The Old Patent Office Building is a historic building in Washington, D.C. that covers an entire city block between F and G Streets and 7th and 9th Streets NW in the Penn Quarter section of Chinatown. Serving as an art gallery for the Smithsonian Institution since the 1960s, it first served as one of the earliest Patent Office buildings.

The Smithsonian Institution, or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Founded on August 10, 1846, it operates as a trust instrumentality and is not formally a part of any of the three branches of the federal government. The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the United States National Museum, but that name ceased to exist administratively in 1967.