first federal art collection of the United States, housing the world's largest collection of American art. The Washington, D.C., museum showcases more than 40,000 works of art, representing 7,000 American artists. Featured permanent collections include colonial portraiture, 19th-century landscapes, Impressionism, realism, photography, crafts, folk art, African American art, and Latino art.

The precursor to the museum was a gallery begun in 1829 by the Washington collector John Varden for his personal collection of European artwork. The collection was briefly known as the National Institute but gradually merged with the newly created Smithsonian in the 1850s and 1860s. In 1906 the gallery was expanded to include the private collection of former first lady Harriet Lane Johnston (Lane, Harriet) (ward and niece of the bachelor president James Buchanan), and the federally sponsored museum was renamed the National Gallery of Art. The name was changed again, to the National Collection of Fine Arts, in 1937, when the name National Gallery of Art was usurped by Andrew Mellon's collection and stipulation. In 1980, as a reflection of the museum's exclusive focus on American artists, its name was changed to the National Museum of American Art, and in 2000 it was renamed the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The museum's crafts and decorative arts branch is housed in the historical Renwick Gallery, located across the street from the White House. Built in 1859, the Renwick Gallery was the city's first art museum and was the original home of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The building became part of the Smithsonian in 1972.

In 2001 the museum established the annual Lucelia Artist Award, which recognizes a promising American artist under the age of 50. SAAM serves as a leading research centre for American art and culture, sponsoring symposia and scholarly fellowships and rewarding outstanding research. The institute publishes American Art, a peer-reviewed journal that explores traditional and contemporary fine arts and popular arts.