Leslie Greene Bowman

We don't even know where her grave is.

This is Leslie Greene Bowman.

She's the former president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello.

She says a lot of what we know about Hemings' life comes from an oral account her son Madison gave in 1873.

Many years before, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation had begun an oral history project called Getting Word, where descendants of Hemings and other enslaved families came and gave oral histories.

They had the context, you know, who do we ask? Who do we get contemporary DNA?

So Richard calls up Leslie Greene Bowman, director at the time, and explains about the Bible hair and the whole shebang.

And Leslie is like, absolutely, we can help you get in touch with descendants.

Hello and welcome to another episode on the New Books Network.

I'm one of your hosts, Dr. Miranda Melcher, and I'm very pleased today to be speaking with Leslie Greene Bowman, who is here with us to talk about a book just published in 2026 from the White House Association titled Art for the White House, A Changing Portrait of America, which takes us into the fine arts collection of the White House, which is really intriguing.

Obviously, yes, we're going to be talking about Jackie Kennedy.

She's, I think, famous well beyond the specialist art historians for her work in this area.

Well, could you start us off, please, by introducing yourself a little bit and tell us why you decided to write this book? Yeah,

of course.

Well, I'm Leslie Greene Bowman, as you kindly mentioned, and I've devoted my career to museum work, specializing in American art or American history.

This book was actually initiated by the White House Historical Association to commemorate the United States' 250th anniversary by celebrating the White House Fine Arts Collection with a new book.

From presidential portraits to masterpieces, there's a new book that reveals how the White House art collection has helped tell a story of our nation for more than two centuries.

And joining us this morning, we have historian and author Leslie Greene Bowman.

And she has a new book called Art in the White House, A Changing Portrait of America.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

And you can find more information about this book and just White House history in general at www.whitehousehistory.org.

Yeah.

And Leslie Greene Bowman, the author of Art in the White House, A Changing Portrait of America.

Awesome.