Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

One Life: Ronald Reagan

This one-room exhibition chronicles Ronald Reagan’s early years in Illinois through his acting and political career, to his presidency.

July 1, 2011 – May 28, 2012

Portrait Gallery

Mementos: Painted and Photographic Miniatures, 1750-1920

Portrait miniatures from the museum’s collection are on view.

June 17, 2011 – May 13, 2012

Portrait Gallery

The Black List: Photographs by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Photographs of 50 prominent African Americans from various professions, disciplines, and backgrounds redefine the word "blacklist."

October 28, 2011 – April 22, 2012

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

Steve Jobs Portrait

View a portrait of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (1955-2011) by photographer Diana Walker.

October 12, 2011 – March 1, 2012

Portrait Gallery

Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories

More than 50 artifacts and 100 works of art reveal Gertrude Stein in her many roles.

October 14, 2011 – January 22, 2012

Portrait Gallery

Portraits of John F. Kennedy

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's presidential inauguration, the museum displays five portraits of Kennedy.

January 8, 2011 – January 8, 2012

Portrait Gallery

Recent Acquisitions

This exhibition of some 35 objects that have recently been added to the museum's collection spans centuries of American history and culture.

November 19, 2010 – November 13, 2011

Portrait Gallery

Glimpse of the Past: A Neighborhood Evolves

Experience the sights, scenes, and beautiful buildings that make up the ever-changing Penn Quarter neighborhood in downtown Washington, D.C.

March 5, 2010 – September 25, 2011

Portrait Gallery

Capital Portraits: Treasures from Washington Private Collections, 1730-2010

This exhibition presents portraits-- many on view for the first time -- that reside in private Washington, D.C., collections.

April 8, 2011 – September 5, 2011

Portrait Gallery

Calder's Portraits: A New Language

Featured are Alexander Calder's three-dimensional wire portraits alongside contemporary documents by other artists.

March 11, 2011 – August 14, 2011

Portrait Gallery

Americans Now

Drawn from the Portrait Gallery's permanent collection, this exhibition features individuals prominent in sports, entertainment, and other fields of endeavor during the last 10 years.

August 20, 2010 – July 10, 2011

Portrait Gallery

One Life: Katharine Graham

The exhibition narrates key moments in the Washington Post publisher's extraordinary life during extraordinary times.

October 1, 2010 – May 30, 2011

Portrait Gallery

Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture

More than 100 major works are featured in the first museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture.

October 30, 2010 – February 13, 2011

Portrait Gallery

Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer

Wertheimer's 1956 photographs captured Elvis's transit to superstardom and the cultural transformation this singer helped launched.

October 23, 2010 – January 23, 2011

Portrait Gallery

New Arrivals

The recently acquired works displayed in this installation span more than two centuries of American history and culture.

January 30, 2009 – November 14, 2010

Portrait Gallery

From FDR to Obama: Presidents on Time

The show includes approximately 30 works of presidential cover art, representing a variety of mediums, from traditional oil paintings to a pop-art sculpture bust of Richard Nixon made from strips of newspaper headlines.

February 12, 2010 – September 26, 2010

Portrait Gallery

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009

The National Portrait Gallery presents finalists' works that were selected from the second triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

October 23, 2009 – September 6, 2010

Portrait Gallery

One Life: Echoes of Elvis

This exhibition features Elvis Presley and celebrates the 75th anniversary of his birth.

January 8, 2010 – August 29, 2010

Portrait Gallery

Portraiture Now: Communities

Three artists -- Rose Frantzen, Jim Torok, and Rebecca Westcott -- explore the idea of community in portraits of friends, neighbors, or family.

November 6, 2009 – July 5, 2010

Portrait Gallery

Faces of the Frontier: Photographic Portraits from the American West, 1845-1925

Through more than 100 portrait photographs, this exhibition tells the story of the changes that occurred in the American West during the 80 years between the Mexican War and passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924.

September 25, 2009 – January 24, 2010

Portrait Gallery

Presidents in Waiting

If some still remain unconvinced about the significance of the vice president and those who occupied the office, this exhibition shows that most of the vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency were highly capable political figures with the experience and aptitude to be president.

January 20, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Portrait Gallery

One Life: Thomas Paine, The Radical Founding Father

This exhibition features Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet Common Sense fired up Americans to get on with a declaration of independence.

August 7, 2009 – November 29, 2009

Portrait Gallery

Portraiture Now: Feature Photography

This exhibition features six photographers who, by working on assignment for publications such as the New Yorker, Esquire, and the New York Times Magazine, each bring their distinctive "take" on contemporary portraiture to a broad audience.

November 26, 2008 – September 27, 2009

Portrait Gallery

Reflections-Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the Twentieth Century

This exhibition of approximately 75 works probes the complex issues of understanding self-identity in the past century.

April 10, 2009 – August 16, 2009

Portrait Gallery