Varden's expanding collection was transferred to the U.S. government in 1841 and was installed on the top floor of the first completed wing of the new Patent Office Building. The museum returned to Washington's historic Old Patent Office Building in 1968 where it shares the building with the National Portrait Gallery and the Archives of American Art. Called the National Gallery of Art from 1907 to 1937 and the National Collection of Fine Arts until 1980, the museum's name was changed to the National Museum of American Art in 1980 to reflect its decades-old policy of acquiring only American art. Some 37,500 works in the collection range from colonial portraits to the dynamic contemporary art of this century. Closed on December 25.
Admission is free.
Check with us at a later date. Elizabeth Brown, Director C. Robertson, Deputy Director. Tell us what you think. Thank you again for your visit. If you wish to return to the Museum Tour Homepage.