"Echoes of Elvis" opened onJanuary 8, 2010, marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of Elvis Presley’s birth. Although Elvis died more than thirty years ago, the world remains fascinated with his image and music. His records have continued to sell by the millions and public interest in his music, career and life has yet to subside. During the last half century, Elvis became part of the country's artistic discourse as well. Early in Elvis’s career, Andy Warhol illuminated the role he played in the new and youth-powered popular American culture; later, Ralph Wolfe Cowan, Red Grooms, and others created mythical, spiritual, and earthly images of the man whose legacy includes multiple superlative moments in music, entertainment, life, and afterlife. To this day, both the historical Elvis Presley and the fantasy-based vision of Elvis are the subject of poetry, literature, music, film, and the visual arts.

"Echoes of Elvis" opened on January 8, 2010 and closes on August 29. The celebration of the year of Elvis continues after the closing of this exhibition. On Saturday, October 30, 2010, the National Portrait Gallery will open “Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer.” This exhibition will feature more than forty monumental images of Elvis from 1956. “Elvis at 21” will run from October 30, 2010, to January 23, 2011.

The National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, tells the stories of America through the individuals who have shaped U.S. culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts, and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists who speak American history.

Location: The National Portrait Gallery is conveniently located at Eighth and F Streets, NW, in Washington D.C., above the Gallery Place–Chinatown Metrorail station (red, yellow, and green lines).

Museum Hours: 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m. daily. Closed December 25. Admission: FREE. For more information on visiting the museum, please visit the National Portrait Gallery's Web site.