Past Exhibitions

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Building America's National Collection: 175 Years of Collecting

See selected objects representing all of the museums that offer a tantalizing sample of the breadth and depth of the Smithsonian's vast collections.

May 8, 2005 – December 14, 2022

Smithsonian Castle

Recent Acquisitions: Gifts from the Corcoran Gallery of Art

This exhibition presents more than 25 gifted works, including portraits of cultural figures Louis Armstrong, Katharine Graham, and Frida Kahlo; presidents James Madison and Zachary Taylor; and the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Henry.

October 9, 2020 – October 23, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt: Designing a Modern Museum

This exhibition—through archival photography and documents, personal drawings and correspondence, news clippings and ephemera—chronicles the colorful lives and contributions of the dynamic sisters.

February 4, 2022 – October 23, 2022

Represent: Hip-Hop Photography

Inspired by the four elements of hip-hop—DJ’s, MCs, breakdancers and graffiti—Represent showcases photographs from the Eyejammie Hip Hop Photography Collection alongside other images from the museum’s photography collection.

May 6, 2022 – September 25, 2022

Anacostia Community Museum

Food for the People: Eating and Activism in Greater Washington

Take a deep dive into the food issues of the nation’s capital—past and present—with this outdoor and indoor exhibition featuring artifacts, art installations, videos, and hands-on interactives.

April 17, 2021 – September 17, 2022

Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Watergate break-in, this exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery's collection, brings visitors face-to-face with the scandal's cast of characters.

March 25, 2022 – September 5, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Upending 1620: Where Do We Begin?

Upending 1620: Where Do We Begin? is a display that examines the early encounters between Wampanoag peoples and English colonists, and the important legacies of those encounters over the next 400 years.

August 6, 2021 – September 5, 2022

Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies

Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies is a 4,300-square-foot exhibition exploring the Reconstruction era through an African American lens.

September 24, 2021 – August 21, 2022

Arts and Industries Building

Celebrate Smokey: 75 Years of Fighting Wildfires

A new Smokey Bear outdoor exhibit at Smithsonian’s National Zoo invites visitors to look back at the legacy of one of the most famous residents in the Zoo’s 130-year history.

May 23, 2019 – July 31, 2022

National Zoo

FUTURES

Part exhibition, part festival, FUTURES presents nearly 32,000 square feet of new immersive site-specific art installations, interactives, working experiments, inventions, speculative designs, and “artifacts of the future,” as well as historic objects and discoveries from the Smithsonian.

November 20, 2021 – July 6, 2022

Ruby Slippers

A special collection of displays featuring American history through culture, entertainment, and the arts.

October 19, 2018 – June 12, 2022

All Work and No Pay: A History of Women's Invisible Labor

Break rooms across America hold signs that read: “Your mother doesn’t work here.” All Work and No Pay examines the implied expectation that women will take care of the housework.

March 4, 2019 – May 30, 2022

Baseball Legend Jackie Robinson's Jersey

Baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s jersey is on display in commemoration of the 75th anniversary Robinson integrating Major League Baseball.

April 7, 2022 – May 1, 2022

Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women

Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women unearths stories of women who have enriched our understanding and appreciation of orchids.

January 29, 2022 – April 24, 2022

Smithsonian Gardens

Magnificent Obsessions: Why We Collect

Smithsonian Libraries preserves historic treasures and everyday items to provide a window onto the past.

November 7, 2018 – April 11, 2022

Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall

This exhibition celebrates some of the most significant airplanes, rockets, and spacecraft in history. They tell tales of ingenuity and courage, war and peace, politics and power, as well as society and culture.

July 1, 2016 – March 27, 2022

The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age

This exhibition presents the Wrights' technical achievements and examines the cultural impact of early powered flight.

October 11, 2003 – March 27, 2022

Moving Beyond Earth

Explore the achievements and challenges of human spaceflight in the United States during the space shuttle and space station era.

November 19, 2009 – March 27, 2022

Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There

This exhibition reveals why a good clock is crucial to navigation and how increasingly accurate timekeeping has influenced how we find our way.

April 12, 2013 – March 27, 2022

Space Race

This exhibition traces the competition in space between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union from its origins in the 1950s to the recent international cooperation.

May 16, 1997 – March 27, 2022

Storied Women of the Civil War Era

This intimate exhibition includes portraits of Civil War era women who captivated the public while becoming sought-after subjects for Mathew Brady’s camera.

May 24, 2019 – March 20, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Uncle Tom's Cabin: Early and Notable Editions

The exhibit shows the early and notable editions of the novel in the library’s collection, as well as its interesting publishing history.

February 28, 2020 – February 28, 2022

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Original "I Have a Dream" Speech

Martin Luther King Jr.’s original speech from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is on display in Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom.

January 13, 2022 – February 27, 2022