National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution)

The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is dedicated to the exhibition and study of the portraits of individuals who have made significant contributions to American history and culture. The Gallery sponsors a variety of scholarly and public activities for audiences interested in American art and history. NPG holds recordings, videotapes and thousands of films pertaining to objects, people and events.

In 1919, interested citizens began actively lobbying for a national portrait gallery. That year the Smithsonian Institution, through its National Gallery of Art (renamed the National Collection of Fine Arts in 1937), the American Federation of Arts, and the American Mission to Negotiate Peace endorsed the National Arts Commission. Its purpose was to commission American artists to create a pictorial record of World War I through portraits of American and the Allied Nations leaders. The result was twenty portraits which went on exhibit in the Natural History Building in May 1921 and again in 1923 after traveling in exhibitions throughout the United States. These portraits formed an early nucleus for what became the National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection. While the Gallery was not officially established at the time, donations of portraits received since 1921 were accepted in preparation for its future opening.

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