Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

"Now I Lay Me Down to Eat" A Salute to the Unknown Art of Living

See hundreds of objects--furniture, household articles, paintings, drawings and prints, and contemporary products--in an exhibition which examines, in a lively way, eating, sleeping, cleansing, bathing, and sitting.

November 18, 1980 – February 22, 1981

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

18th-Century Scenic and Architectural Design

See 70 drawings and engravings of theater and stage design by the Galli Bibiena family from the National Collection of Portugal.

September 25, 1990 – December 30, 1990

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

200 Years of American Architectural Drawing

Focus on architectural drawings for their aesthetic value in this exhibition of 200 drawings by more than 80 architects.

June 7, 1977 – July 17, 1977

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

20th Century Stage and Costume Design

See about 1000 original costume and scenic designs for major opera and ballet productions as well as for musical comedies, for sale in the Design Sales Gallery.

April 1, 1978 – April 30, 1978

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

A Bridge to Learning

Visit a 36-foot model of a suspension bridge, built and landscaped as a work-in-progress by inner-city junior high school students in collaboration with The Salvadori Educational Center on the Built Environment.

July 9, 1991 – October 13, 1991

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

A Century of Ceramics in the United States, 1878-1978

Visit a variety of ceramics styles, philosophies, and techniques illustrated by some 200 examples of the work of major potters, designers, and craftsmen.

February 26, 1980 – May 25, 1980

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes

This exhibition explores the full scope of Dorothy Liebes' contributions as a designer, collaborator, mentor, public figure, and tireless promoter of American modernism.

July 7, 2023 – February 4, 2024

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

A Memorial to Jan Palach

Visit an exhibition that documents the memorial built in Prague to Czech Jan Palach through 2 scale models designed by architect John Hejduk, accompanied by David Shapiro's poem.

April 6, 1993 – September 26, 1993

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

A Penny Saved: Architecture in Cast Iron Toy Banks

Take in nearly 100 examples of toy banks in architectural shapes, most fashioned by American craftsmen between 1870 and 1940.

August 2, 1983 – October 23, 1983

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

A Royal Gift: The 1826 Porcelain Jewel Cabinet

Study the process of design through the 1826 Sevres cabinet, an example of fine French craftsmanship.

May 17, 1994 – January 22, 1995

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Access + Ability

The exhibition features more than 70 works, from adaptive clothing and eating implements that assist with daily routines to apps and “smart” technologies that aid in social interactions and navigating the environment.

December 15, 2017 – September 3, 2018

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Acquired! Shaping the National Design Collection

Learn how Cooper Hewitt acquires new work to shape the collection to better reflect current issues and design’s evolving role in daily interactions.

March 16, 2024 – August 25, 2024

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Advertising America

Examine over 150 print and television advertisements organized into such themes as At Work, At Home, At Leisure, and On the Road in an exhibition that illustrates how advertising influences, and, conversely, reflects social change.

December 17, 1985 – March 9, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Aids Awareness Installation

See works from the museum's collections by architects and designers who have died of AIDS.

December 1, 1992 – February 28, 1993

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Aids Memorial Quilt Panels

View 10 AIDS Memorial Quilt panels that will join the Name Project Quilt, in an observance of A Day Without Art: A National Day of Action and Mourning in Response to the AIDS Crisis.

December 1, 1989 – December 3, 1989

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Aluminum by Design: Jewelry to Jets

View more than 100 objects that trace aluminum's first appearance in precious and fine jewelry through early modernist uses in architecture and interiors to its present and envisioned role in aeronautics and other major industries.

March 20, 2001 – July 15, 2001

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Alvar Aalto

Visit a major retrospective exhibition of the work of a master of the Modern Movement in architecture.

June 12, 1979 – September 2, 1979

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

American Enterprise: 19th-Century Patent Models

Marvel at more than 500 patent models for technological development as well as for the betterment of the quality of daily life.

January 17, 1984 – April 1, 1984

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

American Picture Palaces

Revisit the grandeur of movie theaters built in the 1920s and 1930s through photos, posters, furnishings, and original artwork illustrating the extravagant architecture and sometimes gaudy designs of such buildings.

November 23, 1982 – February 27, 1983

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Americans in Glass

View blown, cast, fabricated, and engraved pieces of contemporary studio glass by 20 invited artists and 55 selected by jury.

August 25, 1981 – November 15, 1981

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

An Atlas of Es Devlin

An Atlas of Es Devlin features over 300 sketches, paintings, illuminated paper cuts, and projection-mapped rotating miniature sculptures that form the seeds of some of the most iconic, cultural congregations of music, poetry, art, and activism in recent times.

November 18, 2023 – August 11, 2024

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

An Introduction to the Carnegie Mansion

Visit an exhibition that introduces the history of the mansion now housing the museum.

August 16, 1994 – August 20, 1995

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Angles of Repose: A Garden Exhibition of Central Park Bench

Follow the evolving style of Central Park on the occasion of the reintroduction of the Central Park settee, the first mass-produced bench used in Central Park.

June 14, 1994 – October 24, 1994

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Annual Reports

Visit an exhibition featuring case studies over the past 100 years with 3 companies--Domino's Pizza, H.J. Heinz, and Potlatch Corp.

July 5, 1988 – September 25, 1988

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Arches for Galveston

Study the Galveston Arches, seven high fantasy arches constructed for the Mardi Gras in Galveston in 1986, including one re-erected for the exhibition.

October 13, 1987 – January 31, 1988

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum