Second Bank of the United States Portrait Gallery — Attraction in Philadelphia

Great spot for portraits, architecture and history.

Well presented exhibits with connections made for most portraits. Some text panels include people of color and their context. Most connect the portraits in each gallery.

The Peale gallery is stunning. Be sure to go into the studio gallery and lift the protective cloth to see the miniature portraits. The garnet framed miniature is stunning.

Check out the basement, where you’ll find the restrooms, for a great view of the true construction of the building. The exposed brick and mortar give you a great viewpoint of the foundation of the building.

In the first gallery to the right upon entry, you’ll find two paintings of the Philadelphia coat of arms. Both a beautiful presentation of this iconic symbol. Incidentally, the George Washington portrait in the same gallery was done by the younger Peale. He paints himself and his brother in the portait as well.

Lots of details everywhere. Take your time and absorb the portraits. This is a enhanced and possible from the well worded...

Talk about a hidden gem. I've visited Philadelphia enough to see the "Second Bank" signs and assumed they referred to a historical bank exhibit or maybe tours of a historical building. It's only after I started looking for other things to do in this area that I realized this is actually a portrait gallery -- and a great one at that! Not only does it provide a rich collection of portraits of the founders and their contemporaries, the surrounding explanatory text does an amazing job of not only giving you a flavor of each historical figure but also teasing out the connections between these famous individuals that are often lost in biographies of each individual man and women featured here. The staff is extraordinarily knowledgable and helpful as well, and my only regret was only budgeting a short amount of time for seeing what turned out to be a wonderful museum near downtown Philadelphia. Highly...

There is no other place on the planet that you can go to see what our founding fathers actually looked like. Because we didn’t have camera cameras back then, there was no way to really know what Benjamin Franklin look like. When you walk through this gallery, the artist that was commissioned by the wealthy back in the late 1700’s had to have been the most talented artist that I have come across in the history of mankind. When you look at Benjamin Franklin’s oil portrait, you can even see the mole on his face. It is the only representation of Benjamin Franklin I’ve ever seen that truly shows you exactly what this man look like. This gallery is filled with his artwork and prominent figures of our founding fathers. Timeframe are all inside of the gallery. If you managed to find a day that it is open, it is well worth a couple hours of your time to...