Excerpt from The National Portrait Gallery, Vol. 1 The Illustrated Catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery may be considered as a fitting sequel to the Illustrated Catalogue of the National Gallery, published by Messrs. Cassell and Company in 1899. The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856, and was at first housed in temporary premises at 29, Great George Street, Westminster. In 1869 the collection was removed to the eastern portion of the Long Building at South Kensington, where it remained until the autumn of 1885, when, owing to increased danger from fire, the collection was transferred on temporary loan to the Science and Art Department at the Bethnal Green Museum. Although this was intended to be but a temporary measure, no steps were taken to provide this interesting collection with a permanent home, or seemed at all likely to be taken, until May, 1889, when William Henry Alexander, Esq., of Shipton, Andover, Hants, generously offered to build a National Portrait Gallery at his own expense. This offer having been accepted by h.m. Government, a site was allotted in St. Martin's Place in the rear of the National Gallery, and the new building commenced in October, 1890. The new Gallery was completed in April, 1895, Mr. Alexander contributing to its cost and hm. Government f The collection was then moved into-the new building, and the Gallery opened to the public on Saturday, April 4th, 1896. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.