Prints & Artwork

While no longer an active collecting focus, the DC History Center maintains an extensive artworks collection, ranging from donations of individual oil portraits, to lithographs offering streetscapes, to an entire series of more than one hundred works by a single artist.

Prints and artwork are cataloged in the Objects catalog. Artwork is generally cataloged following the museum practice of an object ID based on the accession number; for example the Lily Spandorf "Washington Never More" works are cataloged as 1999.077.001-155, indicating that they entered the collection as the 77th accession of 1999, and number 1 through 155.

Below are links to several of the major prints and artwork collections.

General Print Collection
Individual donations are added to this collection of original and reproduction prints.
Lily Spandorf's "Washington Never More" Collection
This collection comprises 155 sketches and paintings by artist Lily Spandorf, a prolific artist whose "Washington Never More" series documents a changing DC.
William G. Newton Pencil Sketches (NE)
Comprises 217 pencil sketches made by Newton between 1859 and 1877 of scenes in the Washington areas. The sketches, in their choice of treatment of landscape and historical themes place Newton within the 19th century landscape tradition. The frequent choice of Rock Creek and the Potomac River illustrate his search for a picturesque and sublime beauty in the juxtaposition of water and land.
Thomas Machen collection of Early Prints Relating to Washington, D.C. & Mount Vernon
More than 500 prints and maps.
Delos Smith Print Collection
35 prints, from Harper's Weekly and other publications.
For the Record exhibit collection
For The Record was an occasional program and exhibit of the DC History Center. Artists submitted paintings and photographs according to specific themes, with three iterations: 2015, 2016 and 2017. The Collections Committee chose a total of 7 works from the exhibits for the permanent collection.