Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

In Small Stages: Puppets from the Cooper-Hewitt Collection

See antique and 20th-century examples of puppets from the East and the West, featuring a group designed and made by Frank and Elizabeth Haines, noted American puppeteers.

December 15, 1981 – March 7, 1982

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Life...Afterlife: African Funerary Sculpture

See more than 100 pieces of funerary sculpture from all regions of Africa showing how art is used in African funerals to express concepts of life, death, and the continual cycle of existence.

November 19, 1981 – March 1, 1982

African Art Museum

Elijah Pierce: Messages in Wood

Visit 15 carved wood panels, painted in bold colors, depicting religious themes and parables, created by Elijah Pierce, a Columbus, Ohio, barber and Baptist minister.

December 1, 1981 – February 28, 1982

Renwick Gallery

The Culture of Bali

See colorful masks, shadow puppets, and Balinese cloth in conjunction with a DPA World Explorer Series program.

January 1, 1982 – February 28, 1982

Natural History Museum

Metaphor: New Projects by Contemporary Sculptors

Large-scale works by several contemporary artists were executed especially for this exhibit. The show highlights a significant artistic trend among many contemporary sculptors: the use of metaphor and allegory as organizing principles in contemporary sculpture.

December 17, 1981 – February 28, 1982

Hirshhorn Museum

Mathematical Activities in 18th-Century America: Benjamin Banneker

This exhibition commemorates the 250th anniversary, November 9, of the birth of Benjamin Banneker, scientist, mathematician, and free black man, who worked with Andrew Ellicott to survey the federal city.

November 10, 1981 – February 28, 1982

American History Museum

Five Distinguished Alumni: The WPA Federal Art Project

This exhibition commemorates the centennial of FDR's birth.

January 21, 1982 – February 22, 1982

Hirshhorn Museum

Puppets: Art and Entertainment

See more than 230 puppets and related items in an exhibit which spans 800 years of puppetry in North America.

December 15, 1981 – February 21, 1982

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Perkins Harnly: From the Index of American Design

Discover 29 watercolors of domestic, industrial, and commercial Victorian and early 20th-century interiors executed during the 1930s and 1940s. Most were created for the WPA Federal Art Project's Index of American Design (now in permanent collection of NGA).

October 16, 1981 – February 15, 1982

American Art Museum

Botanical Prints by Henry Evans

Enjoy 40 works by one of America's best known botanical printmakers. Self-taught as a printer, botanist, and artist, Evans' botanical prints are distinguished by a unique style and technique.

December 12, 1981 – February 7, 1982

Natural History Museum

Pottery by Maria Martinez

See 2 bowls by the celebrated American Indian potter, who is associated with a distinctive black pottery.

December 1, 1981 – January 31, 1982

Renwick Gallery

Nikola Tesla, Inventor and Electrical Engineer

Nikola Tesla, American inventor, is best known for his development of polyphase alternating current, the system now used worldwide. On view are pictures of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, where Tesla first presented his system to the public.

October 15, 1981 – January 31, 1982

American History Museum

The Imperial Image: Painting for the Mughal Court

See 74 works from 1560-1640, considered the most important period of Islamic art in India.

September 25, 1981 – January 31, 1982

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Old Books, Rare Books?

See two old books, Picturesque America and The Nuremberg Chronicle, with information on how to judge if a volume is rare and possibly valuable, or simply old.

October 30, 1981 – January 31, 1982

Natural History Museum

Immovable Objects: Suburbs

View original drawings, building and site plans, brochures and promotional literature, models, and photographs relating to suburbs.

November 10, 1981 – January 24, 1982

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

The Print in the U.S. from the 18th Century to the Present

Trace the development of American printmaking from small engraved works of the 18th century to the large prints of the past 25 years in this exhibition of 90 prints from several Smithsonian museums.

October 2, 1981 – January 17, 1982

American Art Museum

Screens of the Rimpa School

See 6 screens that typify the elegant and decorative painting of the 17th- and 18th-century Rimpa school of Japan.

October 10, 1980 – January 15, 1982

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

The John H. Phipps Donation (19th-Century Bird Volumes)

Take flight with a collection of rare 19th-century illustrated volumes of birds and other natural history subjects.

October 1, 1981 – January 15, 1982

American History Museum

Season's Greetings

Get in the holiday spirit with approximately 45 Christmas cards and related memorabilia.

December 5, 1981 – January 15, 1982

American History Museum

Bonestell Space Art

Enjoy twenty "landscapes" by space artist Chesley Bonestell displayed with a photograph of the artist.

July 1, 1980 – January 14, 1982

Air and Space Museum

The Accomplishments of Age

Encounter 14 personalities who, in their seventies or older, made significant contributions to the life of the nation and are the subjects of a tribute in conjunction with the 1981 White House Conference on Aging.

November 1, 1981 – January 4, 1982

Portrait Gallery

More Than Land Or Sky: Art from Appalachia

View an exhibition presenting the fine arts of the Appalachian region are 105 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and mixed media works by 69 artists.

October 30, 1981 – January 3, 1982

American Art Museum

Cast and Recast: The Sculpture of Frederic Remington

View 20 casts of Remington's best-known works, including early, late and posthumous casts, recasts from original bronzes, and replicas modeled by other artists. Also learn about French sand and lost wax casting through models, molds, tools, works in process, and photographs.

September 18, 1981 – January 3, 1982

American Art Museum

We Never Sleep: Fifty Years of Pinkerton Men

Follow the saga of Allan Pinkerton's rise from an incendiary labor agitator in Scotland to one of America's most prominent law and order advocates.

July 31, 1981 – January 3, 1982

Portrait Gallery

Space Shuttle Art

See 28 works of art documenting the development of the Space Shuttle project, commissioned by NASA to record key events in the U.S. space program.

November 1, 1981 – January 3, 1982

Air and Space Museum