Second Bank of the United States Portrait Gallery - Historical place museum in Philadelphia - 420 Chestnut St, USA

Amazing building and exhibit! The bank itself is fascinating and a wonderful peek into the past. The portraits are also impressive, providing insight into the lives of our founding fathers and the culture in which they lived! We especially loved the miniatures and appreciated the information the ranger kindly shared with our group.

A nice historic building with free admission. The portraits of dead old white people are not as exciting but it is worth checking the interior.

Highly surest you go through this museum. It is full of around 200 original portraits of so many of those that helped start this country. From George Washington and his wife to Alexander Hamilton and so many others. They even will show you how they made shadow paintings and also a number of very small paintings that people took with them like they may take a picture of there kids today and put in there wallet. The Architect is very cool as well. Well worth the time to go through and enjoy.

😍😍😍 amazing. So much history. And its funny to see small door frames and thick doors. Lovely marble building. Can really feel how old it is. I went to tour Philly while in Jersey for business, definitely a place to take kids! It would be nice to live im this area and kids can go here for history lessons. Dowm the street from Independence National Historic Park. A must see and its FREE!!! Next to The Signer Statue. Lots of fun.

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 recommended!

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 text panels.

No tickets needed for this free portrait gallery. If you're with kids, ask the rangers about trading cards so you can find paintings of notable historical figures.

Beautiful inside and out. Enjoyable portraits. Free.