Current Exhibitions

  • gold trophies in shape of side profile of a face

    Portrait of a Nation: 2025 Honorees

    December 12, 2025 - November 15, 2026
    First Floor | North Corridor

    Established in 2015, the Portrait of a Nation Awards honor extraordinary individuals who have made transformative contributions to the United States and its people.

  • A woman in a swimsuit stands on a beach with an oar.

    American Winners: Athletes and Entertainers Who Shaped the Nation

    September 26, 2025 - September 7, 2026

    Athletic performance and creative expression are hallmarks of the American experience. The stories of talented individuals taking to the field or gracing center stage have connected us for centuries. When we learn about the grit of those defying gravity, breaking records, or dazzling audiences, we are reminded of our national character and shared humanity. American Winners salutes a diverse array of athletes and entertainers by presenting more than fifty works from the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection.

  • A daguerreotype of a balding man in profile wearing a suit

    From Shadow to Substance: Grand-Scale Portraits During Photography’s Formative Years

    June 20, 2025 - June 14, 2026

    Photographers seeking customers during the medium’s early years often urged the public to “Secure the shadow, ere the substance fade.” Hinting at life’s fragility, this tagline underscored photography’s ability to capture a fleeting likeness and preserve it for posterity.

  • black and white photo of a woman in a dress holding flowers

    Meserve Collection Highlights: Modern Prints from Mathew Brady’s Portrait Negatives

    May 23, 2025 - May 14, 2028

    The Portrait Gallery’s vast collection of Civil War-era, portrait negatives is represented in this exhibition through nine modern prints from Mathew Brady’s (c. 1823–1896) original photographic negatives. Portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ulysses Grant, and Emma, Queen of Hawai’i are featured, along with an original, glass-plate negative and one of Brady’s wooden storage boxes.

  • Knee length photo of a woman in gauzy white sleeves

    Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Hurrell

    March 1, 2024 - January 25, 2026

    During the 1930s and early 1940s, George Hurrell (1904–1992) reigned as Hollywood’s preeminent portrait photographer. 

  • A series of five moving images on screens in a hall with red carpets.

    Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass

    December 8, 2023 - August 9, 2026

    The moving image installation interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of 19th-century activist, writer, orator and philosopher Frederick Douglass.

  • Man in a black suit with his hand clutching a book

    Abraham Lincoln by W.F.K. Travers

    February 10, 2023 - December 31, 2027

    The National Portrait Gallery is proud to announce the installation of a life-size painting of President Abraham Lincoln by artist W.F.K. Travers.

Permanent Exhibitions

  • black and white photo of a woman in a dress holding flowers

    Meserve Collection Highlights: Modern Prints from Mathew Brady’s Portrait Negatives

    May 23, 2025 - May 14, 2028

    The Portrait Gallery’s vast collection of Civil War-era, portrait negatives is represented in this exhibition through nine modern prints from Mathew Brady’s (c. 1823–1896) original photographic negatives. Portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ulysses Grant, and Emma, Queen of Hawai’i are featured, along with an original, glass-plate negative and one of Brady’s wooden storage boxes.

  • A daguerreotype of a balding man in profile wearing a suit

    From Shadow to Substance: Grand-Scale Portraits During Photography’s Formative Years

    June 20, 2025 - June 14, 2026

    Photographers seeking customers during the medium’s early years often urged the public to “Secure the shadow, ere the substance fade.” Hinting at life’s fragility, this tagline underscored photography’s ability to capture a fleeting likeness and preserve it for posterity.

  • Woman lounging with stringed instruments

    20th Century Americans

    Third floor

    Four galleries off of the museum’s magnificent third-floor Great Hall, showcase the major cultural and political hallmarks of the 20th and 21st centuries.

  • Portrait bust of an 18th century man

    America's Presidents

    Second floor

    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.

    This gallery will close temporarily for updates from April 6 to May 14, 2026. The gallery will reopen by May 15, 2026.

  • group of 19th century men in a formal setting

    Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900

     "Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900" includes portraits of Indigenous Americans, European colonists, clergymen, soldiers, writers, performers, scientists, and others who helped shape the country. 

  • bas relief of a man and woman reading a paper

    Perspectives

    As part of the reinstallation of the museum’s permanent collection galleries, the Portrait Gallery and The Atlantic magazine, highlight a selection of the country’s founding voices in literature, politics, philosophy and culture with interpretive wall texts written by some of The Atlantic’s contemporary writers and editors. 

  • Sculpture of a woman between to large policemen

    The Struggle for Justice

    Second floor

    The exhibition showcases the determined individuals who struggled to achieve civil rights for disenfranchised or marginalized groups.