What's on in Washington, DC
Ted Wathen, Former Company Houses, Jenkins, Letcher County, Kentucky, 1975, gelatin silver print

Smithsonian American Art Museum · Penn Quarter

Much Here Is Beautiful: Photography Surveys of the U.S. Bicentennial

Upcoming18 September 2026 – 18 April 2027·Free

225 photographs from the NEA's Bicentennial-era survey projects, reuniting a 1970s portrait of America and setting it against federal survey photography going back to the 19th century.

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Also at Smithsonian American Art Museum

On now nearby

Black-and-white George Hurrell portrait of Joan Crawford, chin lifted, in dramatic studio lighting

Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood's Golden Age by George Hurrell (A Sequel)

National Portrait Gallery

Early photograph of the neoclassical Patent Office Building used as the exhibition's key image

The Spirit of Invention: Patent Office and Patentees

National Portrait Gallery

Gold Portrait of a Nation award trophies shaped as a face in profile

Portrait of a Nation: 2025 Honorees

National Portrait Gallery

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

Nearby

National Portrait Gallery

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

© 1975 Ted Wathen; Smithsonian American Art Museum, transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts (Courtesy of the museum)