Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

"A Cloth of Honor" by Okon Akpan Abuje

View a shrine cloth (12 ft. high, 5 ft. wide) featuring an applique panel depicting the deceased, his wife, and his daughter.

February 6, 1991 – May 5, 1991

African Art Museum

"Blueprint for Space" from Collier's Magazine

Picture the vision of space flight, as seen in a 1950s Collier's magazine series that explored the collaborative efforts between artists and scientists.

May 5, 1993 – April 30, 1994

Air and Space Museum

"Cracked Plate" Photograph of Lincoln

For just five days, the museum will display the original print of the “cracked plate” portrait of Abraham Lincoln. This photograph by Alexander Gardner is one of the most haunting portraits of any president.

February 12, 2015 – February 16, 2015

Portrait Gallery

"Do you hear that whistle...?" Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's film The Harvey Girls

Celebrates the 60th anniversary of the MGM classic movie musical The Harvey Girls.

December 21, 2006 – March 29, 2006

American History Museum

"Gold Rush" Bicycle

See the "Gold Rush," an aerodynamically designed bicycle made of light-weight, synthetic materials, including aramid, spandex fibers, and polyester film.

September 22, 1987 – April 15, 1988

American History Museum

"Here, Look at Mine!" - John N. Robinson and Larry Francis Lebby Art Show

John Robinson, a painter, and Larry Francis Lebby, a stone lithographer, come from different generations and geographies. Yet, vital themes of family, neighbors, and the natural environment link the artists.

November 14, 1982 – February 28, 1983

Anacostia Community Museum

"Horse" by Deborah Butterfield

See Deborah Butterfield's sculpture Horse, a work in wire and steel.

December 1, 1985 – April 30, 1986

Hirshhorn Museum

"In Pursuit Of..." (the Washington Print Club 9th Biennial Members' Exhibition)

Follow 61 prints that all deal with pursuit...of fish, money, women, or ideals.

September 3, 1982 – October 31, 1982

American Art Museum

"Make the Dirt Fly!": Building the Panama Canal

Explore the background, planning, and construction of the Panama Canal.

November 20, 1999 – January 22, 2001

American History Museum

"Now I Lay Me Down to Eat" A Salute to the Unknown Art of Living

See hundreds of objects--furniture, household articles, paintings, drawings and prints, and contemporary products--in an exhibition which examines, in a lively way, eating, sleeping, cleansing, bathing, and sitting.

November 18, 1980 – February 22, 1981

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

"Out of Many, One" by Jorge Rodriquez-Gerada

Rodríguez-Gerada will use several images of people photographed in Washington, D.C., to create a composite portrait that will not only be an interactive walk-through experience for visitors but will also be viewable from the newly reopened Washington Monument and from space.

October 1, 2014 – October 31, 2014

Portrait Gallery

"Pink Gesture" (Glass Vessel)

Admire collaborating artists Margie Jervis and Susie Krasnican's fused successive layers of colored enamel on their sculptural glass vessel, enhancing the medium's ability to reflect color and light.

March 5, 1982 – April 25, 1982

Renwick Gallery

"Pop" Hart Prints

Hart's prints portray the ordinary people he met in a live 'on the road' from his Illinois birthplace to Tahiti.

September 1, 1972 – February 28, 1973

American History Museum

"Save the Whale" Children's Art

Paintings by school children in the U.S. and abroad center on the theme of the threatened extinction of the whale.

May 2, 1974 – June 30, 1974

Natural History Museum

"Star-Spangled Banner" Manuscript

See Francis Scott Key’s original manuscript of the "Star-Spangled Banner" to celebrate the song's 200th anniversary.

June 14, 2014 – July 6, 2014

American History Museum

"The Eight" and the Independent Tradition in American Art

Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the legendary Eight exhibition, America's first organized assault on academic art.

January 13, 1983 – March 15, 1983

Hirshhorn Museum

"The Fabric of a Friendship" and "Delaware 350": Commemorating New Sweden, 1638-1988

Marking the 350th anniversary of the first Swedish settlement in the U.S., this exhibition looks at the contributions of Swedish and Finnish settlers in the Delaware River Valley and their relationship with the Algonquin Indians.

October 21, 1988 – January 31, 1989

American History Museum

"The Family 1976": Richard Avedon's Portraits for Rolling Stone

These 69 photographs from 1976 show some of the most powerful individuals during the bicentennial year.

January 22, 1993 – June 6, 1993

Portrait Gallery

"The Rocket" Tourmaline Crystal

On public display for the first time is a multimillion dollar rubellite tourmaline.

December 1, 1980 – January 30, 1995

Natural History Museum

"There's No Business Like Show Business": Irving Berlin's Centennial

The exhibition commemorates the 100th birthday of the American composer, who during his career has written some 800 songs.

July 23, 1988 – January 31, 1989

American History Museum

"William Rush's Model" by Thomas Eakins

This newly acquired painting was executed in 1908 by Eakins, who based his work almost entirely on the study of the nude form.

March 1, 1986 – May 30, 1986

American Art Museum

#IfThenSheCan - The Exhibit

#IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit is he largest collection of statues of women ever assembled together, to be installed on and around the National Mall.

March 5, 2022 – March 27, 2022

Smithsonian Gardens

(re) Framing Conversations: Photographs by Richard Avedon, 1946-1965

Twenty Richard Avedon images spanning two decades, curated from the Smithsonian’s photo history collection, are on display.

December 9, 2022 – February 2, 2025

American History Museum

...and They Called Us 'colored'

See 30 photographs of early 20th-century Seward, Oklahoma, taken by African American photographers Opal Childs-Glover and Fred Younger.

January 24, 1995 – July 30, 1995

American History Museum

...and there was light: Studies by Abraham Rattner for the stained-glass window, Chicago Loop Synagogue

Trace the development of the monumental 30-foot-high, 40-foot-wide window for the sanctuary of the synagogue through 52 works--ranging from preliminary sketches to large-scale, full-color studies.

January 23, 1976 – March 28, 1976

American Art Museum