What's on in Washington, DC
Early photograph of the neoclassical Patent Office Building used as the exhibition's key image

National Portrait Gallery · Penn Quarter / Chinatown

The Spirit of Invention: Patent Office and Patentees

Now showing26 June 2026 – 6 June 2027·Free

The museum turns its lens on its own building: the early Patent Office, told through portraits of Andrew Jackson, Samuel Morse and Lincoln, the only president to hold a patent.

Tickets & details Get Directions

Also at National Portrait Gallery

On now nearby

Still from Shahzia Sikander's digital animation The Last Post (2010)

Shahzia Sikander: The Last Post

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Installation view of Nick Cave: Mammoth at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Nick Cave: Mammoth

Smithsonian American Art Museum

US Coast Guard photograph of a worker at Ground Zero following the September 11, 2001 attacks

Remembering 9/11

National Archives Museum

All exhibitions in Washington, DC this month Coming up in October

Nearby

Smithsonian American Art Museum

ArtFree1 min walk

National Building Museum

Architecture5 min walk

National Archives Museum

ArchitectureFree7 min walk

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Design7 min walk

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (Courtesy of the museum)