The Smithsonian faces an existential crisis. The world is watching. – The Washington Post

Column by Philip Kennicot

Trump’s effort to oust the director of the National Portrait Gallery could give him absolute control of Smithsonian content.

June 4, 2025 at 12:08 p.m. EDT, Yesterday at 12:08 p.m. EDT, 7 min

When the National Portrait Gallery was created by an act of Congress in 1962, the authorizing legislation defined portraiture as “painted or sculptured likenesses.” And when it referred to the future directors of that museum, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution, it was with exclusively male pronouns. “His appointment and salary,” the text read, would be fixed by the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents.

Fourteen years later, Congress amended the original legislation to widen the definition of portraiture to include photographs and “reproductions thereof made by any means or processes.” As the NPG built its collection and expanded its mission, it was clear that there were many Americans who would never have their images painted or sculpted — mainly Americans who weren’t White, male and wealthy — yet were nonetheless essential to the story of America, its history and culture.

Kim Sajet, who became the first woman to lead the NPG in 2013, was hired to continue what that amending legislation did in 1976. She expanded the definition of portraiture and widened the scope of people considered worthy of representation in the nation’s portrait gallery. Visitors now encounter painted portraits, photographs, ink-jet prints, sculpture, videos, assemblage pieces, paper cutouts and videos. Women, people of color and those who identify as LGBT are more regularly seen in the museum’s galleries.

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