Much Here is Beautiful: Photography Surveys of the US Bicentennial

"Much Here is Beautiful: Photography Surveys of the US Bicentennial" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC takes its title from a line in former US poet laureate Robert Hayden's poem "American Journal." On view September 18, 2026 through April 18, 2027, it gathers images from photography surveys documenting American people and places from the 19th century through the years around the 1976 bicentennial. That year, the National Endowment for the Arts, inspired by the Farm Security Administration's Depression-era photographs, created a grant program to fund regional photographic projects capturing the country 200 years on. The result was more than 70 NEA-funded photo surveys, which produced thousands of images by more than 200 photographers, a selection of which anchors the exhibition.