The Catalog of American Portraits is established by the National Portrait Gallery to provide a national portrait archives of historically notable subjects and artists from the colonial period to current times. The CAP manual files contain, whenever possible, a photograph of the portrait, standard catalog data (medium, support, dimensions, condition), a description, current ownership, provenance, biographical sketches of subjects and artists, bibliographic references, and exhibition and conservation history. Often, archival correspondence and primary research material is included as well.
