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National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery building

The National Portrait Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., portrays men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of the people of the United States. Established by an Act of Congress in 1962 and opened to the public in 1968, the museum reopened in 2006 after an extensive renovation.

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National Portrait Gallery building

National Portrait Gallery

NEC-affiliated People Represented in The National Portrait Gallery

Denyce Graves 1988 DP

Full-length portrait painting by Nelson Shanks was included in the exhibition “Gifts to the Nation” in 2007

Coretta Scott King 1954, 1971 hon. DM

In photographs with Martin Luther King, Jr., by Benedict J. Fernandez and Dan Weiner

Sarah Caldwell 1946, 1979 hon. DM

Photographic portrait by Rick Smolan from Time magazine cover photo collection

Leonard Bernstein, day student 1930s

Photographs by Arnold Newman, Ruth Orkin, Irving Penn, Carl Van Vechten; paintings by Rene Robert Bouche and Henry Koerner; caricatures by Al Hirschfeld, David Levine, and Edward Sorel

Eleanor Steber 1938

Portrait sketch by Richard Ely

Alan Hovhaness 1936

Portrait photograph by Naomi Savage

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy 1913

Portrait photograph by Richard Avedon; also in Kennedy family group portrait painting by Bernard Safran