National Portrait Gallery

Devoted to the intersection of art, biography, and history, this collection houses nearly 20,000 images of men and women who have shaped U.S. history. There are prints, paintings, photos, and multimedia sculptures of subjects from George Washington to Madonna. This museum shares the landmark Old Patent Office Building with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The building itself is a highlight: Built between 1836 and 1863, this gracious marble edifice is considered one of the country's finest examples of Greek Revival architecture.

The gallery has the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House, starting with Gilbert Stuart's iconic "Lansdowne" portrait of George Washington. Interesting perspectives include the plaster cast of Abraham Lincoln's head and hands, and political cartoonist Pat Oliphant's sculpture of George H.W. Bush bowling. The American origins exhibit chronicles the first contact between Europeans and Native Americans, the founding fathers, and historic figures through the Industrial Age. Subjects include Benjamin Franklin (the painting, by Joseph Duplessis, is the basis for Franklin's likeness on the $100 bill); Native American diplomat Pocohantas; Thomas Edison in his workshop; and a full-length likeness of bushy-browed, cigarillo-smoking humorist Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain.

From a moving bronze sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. to Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe prints, to Madonna's 1985 Time magazine cover, the third-floor gallery of 20th-century Americans offers a vibrant and colorful tour of the Americans who shaped the country and culture of today. The Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum are two different entities set up in the same building to complement one another. For example, on the first floor, the Portrait Gallery takes up the building's west wing, and the American Art Museum is in the east -- but they reverse on the second floor. Exhibits are set up so that the art you see in transition will complement the portraits, setting up a rich dialogue between the two.

At the "Portrait Connection" computer kiosks you can search a database of the gallery's collections. Look up the portrait's subject and the database can tell you where in the gallery it is and show you an image, even if it's not currently on exhibit. There are free docent-led walk-in tours most days at 11:45, 1, and 2:15. Check the Web site to confirm times. At the Lunder Conservation Center on the third and fourth floors, you can watch conservators preserving and restoring works from both the Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum.