Museums
Rainy-Day PickSmithsonian American Art Museum
FreeBrowse American art from the colonial era to today, watch conservators at work, and wander thousands of objects in open storage.
Photo: Billy Hathorn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.
MuseumsHistory BuffRainy-Day PickFree
National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery is a museum in Washington, DC, part of the Washington DC guide. Cost: free.
8th and G Streets NW · Washington, DC
Why you should go…
The National Portrait Gallery tells American history through portraits of poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists. Its America's Presidents gallery holds the nation's only complete collection of presidential portraits. The museum shares the Old Patent Office Building, a National Historic Landmark built between 1836 and 1867, with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Between them is the Kogod Courtyard, a glass-canopied space with seating and a cafe.
- #smithsonian
- #art museum
- #presidential portraits
- #portraiture
What's around here?
The closest stops to National Portrait Gallery, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.
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Ford's Theatre
Under $25Stand in the theatre where Lincoln was shot, then cross the street to the Petersen House where the story ended.
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National Archives Museum
FreeStand before the originals: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights in the marble Rotunda.
0.3 mi awayMore like this
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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
FreeThe Hope Diamond, the Nation's T. rex, and Henry the elephant, the Mall's busiest free museum packs the whole natural world under one green dome.
0.5 mi awayMore like this
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National Mall
FreeWalk the long green lawn from the U.S. Capitol toward the Lincoln Memorial, past monuments, memorials and Smithsonian museums.
0.5 mi awaySwitch it up: Sport & Outdoor
Near National Portrait Gallery
More of the same kind
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington
- National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington
- National Museum of Asian Art, Washington
- National Museum of the American Indian, Washington