The Portraits

Make thousands of new acquaintances! Featuring scientists, statesmen, and film stars, glimpsed through rare nineteenth-century daguerreotypes or year-old digital video, the National Portrait Gallery collections bring you face to face with America. Get to know us better. Browse, search, explore, and visit.

The images of the National Portrait Gallery collection objects are part of Smithsonian Open Access. This means you are free to download, transform, and share thousands of portraits for any purpose, for free, without asking permission from the National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian Open Access invites you to discover a world where you can learn, research, explore, and create in ways you couldn’t before. What will you imagine?

We recognize that since this nation’s founding, who is represented—and how one is represented—reflects the country’s flaws as well as its strengths. The National Portrait Gallery strives to present a more complete narrative, one that acknowledges the history of slavery, racism, and inequality in the United States. Our research and scholarship is ongoing, and historical perspectives evolve with time. 

Please contact us if you have questions or concerns.