Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Carnegie's Libraries: A Sesquicentennial Celebration

Focus on the architectural impact of one of Andrew Carnegie's most significant philanthropies, the funding and construction of more than 2,500 free public libraries throughout the world,

June 11, 1985 – September 5, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Ming Dynasty Calligraphy and Painting

View 25 hand and hanging scrolls executed by 40 artists of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) that present comparisons between calligraphy and painting.

February 8, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Focus on Flight: Four Decades of Aerial Photography (Rudy Arnold and Hans Groenhoff)

View 100 photographs by Rudy Arnold and Hans Groenhoff, featuring record-setting events and aircraft in their surroundings, that portray aviation from the mid-1920s through the 1950s.

November 16, 1984 – September 2, 1985

Air and Space Museum

A Truthful Likeness: Chester Harding and His Portraits

Admire 60 portraits by Harding, a backwoodsman with no formal education, who became one of America's most successful portrait painters in the era after Gilbert Stuart.

April 12, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Portrait Gallery

Rosalind Solomon: India

See some 40 photographs taken primarily at festivals in India by American photographer Rosalind Solomon from 1981 to 1984 while a Senior Research Fellow with the American Institute of Indian Studies.

June 4, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Natural History Museum

Representational art outside of, or not strictly related to, the current Neo-Expressionist movement is featured in this exhibition of 147 works including paintings, drawings, and sculptures by 16 artists working in Europe.

June 5, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Hirshhorn Museum

The Riza-i Abbasi Album (Masterpieces of Iranian Drawing)

View 27 drawings, many of them signed and dated by or attributable to Riza-i Abbasi (also known as Aga Riza), acknowledged by art historians to have been among the greatest artists of Iran's Safavid empire (1502-1736).

June 1, 1985 – September 2, 1985

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Animals Native to India

See animals from India throughout the zoo: Indian sarus, Indian elephant, Bengal tigers, leopards, Indian spot-bill duck, red (lesser) pandas, bintarong, sloth bears, lion-tailed macaque, Eld's deer, and hoopoe bird.

June 1, 1985 – August 31, 1985

National Zoo

Reptiles from India

See the Tokay gecko, gharial, king cobra, Indian pond turtle, Indian rat snake, purple-spotted pit viper, leopard gecko, star tortoise, Indian python, sand boas, and Indian cobras.

July 1, 1985 – August 31, 1985

National Zoo

Architects Design for the Tabletop

Admire and purchase dinnerware, serving pieces, fabrics, and decorative accessories designed by such architects as Charles Gwathmey, Richard Meier, Robert Siegel, and Robert Venturi.

May 2, 1985 – August 25, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Chicago Furniture: Art, Craft and Industry, 1833-1983

Examine 165 pieces of furniture and decorative objects in a survey of the major trends and innovations of furniture design and manufacture in Chicago.

May 21, 1985 – August 25, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Celestial Images: Astronomical Charts, 1500-1900

See some 30 objects, including the planispheres of Albrecht Durer, an Islamic celestial globe, and constellation figures from five of the finest celestial atlases.

May 16, 1985 – August 23, 1985

American History Museum

Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler

See 84 lithotints executed by the American expatriate artist, including delicately washed views of the Thames, depictions of London and its tradesmen, and portraits of family and friends.

May 3, 1985 – August 18, 1985

American Art Museum

Flexible Medium: Art Fabric from the Museum Collection

See some 30 works that demonstrate diverse approaches by American artists to the structure and surface embellishment of textiles.

January 20, 1984 – August 18, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Thomas Paine: A Hero Scorned

See likenesses of Paine in this small exhibition including a portrait by John Wesley Jarvis as well as caricatures by British, French, and American satiric artists.

February 21, 1985 – August 11, 1985

Portrait Gallery

The Art of Robert McCall

View a major retrospective of Robert McCall highlighting his visionary paintings of cities of the future, his work on the movies 2001, The Black Hole, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and his career illustrating books and magazines.

September 26, 1984 – August 5, 1985

Air and Space Museum

China Decorating in America

This exhibition highlights women china painters and the emergence of china decorating as a hobby and a business.

May 10, 1985 – July 30, 1985

American History Museum

Northrop N-1M Flying Wing

See the "flying wing," John K. Northrop's bright-yellow aircraft with its clean, simple design that epitomizes the technological developments that occurred during the "golden age of flight."

April 5, 1984 – July 30, 1985

Air and Space Museum

Rural Electrification

See 16 photographs, documents, and objects highlighting the 50 years since the Rural Electrification Administration was established.

May 1, 1985 – July 30, 1985

American History Museum

1985 Discover Graphics

See some 45 etchings in a juried exhibition of works by promising young art students who have participated in the 1985 Discover Graphics training program.

June 1, 1985 – July 30, 1985

American History Museum

Architecture in Silver

Admire silver coffee and tea services designed by 11 internationally known architects, executed by Italian silversmiths.

May 3, 1985 – July 29, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Aditi: A Celebration of Life

This exhibition features more than 1,500 objects is complemented by some 40 performing artists, craftspeople and performers.

June 4, 1985 – July 28, 1985

Natural History Museum

Fanfare, Part III (19th- and 20th-Century Fans)

View 30 19th- and 20th-century fans from the NMAA collection, including examples of Chinese Export, hand screens, lace, and painted styles. This is the final segment of a 3-part exhibition.

January 25, 1985 – July 21, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Creation & Renewal: Views of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church

Engage with 37 paintings, oil sketches, and drawings of the Ecuadorian volcano, Cotopaxi, in an exhibition that documents the artist's sustained involvement with one theme and demonstrates his scientific beliefs.

March 29, 1985 – July 14, 1985

American Art Museum

Black Women: Achievements Against the Odds

Learn about black women whose accomplishments have changed our lives, from 1700 to 1977.

October 21, 1984 – June 30, 1985

Anacostia Community Museum