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[[underlined]] Legislative Proposal for the National Portrait Gallery [[/underlined]]

Mr. Brown, Chairman of the National Portrait Gallery Commission, reported that the National Portrait Gallery Act of 1962 defines portraiture as "painted or sculpted likenesses." The original bill approved by the Board of Regents in January 1961, and introduced by Senator Anderson in February 1961, had defined portraiture as "portraits and reproductions thereof made by any means or process, whether invented or developed heretofore or hereafter." The more restrictive language that became part of the final legislation was substituted in the Senate committee at the request of the Librarian of Congress, who argued that the new National Portrait Gallery would otherwise enter into competition with the Library of Congress in the collecting of prints and photographs.

The National Portrait Gallery Commission, and the director and staff of the Gallery, now urge that appropriate steps be taken to seek an amendment to the 1962 legislation along the lines of the original proposal of the Board of Regents.

It has become increasingly clear over the years that the National Portrait Gallery can not fully perform its legislated functions, either in exhibition or in research, under the existing restriction. More than half of our national history has occurred since the invention of photography. Many Americans who should be represented in our National Portrait Gallery are best portrayed by photographs,