Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

A Mughal Hunt

Learn how the process of determining the authorship of a painting is based on a comparison of stylistic elements in this exhibition of 17 Indian paintings by Payag.

March 13, 1994 – November 27, 1994

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

A Nation Grieves

This display features 24 white plastic flags from the 2020 public art installation designed by artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg to honor and remember the lives lost in the U.S. to COVID-19.

September 17, 2021 – January 2, 2022

American History Museum

Through more than 5,000 original objects, this exhibition documents the diversity of people who have come to America over the centuries and affirms that America is linked to other nations by an intricate web of cultural ties.

March 12, 1976 – April 30, 1991

American History Museum

A New Angle on Familiar Places

On view are photos by 100 finalists from an area-wide competition of high school students.

May 15, 1994 – May 22, 1994

American Art Museum

A New England Town: A Portrait by Alice Stallknecht

View 3 murals, the result of 14 years' work by Alice Stallknecht (1880-1973), who painted her friends and neighbors in Chatham, Massachusetts.

October 15, 1977 – November 27, 1977

Portrait Gallery

A New Moon Rises: New Views from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera

A New Moon Rises showcases breathtaking images from Apollo landing sites to majestic mountains that rise out of the darkness of the lunar poles.

February 26, 2016 – January 10, 2017

Air and Space Museum

A New Romanticism: Sixteen Artists from Italy

On loan are approximately 46 works, primarily paintings, by 16 artists, that focus on an influential direction in Italian art today -- the new mystical or metaphysical painting.

October 3, 1985 – January 5, 1986

Hirshhorn Museum

A Passion for Plants: Botanical Art from the Shirley Sherwood Collection

See 100 works by 67 artists from the collection of Dr. Shirley Sherwood, an independent scholar and collector of botanical watercolors and paintings.

March 28, 2003 – September 2, 2003

Natural History 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 Perfect Harmony: American Art

Juxtaposing American and Asian art is a legacy of the founder of our museum, Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer. He believed in a universal language of beauty that resonated across time, space, and cultural diversity.

November 27, 2019 – October 8, 2023

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

A Perfect Harmony: American Art

Juxtaposing American and Asian art is a legacy of the founder of our museum, Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer. He believed in a universal language of beauty that resonated across time, space, and cultural diversity.

October 14, 2017 – April 15, 2019

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

A Permanent Record of India: The Photographs of Bourne & Shepherd

See 19 photographs selected from a 19th-century catalog by Bourne and Shepherd Co. that include ethnological and scenic subjects and portray the British influence of the 1860s and 1870s in India as well as Afghanistan, Burma, and Nepal.

August 5, 1983 – November 30, 1983

Natural History Museum

A Personal Journey: Central African Art from the Collection of Lawrence Gussman

View an exhibition from the Lawrence Gussman collection including 75 objects representing 30 African cultures.

June 9, 2002 – October 6, 2002

African Art Museum

A Place Called Home: Bird Photographs by Keith Logan

This exhibition features 40 photographs of North American birds by Canadian artist and birder Keith Logan.

November 1, 2001 – October 14, 2002

Natural History Museum

A Quiet Revolution: British Sculpture Since 1965

This exhibition is the first in North America to examine the influential role of recent British sculpture in international art.

November 10, 1987 – January 10, 1988

Hirshhorn Museum

A Rare Encounter: The Hope and Wittelsbach-Graff Diamonds

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is displayed together with the Hope Diamond for the first time.

January 29, 2010 – September 6, 2010

Natural History Museum

A Renwick Bestiary

Admire and purchase animal images depicted on objects ranging from baskets, bowls, and furniture to toys, jewelry, mugs, molds, and rubber stamps.

June 19, 1981 – August 30, 1981

Renwick Gallery

A Revolution in Wood: The Bresler Collection

This exhibition features 66 objects produced in the 1980s and 1990s from the Charles and Fleur Bresler Collection to highlight contemporary wood turning's growing sophistication.

September 24, 2010 – January 30, 2011

Renwick Gallery

A Right to the City

A Right to the City explores the history of neighborhood change in the nation’s capital.

April 21, 2018 – October 1, 2020

Anacostia Community Museum

A Room of Her Own: My Mother's Altar, an installation by Sandra Cisneros

Acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros has created an installation in the tradition of "Dia de Muertos" to honor her mother, Elvira Cordero Cisneros.

October 31, 2014 – September 7, 2015

American History 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

A Selection of Korean Ceramics, Metalwork and Painting from the Freer

See approximately 60 pieces, spanning the 3rd century B.C. through the 19th century.

June 1, 1982 – August 31, 1982

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

A Sense of Place

This photographic exhibition, a 6-year study of the land and people of Iowa, serves as a record of the changes and continuity of rural life in America.

January 15, 1989 – March 8, 1989

American History Museum

A Separate Vision

See American Indian art of the 20th century by four young artists working in highly contemporary modes.

September 6, 1991 – November 6, 1991

Natural History Museum

A Shell Game: Reconstructing Designs of Pre-Columbian Shells from Spiro, Oklahoma

See pre-historic rubbings and drawings of designs on shells and shell fragments from the Spiro, Oklahoma Indian mound.

July 21, 1979 – September 9, 1979

Natural History Museum