National Portrait Gallery

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National Portrait Gallery Honors Former President James Earl Carter Jr.

Oct. 1, 1924–Dec. 29, 2024

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National Portrait Gallery Premieres Season Six of PORTRAITS Podcast

Hosted by the museum’s director, Kim Sajet, PORTRAITS explores art, biography, history and identity.

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National Portrait Gallery Announces Winner of the 2024 Director’s Essay Prize for Scholars in the Field of Portraiture

Laura Katzman Receives $3,000 and Will Present Lecture Oct. 15

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Silhouette Sleuthing

How a curator unlocked the secrets in an arsenic-laced portrait album

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Celebrate Women's History Month with "Women of a Certain Age"

A digital exhibition on Google Arts & Culture

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Historic Lincoln Portrait Goes on View in February

Created from life in 1865, this nine-foot-tall oil on canvas is one of three known, life-size paintings of the 16th president

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National Portrait Gallery Announces Michael Hussey as Its New Director of History

Restorative History and Research

Peter Cooper and Family, unidentified daguerreotypist, three-quarter-plate daguerreotype with applied color, c. 1850. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

“Family Ties: Daguerreotype Portraits” and “Powerful Partnerships: Civil War-Era Couples”

Two Exhibitions of Early American Photography on View in July

Septima Poinsette Clark by Brian Lanker, gelatin silver print, 1987. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Partial gift of Lynda Lanker, and museum purchase with the support of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, Agnes Gund, Kate Kelly and George Schweitzer, Lyndon J. Barrois and Janine Sherman Barrois, and Mark and Cindy Aron. Copyright Brian Lanker Archive.

“I Dream a World: Selections From Brian Lanker’s Portraits of Remarkable Black Women”

An exhibition of portraits by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker.

National Portrait Gallery Announces Season Four of Its PORTRAITS Podcast

PORTRAITS creates a space for listeners to explore the layers of the human experience—both within and outside of the museum’s walls.

“Birthright” (still) by Maren Hassinger, 2005. Single-channel video (color, sound), 12:12 mins. Edition of 5 plus 2 artist’s proofs. Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC.

National Portrait Gallery Announces Premiere of “Birthright” by Artist Maren Hassinger

Long-Awaited Performance Is a Commission of the Portrait Gallery’s “IDENTIFY” series

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Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company to Debut Two New Performances

“El Muro/The Wall” premieres May 17, 18 and 19 followed by the debut of “A Tribute to Maya Lin” Oct. 16, 23 and 30

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National Portrait Gallery Extends 'The Obama Portraits Tour' to San Francisco and Boston

Multi-City Tour Featuring Artworks by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald Extended Through October

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National Portrait Gallery Announces 2022 Portrait of a Nation Honorees

Awards recognizing honorees’ work championing transformational impact and change will be presented at Portrait of a Nation Gala November 12

Credit: “Left Side Right Side” (still) by Joan Jonas, 1972. Single-channel video (black-and-white, sound), 8:50 min. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. © 2020 Joan Jonas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels (left). Alice Walker by Bernard Gotfryd, gelatin silver print, 1976. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. © The Bernard Gotfryd Revocable Living Trust (center). Louis Armstrong (detail) by Philippe Halsman, gelatin silver print, 1966 (printed 1998). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Gift of Betsy Karel). The Corcoran Gallery of Art, one of the country’s first private museums, was established in 1869 to promote art and American genius. In 2014, the works from the Corcoran Collection were distributed to institutions in Washington, D.C. © Philippe Halsman Archive (right).

Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Announces Virtual Programs for January and February

The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery is rolling out dozens of virtual programs this winter so visitors and families can enjoy all the museum has to offer from the comfort of their own homes.

Credit: Kim Sajet, Director of the National Portrait Gallery and host of “PORTRAITS.”

National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet Speaks to a New Podcast Series, PORTRAITS

National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet speaks to the museum's new podcast series, PORTRAITS.

Eleanor Roosevelt by Bernard T. Frydrysiak, 1946; Oil on canvas; Ford and Marni Roosevelt

First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt

We recognize the role of first lady as it exists today because of Eleanor Roosevelt. A compassionate and smart woman with an activist spirit, she was not content to just entertain others and serve her husband domestically. She was a public servant intent on sharing her voice with the world in order to do good.

Neil Simon by David Hume Kennerly, 1986. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Gift of Time magazine; © David Hume Kennerly

Neil Simon (1927–2018)

Neil Simon defined American comedy for a generation of television, theater, and movie audiences.

Young Jewess Arriving at Ellis Island / Lewis Wikes Hine / 1905 / Courtesy Alan Klotz Gallery / Photocollect, Inc. / New York City

Starting at the Source: Lewis Hine and Labor

Between 1904 and 1926, the American photographer Lewis Hine (1874–1940) photographed countless newcomers at the Ellis Island Immigration Station in New York Harbor. While there, he trained his lens on people of all ages, from infants to the elderly, coping with the emotions and monotony of the bureaucratic processes. Many of these photographs, including the Young Jewess Arriving at Ellis Island (1905), now in the exhibition The Sweat of Their Face: Portraying American Workers (on view through September 3, 2018), have become the go-to images used to illustrate the history of immigration to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

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