Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery opens exhibit on Washington Post’s Katharine Graham

Former Washington Post publisher portrait subject

WASHINGTON — Former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham is in the spotlight at the National Portrait Gallery with an exhibit devoted to her work that helped shape U.S. history, most notably Watergate and the Pentagon Papers.

The exhibit, “One Life: Katharine Graham,” opens Friday. It offers a narrative of Graham’s life through photographs, cartoons, drawings, a newspaper from the Watergate scandal and her handwritten manuscript.

Graham, who died in 2001, was involved in publishing the Pentagon Papers — a secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam — and coverage of Watergate. A Richard Avedon portrait captures Graham in the post-Watergate era.

The exhibit draws heavily from family photographs.