Abstract: In 1996 the Smithsonian Institution celebrated its 150th anniversary, and the National Museum of American History mounted an exhibition marking 150 years of print collecting.  A review of the collection--the oldest in the Institution--indicated that some of the choicest prints, including a number of works by the Old Masters, had been purchased for two exhibitions: The Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States Cincinnati in 1888, and the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.  The Smithsonian exhibition of prints in Cincinnati comprised a retrospective that was something of a watershed, looking backward to the beginning of printmaking in Europe and in America, as well as forward to a new understanding of the parameters of art.  Etchings and other original prints would take pride of place in a new century, even as popular imagery exploded into the mass media brought about by the photomechanical revolution.  Visitors to the Smithsonian's exhibition in Cincinnati saw both together in 1888, the new visual world building on the graphic art of the past.