George Washington (Lansdowne Portrait) / Oil on canvas, 1796 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired as a gift to the nation through the generosity of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation
National Portrait Gallery
8th and G Streets, NW
Washington, DC
The nation’s only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House, this exhibition lies at the heart of the Portrait Gallery’s mission to tell the American story through the individuals who have shaped it.
The exhibition groups the portraits into six historical chapters. Each of the first five sections is organized around a historical era and leads off with a presidential figure: Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, while a sixth section examines the more recent history of the presidency.
In memory of former President James Earl Carter Jr., the National Portrait Gallery has added a drape to his portrait in the America’s Presidents gallery. Visitors may pay their respects and record their thoughts in a comment book next to the portrait through Presidents' Day.
