Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World

Focusing on Native cosmology and organized around one solar year, this exhibition explores the annual ceremonies of Native peoples as a window on their ancestral teachings.

September 21, 2004 – February 12, 2023

American Indian Museum DC

Girlhood (It's Complicated)

Through its rich collections and new acquisitions, the museum explores how girls have been on the front lines of social and cultural change.

October 9, 2020 – January 2, 2023

American History Museum

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

Air and Space Museum

Still Life with Spirit and Xitle

Still Life with Spirit and Xitle features a car being crushed by a volcanic boulder with a comical smiley face painted on it by artist Jimmie Durham.

August 6, 2016 – November 6, 2020

Hirshhorn Museum

The Batmobile

The Batmobile from the Tim Burton-directed superhero film “Batman” is on view.

January 12, 2018 – October 20, 2020

American History Museum

This rotating showcase display presents artifacts from the museum’s collections that relate to superheroes, including comic books, original comic art, movie and television costumes and props, and memorabilia.

November 20, 2018 – January 12, 2020

American History Museum

Apollo to the Moon

This gallery traces NASA's manned space program beginning with Project Mercury's Freedom 7 (5/5/61); then the Gemini Project (1965-66); followed by the Apollo Program (1967-1972), with Apollo 17 as the last manned exploration of the moon.

July 1, 1976 – December 2, 2018

Air and Space Museum

T is for Television

This exhibition features treasured objects from children’s television.

November 27, 2017 – September 4, 2018

American History Museum

Wish Tree for Washington, D.C.

A summer favorite, Ono’s interactive artwork invites visitors to tie handwritten wishes to branches of a living Japanese dogwood tree.

June 23, 2018 – September 3, 2018

Hirshhorn Museum

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye!

This small exhibition features historic Transformers toys and props used in the major motion picture.

January 22, 2010 – June 1, 2017

Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center

Muppets and Puppets

In time for the winter holidays, this showcase presents a selection of Muppets and marionetts from the museum’s collection illustrating the evolution of puppetry.

November 23, 2016 – January 22, 2017

American History Museum

Toys and Childhood

This showcase presents a selection of cast-iron and tinplate toys from the museum’s collection dating from the 1870s to the 1950s, illustrating the ever-evolving nature of American childhood and home life and bringing to light aspects of play.

November 20, 2015 – January 22, 2017

American History Museum

Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea

Experience Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea, a larger-than-life exhibit of 17 marine wildlife sculptures—from jellyfish to sharks—made entirely of plastic pollution directly recovered from oceans. The sculptures represent more than 315 billion pounds of plastic in oceans, illustrating the devastating effects of the ocean's deadliest predator—trash.

May 27, 2016 – September 5, 2016

National Zoo

Pixar: The Design of Story

This exhibition examines the design process behind Pixar Animation Studios and films such as Toy Story, Wall-E, Up, Brave, The Incredibles, and Cars, among others. Focusing on the process of iteration, collaboration and research, Pixar features original artwork, including rarely seen hand-drawn sketches, paintings, and sculptures.

October 8, 2015 – August 7, 2016

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Milestones of Flight

This gallery features famous airplanes and spacecraft that exemplify the major achievements in the history of flight.

July 1, 1976 – June 30, 2016

Air and Space Museum

Above and Beyond

Packed with interactive challenges this exhibition invites you to experience what it takes to make impossible dreams take flight.

August 1, 2015 – January 3, 2016

Air and Space Museum

The Peacock Room Comes to America

Restored to its appearance in 1908, the Peacock Room's special exhibition highlights "points of contacts" between American and Asian art.

April 9, 2011 – January 3, 2016

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Lego American Flag

As part of our Innovation wing opening day celebration, visitors to the museum (with the help of Lego Master Builders) built an American flag out of Lego. And not just any flag: it's constructed with 156,000 bricks and is the largest Lego American flag ever built!

July 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015

American History Museum

Alphabetilately: An Alphabet of Philately

This exhibition presents an alphabet of philately through 26 topics, in which each letter stands for some aspect of stamp collecting or the sending of mail.

September 26, 2008 – October 12, 2015

Postal Museum

Mingering Mike's Supersonic Greatest Hits

See how self-taught Washington, D.C., artist "Mingering Mike" exercised his youthful fantasy of being a famous soul singer/songwriter in the late 1960s and the 1970s—and reflected the aspirations of countless other kids who dreamed of being discovered.

February 27, 2015 – August 2, 2015

American Art Museum

2013 Nature's Best Photography: Windland Smith Rice International Awards

Witness nature and wildlife through the eyes of some of the most talented amateur and professional photographers in the world.

October 24, 2014 – April 20, 2015

Natural History Museum

The Rex Room

See what it takes to put a T. rex on view while the museum processes and scans this huge skeleton, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

April 15, 2014 – October 20, 2014

Natural History Museum

LEGO Model of the Smithsonian Castle

This Smithsonian Castle model, constructed of more than 45,000 LEGO bricks, was built to celebrate the origins of the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park. It is displayed in the Children's Room in the spirit of the room's early use as a museum designed to inspire wonder in children.

August 5, 2013 – July 23, 2014

Smithsonian Castle

Pollinarium

Living plants, butterflies, and bees are used to explore pollination.

April 19, 1996 – June 21, 2014

National Zoo

Dinosaurs: Reptiles, Masters of Land

All of the old favorites are on view in the exhibition hall—Diplodocus, T. rex, and Triceratops—and more.

December 4, 1981 – April 27, 2014

Natural History Museum