Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore, 1975-1980

Of the more than seventy projects funded by the NEA, the East Baltimore Survey was unique for having been conceived, led, and carried out by women photographers.

July 16, 2021 – January 23, 2022

American Art Museum

Her Story: A Century of Women Writers

This exhibition drawn from the NPG collection highlights twenty-four noted women writers from the past one hundred years.

September 18, 2020 – January 23, 2022

Portrait Gallery

Escaramuza Dress

An escaramuza charra dress worn by Veronica Davila is on view, representing the only female event in the Mexican charrería.

September 17, 2021 – January 4, 2022

American History Museum

A Nation Grieves

This display features 24 white plastic flags from the 2020 public art installation designed by artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg to honor and remember the lives lost in the U.S. to COVID-19.

September 17, 2021 – January 2, 2022

American History Museum

Creating Icons: How We Remember Women's Suffrage

This exhibition marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment recognizing women’s right to vote.

March 6, 2020 – January 2, 2022

American History Museum

75th Anniversary of D-Day

To mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the museum displays objects from our World War II collections.

June 6, 2019 – December 31, 2021

American History Museum

What Is Feminist Art?

On view are more than 75 vibrant and varied personal statements from artists from 1976 and now that elucidate the contours of feminist art.

November 26, 2019 – December 31, 2021

Archives of American Art

Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice, and the Murder of Emmett Till

This monthlong display of the defaced historical marker preserves the memory of Emmett Till while demonstrating the contested nature of racism’s violent legacy in America.

September 3, 2021 – November 2, 2021

American History Museum

Special Olympics at 50

Commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first International Special Olympics Games through the stories of four accomplished athletes who participated in them.

July 10, 2018 – October 17, 2021

American History Museum

Kwel' Hoy: We Draw the Line

On July 29, 2021, a totem pole carved by the House of Tears Carvers of the Lummi Nation will conclude its cross-country journey in Washington, D.C.

July 2, 2021 – September 9, 2021

American Indian Museum DC

Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets

Men of Change presents a nation’s story through the profiles of revolutionary African American men.

February 1, 2021 – August 31, 2021

Anacostia Community Museum

¡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

Contemporary Muslim Fashions

This is the first major museum exhibition to explore the complex and diverse nature of Muslim dress codes worldwide.

February 28, 2020 – July 11, 2021

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Illegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall

The museum marks this 50th anniversary with a display featuring objects from its collections that put the history of that memorable event within a larger and longer experience of being gay.

June 21, 2019 – July 6, 2021

American History Museum

The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire

Explores the foundations of the Inka Road in earlier Andean cultures and the legacy of the Inka Empire during the colonial period and in the present day.

June 26, 2015 – June 27, 2021

American Indian Museum DC

Women of Progress: Early Camera Portraits

This exhibition of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes from the 1840s and 1850s features portraits of early feminist icons.

June 14, 2019 – June 13, 2021

Portrait Gallery

Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States

Every Eye Is Upon Me is the first major exhibition to explore the historical significance of this prominent position through the mode of portraiture.

November 13, 2020 – May 23, 2021

Portrait Gallery

Now Showing: Posters from African American Movies

Now Showing features original posters and lobby cards and select ephemera from the Museum’s permanent collection.

November 22, 2019 – April 18, 2021

African American History and Culture Museum

Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces

Why We Serve honors the generations of Native Americans who have served in the armed forces of the United States since the American Revolution.

November 11, 2020 – February 28, 2021

American Indian Museum DC

Sculpture Down to Scale: Models for Public Art at Federal Buildings, 1974-1985

The nine maquettes in this exhibition—many of them considered by the artists to be completed works of art in their own right—offered a concrete vision of the artists’ ideas and served as a way to share them with selection committees, patrons, and communities.

May 31, 2019 – November 22, 2020

American Art Museum

Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists

Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists considers the representation of the American buffalo from two perspectives: a selection of paintings by George Catlin (1796–1872), and works by modern Native artists.

October 11, 2019 – November 22, 2020

American Art Museum

Elephants and Us: Considering Extinction

Elephants and Us explores the evolving relationship between Americans and elephants and the leadership role the U.S. has taken in wildlife protection.

November 1, 2019 – November 22, 2020

American History Museum