From Here to the White House: Presidential Portraits by Frank McKelvey

From Here to the White House brings together original portrait drawings by Belfast artist Frank McKelvey depicting eleven American presidents with Ulster ancestry, on display at Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh, until Monday, 31 August 2026. The drawings, made around 1930, trace how families who left Ulster townlands went on to shape the highest office in American politics.

What to expect

McKelvey worked in pencil and wash, basing his portraits on existing oil paintings and photographs of each president, and the results sit somewhere between formal portraiture and quick character study. The eleven subjects range from well-known names to more obscure connections, and each drawing is paired with information on the specific family and townland that links the president back to Ulster. The display sits inside the museum’s wider Emigrants exhibition, so visitors move directly from the portraits into the broader story of Ulster emigration to America that the Folk Park tells across its indoor galleries and outdoor reconstructed buildings. The exhibition forms part of the museum’s 2026 programme marking both the 250th anniversary of American Independence and the Folk Park’s own 50th anniversary.

Getting there

The Folk Park is signposted off the A5 about two miles north of Omagh, with free parking on site.

While you’re in Omagh

The exhibition is included in a visit to Omagh’s biggest heritage site, alongside the Under the Hawthorn Tree exhibition and the museum’s outdoor emigrant ship. There is more to see across Co. Tyrone.

Good to know

• Closing date: Monday, 31 August 2026
• Venue: Ulster American Folk Park, 2 Mellon Rd, Omagh
• Price: included with general admission
• About the artist: Frank McKelvey (1895 to 1974), regarded as one of the leading Irish painters of his generation
• Booking: nationalmuseumsni.digitickets.co.uk