National Portrait Gallery (U.S.). Dept. of Painting and Sculpture.

The National Portrait Gallery formed a Curatorial Department in 1964. In 1979, the unit was divided into three specialized departments: Photographs, Painting and Sculpture, and Prints and Drawings.

The Department of Painting and Sculpture oversees the conservation of art work, the authentication of sitters and artists, and conducts research in American portraiture. Research by staff is incorporated into exhibitions and catalogs or transferred to the research file of the Catalog of American Portraits. Permanent collection records document portraits in the permanent and study collections, artists and their collected works, and associative and decorative objects.

The Department of Painting and Sculpture is a curatorial department responsible for the acquisition, cataloging, and researching of all paintings and sculpture in the Gallery. The Department also conducts research for special exhibitions and for publications on the history of American portraiture, and handles numerous public inquiries.

Professional staff of the Department include: Ellen Gross Miles, Associate Curator, 1978; Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture, 1979-1994; and Curator of Painting and Sculpture, 1994- ; Robert G. Stewart, Associate Curator, 1964, Curator, 1965, and Curator of Painting and Sculpture, 1979-1994; Monroe H. Fabian, Associate Curator, 1969-1971, Associate Curator, 1972-1978, and Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture, 1979-1986.

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Agency History. Record 218118