American Portraits

American Portraits highlights the lives of important figures from American history. Its stated purpose is to portray them "not only in their greatness, but also in their common humanity." Subjects are as diverse as William Brewster and the Mayflower Compact; John Adams and the "Boston Massacre" trial; and Prussian General von Steuben and the Conway-Gates Cabal during the American revolution.

The half-hour episodes do not attempt to be biographies; rather, they dramatize certain telling episodes from the subjects' lives in the attempt to humanize their subjects. As is typical of American radio shows about American history in the early years of the Cold War--the show aired in 1951 as the Korean War was drawing to a close--there is an undercurrent of American exceptionalism in the presentation.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.