On display in the National Portrait Gallery is a remarkable nineteenth-century painting by Christian Schussele called Men of Progress. Completed in 1862, it depicts nineteen inventors and scientists who had much to do with America’s triumphs during the Industrial Revolution. As the title suggests, all the sitters are indeed male, and not surprisingly for that era, all are white. Many of their names remain familiar today: Cyrus McCormick (the mechanical reaper), Samuel Colt (the revolver), Elias Howe (the sewing machine).








