Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Newcomb Pottery: An Enterprise for Southern Women

View 210 ceramic pieces produced at Newcomb Pottery, the only major art pottery in the South and one of the major centers of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America.

November 2, 1984 – February 24, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Metropolitan Opera Centennial: A Photographic Album

Enjoy131 photographs of Pavoratti and Puccini, Carusco and Callas, Scotti, and Sills, as well as the chorus and stagehands, audiences, and first-nighters.

November 15, 1984 – February 10, 1985

Portrait Gallery

Miguel Covarrubias Caricatures

Delight in 84 drawings and paintings of celebrities of the 1920s and 1930s by the Mexican-born satiric artist, many of which appeared in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker magazines.

November 15, 1984 – February 10, 1985

Portrait Gallery

The Gentleman from Indiana: Booth Tarkington (1869-1946)

Centered around NPG's recently acquired 1906 portrait of Tarkington by John White Alexander, this small exhibition explores the once immense popularity of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Penrodand The Magnificent Ambersons.

July 6, 1984 – February 10, 1985

Portrait Gallery

American History As Seen from the Museum of American History

See photographs taken by SI photographers, showing events in and around the museum, including the Redskins parade, Bicentennial events, protests and rallies, and the parade honoring the hostages upon their return from Iran.

August 10, 1984 – February 5, 1985

American History Museum

European Illustration: 1974-1984

See more than 150 pieces of original artwork produced for use in books, magazines, advertising, and posters in Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Poland, and Russia.

November 13, 1984 – February 3, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

MAS*H: Binding Up the Wounds

See sets from the television program known as the Operating Room and "the Swamp." Props and memorabilia from the program are supplemented by fan letters.

July 30, 1983 – February 3, 1985

American History Museum

Masterpieces of Chinese Painting

View 30 important paintings--hanging scrolls, hand scrolls, album leaves--from the Sung (960-1279) through the Ch'ing (1644-1911) dynasties.

August 3, 1984 – February 3, 1985

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Food and Health

View objects highlighting the development of the modern sciences of dietetics and nutrition.

October 9, 1984 – January 31, 1985

American History Museum

Japanese Drawings

View 35 brush-and-ink drawings by 19th-century Japanese artists.

March 16, 1984 – January 31, 1985

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Stamp Collecting: King of Hobbies...Hobby of Kings

In recognition of this popular hobby, this exhibition highlights four prominent philatelists's collections.

October 16, 1984 – January 31, 1985

American History Museum

Time and the Presidency

See 21 likenesses of presidents selected from NPG's collection of original art work for Time magazine covers.

January 13, 1984 – January 29, 1985

Portrait Gallery

New Vistas: American Art Pottery, 1880-1930

See 76 pottery examples, primarily from the recently donated William and Marcia Goodman Collection, supplemented with photographs, catalogues, and other documents.

November 6, 1984 – January 27, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Fantasy and Imagination: Sculpture by Eugenie Gershoy

View 24 fanciful and whimsical works executed in dextrine, papier-mache, and ceramic, many incised and painted. Some were created in the 1930s, while others were produced as recently as 1979.

July 27, 1984 – January 20, 1985

American Art Museum

Aviation Anniversaries: 1934, The Watershed Year in Air Transportation

Examine models of a Sikorsky S-42 and a Douglas DC-2, aircraft considered to be far superior to their antecedents.

September 1, 1984 – January 15, 1985

Air and Space Museum

Photographic Portraits of North American Indians in the Gallery of the Smithsonian

See some 260 photographs of Native Americans, re-creating both the content and the ambience of the 1860s exhibition in the Smithsonian Castle, which marked the beginning of the SI collection of Native American portrait photographs.

June 1, 1984 – January 15, 1985

Natural History Museum

European Modernism: Selections from the Museum's Collection

Some 75 examples of European modernist paintings and sculptures from the permanent collection survey major movements from 1915 through the 1960s.

September 13, 1984 – January 13, 1985

Hirshhorn Museum

Bruno V. Nordberg: Engineer and Builder

This representative selection of photographs, blueprints, and other archival material relate to the steam engine and were selected to illustrate the role of archival materials in museology.

November 16, 1984 – January 10, 1985

American History Museum

Yellow Diamond from Zale Corporation

Marvel at the largest existing diamond-in-the-rough in the world, weighing 890 carats.

November 22, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Natural History Museum

Content: A Contemporary Focus, 1974-1984

The central theme of this major exhibition is the proposition that content--a work of art's meaning in broad social and cultural contexts--has emerged as a central issue of the last ten years, challenging stylistic innovation as the chief impulse in contemporary art.

October 4, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Hirshhorn Museum

Fanfare, Part II

See 29 fans in the second segment of a 3-part exhibition that are examples of neoclassic, brise, Empire, and Gothic Revival fans as well as lithographed fans, popular in the mid-19th century.

July 27, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Contemporary Crafts from Colorado

Admire and purchase objects created by 27 members of the Colorado Artists and Craftsmen, including quilts, jewelry, ceramic and glass pieces, beading on canvas, needlework, batik, and woodwork.

November 8, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Renwick Gallery