PORTRAITS
PORTRAITS
National Portrait Gallery
How Do You Portray A Dinosaur?
24 minutes Posted Apr 15, 2025 at 8:00 am.
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Show notes
We have portraits of people in our galleries. But what if you’re a natural science museum? How do you portray a dinosaur? 
We talk with Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, about the ways our portrayals of dinosaurs have evolved, from sluggish and lizard-like to warm-blooded, colorful and spry. Then Matthew Carrano, curator of dinosauria, explains how the museum put T. rex into a striking new pose. The idea, he says, was to convey how cool dinosaurs were, but also make them relatable and relevant.
We also tie in a couple portraits from the National Portrait Gallery's collection: an image of the first person to describe an American dinosaur, and a photograph of the first person to give them the Hollywood treatment.
See the portraits we discussed:
Joseph Leidy, by Frederick Gutekunst
Steven Spielberg, by Gregory Heisler
The Nation's T. rex, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
Also recommended:
Visions of Lost Worlds: The Paleoart of Jay Matternes, by Matthew T. Carrano and Kirk R. Johnson