Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 3, "The Torch," July 1980, p. 1.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 4, "The Torch," June 1983, p. 2.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7098, "S. Dillon Ripley Chronology."
Summary:
Two of the most famous portraits of President George Washington and his wife, Martha, painted by Gilbert Stuart, go on view at the National Portrait Gallery. The portraits were purchased jointly by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Smithsonian under an agreement that they would be displayed alternately for three-year periods. They will be in the National Portrait Gallery from 1980 through 1983. In March 1983 they are shipped to the Boston Museum. The Smithsonian had wished to purchase the paintings alone, but faced opposition from many in Boston who did not want the works to leave the city permanently.
