Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now

¡Printing the Revolution! explores the rise of Chicano graphics within 1960s social movements and the ways in which Chicanx artists since then have advanced innovative printmaking practices attuned to social justice.

November 20, 2020 – August 8, 2021

American Art Museum

¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States

The inaugural exhibition of the Molina Famliy Gallery, ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States, reveals how Latinos have shaped the nation since before its founding.

June 18, 2022 – July 20, 2025

American History Museum

¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues: En los barrios y las grandes ligas

This exhibit features the historic role baseball has played as a social and cultural force within Latino communities across the nation.

July 2, 2021 – January 2, 2023

American History Museum

¡De última hora!: Latinas Report Breaking News

Working in the fast-paced, ever-changing environment of broadcast news, these women shaped and shape the narrative for major historical events.

September 15, 2023 – August 17, 2025

American History Museum

who stole the tee pee?

Explore the social, political, cultural, and personal changes that Native Americans of North America have experienced in the last century through 25 historical pieces,

October 1, 2000 – January 21, 2001

American Indian Museum New York

in Beauty It Is Begun...Native American Children's Art

See drawings, paintings, poetry, and 17 pieces of jewelry, all the work of Native American children.

March 1, 1977 – July 31, 1977

Natural History Museum

Zuni Pottery

This exhibition features three cases of 19th-century pottery -- including jars, canteens, and bowls -- made by the Zuni people of the southwestern United States.

December 1, 1987 – May 25, 2004

Natural History Museum

Zelda and Scott: The Beautiful and Damned

The Fitzgeralds and their circle, the glamorous celebrities who exemplified the Jazz Age, are seen in portraits and photographs, manuscripts and memorabilia.

June 6, 1980 – November 30, 1980

Portrait Gallery

Yuungnaqpiallerput (The Way We Genuinely Live): Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival

This exhibition reveals Yup'ik elders' scientific and spiritual knowledge for living in a sub-arctic environment.

April 17, 2010 – July 25, 2010

Natural History Museum

Your Smithsonian Libraries

On view are 20 panels depicting items in the collections of each of the 20 Smithsonian Libraries and some 12 books that reveal the breadth and variety of the Libraries' holdings.

May 26, 2006 – September 4, 2006

American History Museum

Your Community, Your Story: Celebrating Five Decades of the Anacostia Community Museum, 1967-2017

Your Community, Your Story highlights some of the museum’s signature projects and demonstrates how ACM’s work helps us understand city life and strengthen community bonds.

September 15, 2017 – January 6, 2019

Anacostia Community Museum

Young Visions of Community

View the photographs and writings of Washington, D.C. elementary school students created during the Literacy through Photography project. The photos, essays, poems, and stories paint a vivid portrait of youth and community in the District of Columbia.

June 9, 2005 – August 21, 2005

Ripley Center

Young Americanos: Photographic Visions of Our Community

See photographs taken by children from 5 major U.S. cities that offer a special perspective on the Latino community.

September 21, 2001 – November 15, 2001

Arts and Industries Building

You Must Remember This

See costumes worn by movie stars and other memorablia from Warner Bros. Studio.

February 1, 2012 – November 16, 2015

American History Museum

Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future

See more than 300 objects--toys, models, posters, photographs, costumes, advertisements, drawings--created by artists, engineers, inventors, film makers, and other visionaries of the last 100 years.

August 7, 1984 – September 30, 1984

American History Museum

Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake

This exhibition features archaeological discoveries that reveal the historic importance of Jamestown and its contribution to the American way of life.

February 7, 2009 – January 5, 2014

Natural History Museum

Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity

See nearly 200 textile art works that illustrate the rich diversity of traditional kente cloth, its historical role in African societies, and its growing popularity in the United States.

September 12, 1999 – January 2, 2000

Anacostia Community Museum

Woven by the Grandmothers: 19th-Century Navajo Textiles from the NMAI

See 40 19th-century Navajo textiles, woven between 1840 and 1880, including boldly patterned chief blankets, poncho sarapes, biil (traditional two-piece dresses), women's striped shoulder blankets, bordered mantas, and diyogi (loosely woven blankets).

October 6, 1996 – January 8, 1997

American Indian Museum New York

Worthy of the Nation: Planning America's Capital

See photographs and illustrations that depict the challenges associated with planning Washington, D.C from the end of the bicentennial era to post-9/11, from the 2006 second edition Worthy of the Nation: The Planning of Washington, D.C., from L'Enfant to the National Capital Planning Commission .

October 10, 2007 – February 14, 2008

Ripley Center

World's Fairs

Illustrating the impact of world's fairs on modern life, this exhibit covers fairs from London's mid-19th-century Crystal Palace through fairs and expositions in Paris, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and others up to 1940.

February 12, 1992 – September 26, 1992

American History Museum

World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean

World on the Horizon explores Swahili arts as objects of mobility, outcomes of encounter, and as products of trade and imperialism.

May 9, 2018 – September 3, 2018

African Art Museum

World War II: Sharing Memories

View items such as paintings of wartime scenes commissioned by the U.S. armed forces, ration books, and war bond posters that reflect experiences of people on the battlefield and on the home front.

June 15, 1995 – November 12, 1995

American History Museum

World War II Photographic Perspectives

To commemorate the opening of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, a selection of photographs taken between 1941 and 1945 are on view to document Americans both at war and at home.

May 27, 2004 – May 30, 2005

American History Museum

World War II GI: The American Soldier's Experience

The experience of the average GI (government issue) World War II soldier is examined.

October 29, 1993 – June 1, 2002

American History Museum

World War II Aviation

The story of World War II is too big for a single gallery, so this one focuses on land-based fighter aviation.

July 1, 1976 – January 2, 2019

Air and Space Museum