National Portrait Gallery (United States)

The National Portrait Gallery is a Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C., dedicated to portraying the people who have shaped the history, development, and culture of the United States. Sharing a grand historic building with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, it tells the national story through the faces of its presidents, artists, activists, scientists, and cultural figures.

Its home is itself a landmark. The gallery occupies the Old Patent Office Building, a monumental Greek Revival structure completed in the mid-19th century that once housed the nation's patent models and served as a hospital during the Civil War, where the poet Walt Whitman tended wounded soldiers and Abraham Lincoln held his second inaugural ball. Saved from demolition in the 1950s, it was restored as a museum.

Its collection is anchored by the only complete set of presidential portraits outside the White House, including modern commissions that draw large crowds, such as the celebrated portraits of the Obamas. Galleries trace American identity through paintings, photographs, and sculpture, from founding figures to contemporary leaders in the arts, sports, and civil rights. The building's restored Great Hall and the soaring glass-canopied Kogod Courtyard, added in 2007, are architectural highlights in their own right. The gallery also mounts the recurring Outwin Boochever competition, a national showcase of contemporary American portraiture that brings living artists and unfamiliar faces into the historic galleries.

For visitors, admission is free, as at all Smithsonian museums, and the gallery sits in the lively Penn Quarter neighborhood a short walk from the National Mall, near the sports arena and Chinatown. It is fully accessible and served directly by the Metro. The tranquil covered courtyard, with its undulating glass roof, is a fine place to rest, and the presidential galleries are the most popular draw.