The Smithsonian faces an existential crisis. The world is watching.

The National Portrait Gallery in Washington in April. (Tierney L. Cross/For The Washington Post)

Column by Philip Kennicott

When the National Portrait Gallery was created by an act of Congress in 1962, the authorizing legislation defined portraiture as “painted or sculptured likenesses.” And when it referred to the future directors of that museum, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution, it was with exclusively male pronouns. “His appointment and salary,” the text read, would be fixed by the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents. Subscribe for unlimited access to The Post You can cancel anytime. Subscribe

Fourteen years later, Congress amended the original legislation to widen the definition of portraiture to include photographs and “reproductions thereof made by any means or processe