The Catalog of American Portraits

This is part one of a multi-part series on the Catalog of American Portraits (CAP), a division of the National Portrait Gallery’s Center for Electronic Research and Outreach Services.

Part I: The Catalog of American Portraits: What is it and where can I buy one?

This question comes down the pike many times a year. The Catalog of American Portraits is not a book; it is a room with 200,000 files, each containing information on a specific portrait or a specific artist. The CAP is much like a library, and it is accessible both physically and online. Several individuals have held the title of keeper of the Catalog of American Portraits; the current keeper is Linda Thrift, who has been in charge of the CAP since 1989.

The CAP is an excellent example of how the Smithsonian maintains as its mission the “increase and diffusion of knowledge.” It began with a June 24, 1966, mandate from the Committee on Research and Publication, a group formed out of the National Portrait Gallery’s Commission. That mandate read in part:

That the Catalogue of American Portraits is of fundamental importance, should be undertaken at once and developed as rapidly as possible. This union catalogue of likenesses of historically important figures is to be organized alphabetically by their names; to include, insofar as possible, a record of all likenesses of a sitter, regardless of media; and considerations of media should not divide the Catalogue.

In scope, the goal of the creation of the CAP was to build a body of information about portraits of “historically important figures” in collections everywhere, public and private, using a team of researchers who would photograph, measure, and record available information on a portrait-by-portrait basis.

The next installment, part two: What is the process of surveying a portrait?