Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

"Cracked Plate" Photograph of Lincoln

For just five days, the museum will display the original print of the “cracked plate” portrait of Abraham Lincoln. This photograph by Alexander Gardner is one of the most haunting portraits of any president.

February 12, 2015 – February 16, 2015

Portrait Gallery

"Out of Many, One" by Jorge Rodriquez-Gerada

Rodríguez-Gerada will use several images of people photographed in Washington, D.C., to create a composite portrait that will not only be an interactive walk-through experience for visitors but will also be viewable from the newly reopened Washington Monument and from space.

October 1, 2014 – October 31, 2014

Portrait Gallery

"The Family 1976": Richard Avedon's Portraits for Rolling Stone

These 69 photographs from 1976 show some of the most powerful individuals during the bicentennial year.

January 22, 1993 – June 6, 1993

Portrait Gallery

150th Commemoration of the Civil War: The Death of Ellsworth

The National Portrait Gallery marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War through a series of four alcove exhibitions. The first of these exhibitions recounts the death of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, a friend of President Lincoln, in Alexandria, Virginia.

April 29, 2011 – March 18, 2012

Portrait Gallery

1812: A Nation Emerges

Learn about key people who influenced the outcome of the War of 1812, which transformed and unified the United States.

June 15, 2012 – January 27, 2013

Portrait Gallery

1846: Portrait of the Nation

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian, this exhibition looks back at the America of 1846.

April 12, 1996 – August 18, 1996

Portrait Gallery

1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions

The first exhibition to examine this pivotal period during the Spanish-American-Cuban-Philippine War through the lens of portraiture and visual culture.

April 28, 2023 – February 25, 2024

Portrait Gallery

1999 Recent Acquisitions: Part I

This 2-part exhibition features selected paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculpture acquired for the permanent collection.

January 29, 1999 – January 9, 2000

Portrait Gallery

2008 Presidential Scholars in the Arts: Works in the Literary and Visual Arts

As one of the co-sponsors, the Portrait Gallery presents the works of the 2008 Presidential Scholars in the fields of cinematic arts, photography, visual arts, and writing.

June 22, 2008 – July 13, 2008

Portrait Gallery

2012 US Presidential Scholars

See works by eight young artists chosen as 2012 US Presidential Scholars.

June 16, 2012 – July 4, 2012

Portrait Gallery

20th-Century Self-Portraits from the NPG Collection

This exhibition features 47 portraits by notable 20th-century American artists such as Chuck Close, Thomas Hart Benton, George Bellows, and Alexander Calder.

October 22, 1993 – February 13, 1994

Portrait Gallery

3-D Portrait of President Obama

In 2014, President Barack Obama became the first President to be scanned using 3-D technology. Data from the scan were used to create his portraits, and a 3-D printed bust will be on view for Presidents Day weekend Friday, Feb. 13, through Monday, Feb. 16, 2015.

February 13, 2015 – February 16, 2015

Portrait Gallery

A Decade of Print Collecting: The Highlights

See some of the most significant prints acquired during the past ten years.

March 1, 1986 – July 13, 1986

Portrait Gallery

A Durable Memento: Portraits by Augustus Washington, African American Daguerreotypist

On view are some 30 daguerreotypes by Augustus Washington, including the earliest known image of abolitionist John Brown.

September 24, 1999 – January 2, 2000

Portrait Gallery

A Knot of Dreamers: The Brook Farm Community, 1841-1847

Examine the 19th-century agrarian-related idealistic community of Massachusetts through paintings, portraits, furnishings and memorabilia.

August 6, 1976 – September 19, 1976

Portrait Gallery

A New England Town: A Portrait by Alice Stallknecht

View 3 murals, the result of 14 years' work by Alice Stallknecht (1880-1973), who painted her friends and neighbors in Chatham, Massachusetts.

October 15, 1977 – November 27, 1977

Portrait Gallery

A Touch of the Poet: Portraits from the Permanent Collection

Take a self-guided tour of portraits of American poets, including W.H.Auden, Stephen Vincent Benet, Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Marianne Moore.

December 1, 1976 – December 31, 1976

Portrait Gallery

A Truthful Likeness: Chester Harding and His Portraits

Admire 60 portraits by Harding, a backwoodsman with no formal education, who became one of America's most successful portrait painters in the era after Gilbert Stuart.

April 12, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Portrait Gallery

A Will of Their Own: Judith Sargent Murray and Women of Achievement in the Early Republic

Learn about the achievements of women in the late 18th century and see portraits of eight prominent American women of the period.

April 20, 2012 – September 2, 2013

Portrait Gallery

Aaron Burr Acquitted

Examine portraits, documents and memorabilia about the man whose trial for treason opened May 22, 1807.

May 20, 1977 – December 12, 1977

Portrait Gallery

Abraham Lincoln: The White House Years

Mark the anniversary of the assassination of Lincoln through photographs, cartoons and other associative items show how he changed during the Civil War years.

April 14, 1974 – September 15, 1974

Portrait Gallery

Abroad in America: Visitors to the New Nation, 1776-1914

Visit the third and final installation of a 3-part Bicentennial exhibition, featuring visitors who were important in taking their views of America to a wide foreign audience.

April 9, 1976 – January 30, 1977

Portrait Gallery

Adalbert Volck: Fifth Column Artist

Contemplate examples of the scathing pictorial denunciations of the Union cause created by the Baltimore dentist under the pseudonym, "V. Blada".

August 29, 1978 – May 20, 1979

Portrait Gallery

Adventurous Pursuits: Americans and the Old China Trade, 1784-1844

This exhibition includes portraits of merchants, mariners, and others by American, English, and Chinese artists, complemented by objects brought from Asia--porcelain, silk, lacquerware, carved ivory, silver, and landscape paintings.

March 16, 1984 – September 30, 1984

Portrait Gallery

Althea Gibson

Smithsonianmag.com voters choose between portraits of Gibson, Eleanor Holm and Helene Madison, and Duke Kahanamoku to go on view. Gibson’s photograph received the most votes.

June 3, 2016 – June 5, 2016

Portrait Gallery