Oprah Winfrey is a media titan, philanthropist, businesswoman, fashion icon, actress, and all-around American treasure — and a new museum exhibition is now giving her the credit she deserves.
On Friday, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., unveiled “Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture,” an exhibition that celebrates Winfrey’s monumental contributions to society. The exhibit pays special attention to the cultural impact of her iconic daytime program “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, which became the highest-rated talk show in history during its 25-year run.
“What’s interesting is the same way America thought about Walter Cronkite — you could trust Walter Cronkite and his opinion — they trust Oprah,” museum director Lonnie G. Bunch III told the Washington Post. “An African American woman becomes the person America turns to.”
The exhibition features a series of interview segments, video clips, photographs and journals that chronicle Winfrey’s life and career. The first section focuses on the ways in which the cultural shifts of the 1950s and ’60s shaped and informed Winfrey’s worldview—as the museum’s website puts it, Winfrey is “a daughter of the civil rights generation whose phenomenal story of success illuminates the struggles and achievements of African American women throughout history.”
The second part includes artifacts and ephemera from Harpo Studios in Chicago, where Winfrey filmed “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The exhibition explores how Winfrey used the show to raise conversations around race, equality and gender through her interviews, improvement segments, and popular book club discussions.
The final part of the exhibition highlights her role as a “cultural influencer and tastemaker.” In addition to appearing in films like The Butler and A Wrinkle In Time as an actress, Winfrey has produced award-winning films like Beloved and the Ava DuVernay-directed feature Selma. She’s also helped launched the careers of a number of authors through her book club and has promoted arts and culture through her philanthropy and on The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
While Winfrey donated $21 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the museum told the Washington Post that her role as a benefactor did not influence the show. Instead, they explained that the exhibition was put together by museum scholars and curators Rhea L. Combs and Kathleen Kendrick, who worked hard to balance Winfrey’s personal story and success.
“We’re providing a context for understanding not only who she is, but how she became a global figure, and how she is connected to broader stories and themes,” Kendrick said.