Past Exhibitions

Wenceslaus Hollar: 17th-century Prints from the Museum Boymans-van Beunigen, Rotterdam

See some 150 engravings, including portraits, still lifes, and landscapes by Czechoslovakian artist and humanist Hollar (1607-1677) that present a reliable record of the land and people during this period.

November 23, 1994 – January 23, 1995

Ripley Center

Well-Dressed Walls: Spanning Three Centuries of Wallpaper from the Cooper Hewitt Collection

In this small display, reproductions of wallpaper dating from the 1770s to the 1950s from the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum are installed in pairs to reflect the practice of designing wallpapers to be used together.

March 23, 2016 – January 31, 2023

Smithsonian Castle

Welcome to Your Smithsonian

This exhibition looks at the history of the Smithsonian, focusing on its research; museums; and public programs in art, culture, history, and science, and the role of the American public in the Smithsonian's museums and research. The Smithsonian is a partnership between its specialist staff and the American people.

March 20, 2015 – January 31, 2023

Smithsonian Castle

Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore, 1975-1980

Of the more than seventy projects funded by the NEA, the East Baltimore Survey was unique for having been conceived, led, and carried out by women photographers.

July 16, 2021 – January 23, 2022

American Indian Museum DC

Welcome Center's Display of Future Museum

View an exhibition on the planning, design, and construction of the new American Indian Museum.

June 2001 – December 19, 2003

Wedgwood Portraits and the American Revolution

See about 50 Wedgwood portraits in ceramics of important figures of the Revolutionary War period.

July 13, 1976 – October 31, 1976

American Indian Museum New York

Webfoots and Bunchgrassers: Folk Art of the Oregon Country

See 209 objects that reflect Oregon's ethnic diversity and ranching traditions.

October 3, 1980 – February 1, 1981

Renwick Gallery

Weaving a Mayan Heritage: Clothing by Juana Cavanaugh

Discover traditional vestments handmade by Juana Cavanaugh, an Ixil Indian from Guatemala.

March 18, 1992 – September 14, 1992

We'll Never Turn Back: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement

Thirteen photographers, all affiliated with black civil rights groups of the 1960s, provided pictorial documentation to accompany affidavits and eye witness accounts of local events.

February 2, 1980 – February 29, 1980

We the People: Winning the Vote, Getting the Vote

This exhibition explores the development of the American political process under the guiding principles of the U.S. Constitution and examines both the formal and informal political processes that have emerged over the past 200 years.

October 1, 1982 – August 30, 1996

We the People

Taking its name from the preamble to the Constitution, the exhibition's 3 major sections explore the meaning of Lincoln's immortal words, "...government of the people, by the people, for the people."

June 1, 1975 – December 31, 1976

We Were But a Handful

Pay tribute to the early suffragettes who brought about the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920 in this anniversary exhibit.

August 26, 1977 – May 26, 1978

We The People: Winning the Vote

This exhibition includes sections on campaigning, debates, and political "gimmicks", and a large collection of campaign artifacts.

August 31, 1996 – June 25, 2000

We Shall Overcome: Photographs from America's Civil Rights Era

See 80 photographs that focus on the key events and personalities of the Civil Rights Era (1954-1968).

January 15, 1998 – February 8, 1998

African American History and Culture Museum

We Return Fighting: The African American Experience in World War I

The exhibition highlights nine African American historical luminaries to explore how the experience of African Americans during World War I laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement.

December 13, 2019 – September 6, 2020

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

We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists

The artists featured in We Gather at the Edge honor the Black story quilt tradition with work that envisions a more just and connected world.

February 21, 2025 – June 22, 2025

Renwick Gallery

We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection

We Are Made of Stories traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art.

July 1, 2022 – March 26, 2023

American Indian Museum New York

We Are Here! Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship

Paintings, photos, installation art, videos and sculpture reveal the issues, concerns, and methods of leading contemporary Native artists.

June 2, 2012 – September 23, 2012

Ways of Seeing: John Baldessari Explores the Collection

Recent gifts of 4 early works by American-born artist John Baldessari (b. 1931, California) provide an overview of the artist's important early period, in which he questioned the role of art and became a primary force in establishing what would later be termed "conceptual" art.

July 26, 2006 – September 20, 2007

Hirshhorn Museum

Waves at Matsushima

Paintings and prints record the Bay of Matsushima, an area now substantially altered by the recent earthquake and tsunami, and pay homage to Japan,

May 28, 2011 – July 5, 2011

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery

Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Watergate break-in, this exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery's collection, brings visitors face-to-face with the scandal's cast of characters.

March 25, 2022 – September 5, 2022

Watercolors between World Wars: Selections from the Collection

Admire 40 watercolors, dating between 1927 to 1940, that survey the variety of artistic expression in America.

May 16, 1997 – October 12, 1997