NY Times prints special section featuring women of the 116th Congress

The New York Times on Thursday printed a special section featuring portraits of nearly every member of the record number of female lawmakers in Congress. 

The paper printed 27 separate covers, one for each region of the country, to lead the feature, “Redefining Representation: The Women of the 116th Congress.”

A viral Twitter thread from the Times’ design editor, Josh Crutchmer, includes a video of the covers the night before publication that has been viewed over 320,000 times as of Thursday morning.

27 covers for the 27 regions of the country we print the @nytimes tomorrow for our special section on women of the 116th congress pic.twitter.com/VSUHgdzwMN

— Josh Crutchmer (@jcrutchmer) January 16, 2019

{mosads}The photos, which were taken on Capitol Hill over five days by Times photographers Elizabeth D. Herman and Celeste Sloman, are meant as “a testament to what power looks like in 2019,” according to the paper.

“Like the work of Kehinde Wiley, who painted Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait, these photographs evoke the imagery we are used to seeing in the halls of power, but place people not previously seen as powerful starkly in the frames,” the feature reads.

You know you’ve got something special when the @nytimes special section featuring portraits of the women in 116th session of Congress draws a roving audience in the newsroom. #nytimes pic.twitter.com/9S5vAXJsOw

— Tom Jolly (@TomJolly) January 16, 2019

“Viewed together, these portraits demonstrate the scale of the number of women in both the House and Senate. But, when seen as singular portraits, each image represents an individual with her own perspective — in political beliefs, personal goals and histories.”

There are 131 women serving in the House and Senate this term, a record class that includes a number of other “firsts,” including the youngest woman elected to the House, the first two female Muslim lawmakers, and the first two Native American female lawmakers. “Redefining Representation” features 130 portraits – Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) was not available, according to the Times.