National Portrait Gallery Commemorates Robin Williams - East Idaho News
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National Portrait Gallery Commemorates Robin Williams

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GETTY 81214 RWilliams2?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1407872285898Kevin Winter/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The National Portrait Gallery hung a portrait of Robin Williams Tuesday to commemorate the actor’s death.

It’s a relatively common occurrence for the historical gallery, located in downtown Washington, D.C., which seeks to honor not only the deaths but also major awards and achievements of both historical political figures and American cultural icons, the gallery’s senior historian said.

Near the gallery’s lobby now hangs a print of the photo used in Williams’s March 12, 1979 Time magazine cover, under a plaque reading, “In Memoriam.”

“We’d like people to remember the entirety of that career, the joy and laughter he brought to millions of people,” National Gallery Senior Historian David Ward told ABC News.

The gallery has already displayed portraits of Williams before his death; he was voted into the gallery’s collection based on his iconic status as an actor and comedian, Ward said.

The gallery retrieved the photo, which it already owned, from a storage facility in Maryland Tuesday morning and hung it around midday, Ward said.


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