Visiting Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now helped me appreciate the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery a lot more. What especially drew me to it was this silhouette, cut into paper, of an enslaved women, Flora, created by tracing her shadow cast by a candle. I procrastinated going to the exhibit but finally went there twice in March. Interesting article about this: "An Enslaved Woman's Candlelit Shadow Is the Most Compelling Image in the US National Portrait Gallery" https://qz.com/quartzy/1471019/an-enslaved-womans-candlelit-shadow-is-the-most-compelling-image-in-the-us-national-portrait-gallery/
Another reason I liked this exhibit was that many of the silhouettes were of interesting women in the 1800s.
Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant--Early 1800s same-sex couple. More on them at the museum that owns this silhouette:
https://henrysheldonmuseum.org/exhibits/charity-sylvia-a-weybridge-couple/
Laura Bridgman--more about her at Perkins School for the Blind website:
https://www.perkins.org/history/people/laura-bridgman
I was already familiar with current-day silhouettes by Kara Walker, so I'm glad the exhibit included these really neat ones by Kumi Yamashita in which she uses various objects and light to cast shadows that are silhouettes.
Kristi Malakoff
Kara Walker
Some other silhouettes from the 1800s. Pieces in which the silhouettes are doing something were among my favorites.
Lydia Maria Child--She deserves more attention in US history lessons.
