Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Directions: Jennie C. Jones: Higher Resonance

Discover Jones's audio collages and the connections between art and music.

May 16, 2013 – October 27, 2013

Hirshhorn Museum

Leonardo da Vinci's Codex on the Flight of Birds

See how Leonardo da Vinci used his observations of birds to work out how humans could fly.

September 13, 2013 – October 22, 2013

Air and Space Museum

Life in the Ancient Seas

Fantastic marine fossils tell the story of evolution and extinction in the seas in three acts: the Paleozoic Era (540 to 250 million years ago), the Mesozoic Era (250 to 65 million years ago), and the Cenozoic Era (65 million years ago to today).

May 18, 1990 – October 21, 2013

Natural History Museum

Snowboarding

Learn about the history of snowboarding and see the Snurfer, one of the earliest snowboard prototypes.

February 20, 2012 – October 20, 2013

American History Museum

Old Tales Retold: Chinese Narrative Painting

Trace the stories of famous people and events in Chinese history and see how their depictions in art reveal traditional Chinese values and the universality of human experience.

April 20, 2013 – October 20, 2013

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Peter Coffin: Here & There

Emphasizing his chameleon-like virtuosity working with different media, look for Peter Coffin's artworks throughout the museum.

June 29, 2013 – October 6, 2013

Hirshhorn Museum

Octagon Room

Visit the Octagon Room, furnished with paintings from SAAM's collection, including impressionism and the Gilded Age period.

January 28, 1972 – October 1, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Inside Insights: Photographs by the Smithsonian Community

Winning entries from the 2012 Smithsonian Staff Photo Contest offer a deeper understanding of the Smithsonian and its talented staff.

December 10, 2012 – September 22, 2013

Ripley Center

Honoring Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln Certified Plate Proofs

Eleven certified plate proofs for postage stamps issued from 1894 to 1959 honoring Abraham Lincoln are on view in the Philatelic Gallery pullout frames.

November 15, 2008 – September 21, 2013

Postal Museum

Philatelic Gallery

For both the serious collector and those who know little about the renowned hobby of stamp collecting, this gallery highlights some of the best philatic collections in the world.

July 30, 1993 – September 21, 2013

Postal Museum

Amelia Earhart's Personal Collection

Portraits of aviator Amelia Earhart tell the story of her career and pay special attention to her work on behalf of women’s rights.

November 12, 2007 – September 21, 2013

Postal Museum

Over, Under, Next: Experiments in Mixed Media, 1913 to the Present

See how artists over the last 100 years have used objects -- the fragments and detritus in the world around them -- to challenge traditional art media.

April 18, 2013 – September 8, 2013

Hirshhorn Museum

Whistler's Neighborhood: Impressions of a Changing London

See how the Chelsea neighborhood of London rapidly changed in the 1880s through the eyes of artist James McNeill Whistler.

September 3, 2012 – September 3, 2013

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

A Will of Their Own: Judith Sargent Murray and Women of Achievement in the Early Republic

Learn about the achievements of women in the late 18th century and see portraits of eight prominent American women of the period.

April 20, 2012 – September 2, 2013

Portrait Gallery

Nine Deaths, Two Births: Xu Bing's Phoenix Project

See how Xu Bing's Phoenix Project -- his newest sculpture on view at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) -- evolved through drawings, scale models, and construction fragments.

April 27, 2013 – September 2, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story

Learn about the diverse cultures and complex history of Asian Pacific Americans from the first immigrants centuries ago to the challenges they face today. Note: Off view July 23 and 24, 2013.

May 1, 2013 – August 25, 2013

American History Museum

Korean Tea Bowls for Japan

View Korean tea bowls that were favored in the Japanese avant-garde tea ceremony known as wabicha.

July 1, 2012 – August 20, 2013

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Portraiture Now: Drawing on the Edge

Explore the boundaries that once defined drawing and portraiture through the works of contemporary artists.

November 16, 2012 – August 18, 2013

Portrait Gallery

Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture

This banner exhibition highlights Native people who have been active participants in contemporary music for nearly a century.

August 4, 2012 – August 11, 2013

American Indian Museum New York

Nam June Paik: Global Visionary

This exhibition offers an unprecedented view into artist Nam June Paik's creative method.

December 13, 2012 – August 11, 2013

American Art Museum

Hand-held: Gerhard Pulverer's Japanese Illustrated Books

Learn how illustrated books (ehon) in Edo-period Japan (1615-1868) were similar to blogging and e-publications in the 21st century.

April 6, 2013 – August 11, 2013

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Poetic License: Making Old Words New

Discover how the merchant and artisan classes during the Edo period in Japan reinterpreted classical Japanese and Chinese literary themes.

February 2, 2013 – August 4, 2013

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Black Box: DEMOCRACIA

View DEMOCRACIA's video project Ser y Durar [To Be and to Last] about a group of traceurs performing parkour in a Madrid cemetery.

October 29, 2012 – August 4, 2013

Hirshhorn Museum

Edo Aviary

See how artists in the Edo period were inspired by natural history paintings to depict birds more accurately.

February 2, 2013 – August 4, 2013

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color

See furniture produced by Thomas Day, a free African American who owned and operated one of North Carolina’s most successful cabinet shops before the Civil War.

April 12, 2013 – July 28, 2013

Renwick Gallery