I still can hear
I can hear it baby…
John Sapiro 