Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

The Origins of Contemporary Advertising: Selling Soda 1890s-1970s (Pepsi Collection)

See advertising memorabilia, including some 50 labels, signs, magazine ads, and soda bottles.

November 2, 1985 – July 7, 1986

La Nijinska: A Dancer's Legacy

Enjoy more than 150 objects relating to the life and career of Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972), one of ballet's most influential choreographers.

March 18, 1986 – July 6, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Ultra-Light Aircraft

Visit eight of these lightweight craft, owned by members of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

July 5, 1986 – July 6, 1986

Air and Space Museum

Robert Arneson: A Retrospective

As a leader of the so-called Funk movement, Arneson championed and developed glazed ceramics as a viable sculptor's medium, creating strictly non-utilitarian objects from potter's clay.

April 30, 1986 – July 6, 1986

Hirshhorn Museum

Discovery Theater: Past and Future

See some 25 photographs portraying past and future productions featured at the Discovery Theater.

September 20, 1985 – June 30, 1986

Arts and Industries Building

Chinese Bird-and-Flower Paintings

Admire 30 album leaves and hanging and hand scrolls from the 12th-19th centuries, depicting mythical, imaginary, and realistic birds as well as a colorful array of flowers.

February 1, 1986 – June 29, 1986

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

Natural Science Illustration, 1986

See more than 100 wildlife illustrations by members of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, who held an international meeting June 15-20, 1996.

June 9, 1986 – June 22, 1986

Natural History Museum

Frederick Douglass Gallery

See the black leader's first Washington home with furniture, photographs, books, newspapers and other memorabilia that reflect his life and times.

January 1, 1980 – June 16, 1986

African Art Museum

Art in New Mexico, 1900-1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe

View approximately 120 paintings and 35 Indian and Hispanic decorative arts and religious objects. by Ernest L. Blumenschein, Andrew Dasburg, Marsden Hartley, Victor Higgins, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Marin and others.

March 7, 1986 – June 15, 1986

American Art Museum

A Human Ideal in African Art/Bamana Figurative Sculpture

View 45 sculptures in an exhibition that explores and illustrates the traditional use of the human image in the art of the Mali's Bamana people.

April 30, 1986 – June 15, 1986

African Art Museum

Hollywood: Legend and Reality

The exhibition explores the development of the motion picture industry in Hollywood and the impact of movies on American culture.

April 17, 1986 – June 15, 1986

American History Museum

Seven Views of Hopi: Photography of the Hopi People by Hopis Themselves

See 45 photographs by seven Hopi artists, all of whom live on the Hopi Reservation, depicting the theme of 'An Insider's View'.

March 14, 1986 – June 1, 1986

Natural History Museum

An American History Sampler

Visit a selection of objects from the MAH collections, many of them recent acquisitions.

April 1, 1986 – June 1, 1986

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

Playing Cards

Enjoy selections from more than 100 decks of cards from Western Europe, North America, and Asia that illustrate the variations in suits, the design of numbers and face cards, and the methods and materials used in making cards.

March 18, 1986 – May 25, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Rhythm and Blues: Black American Popular Music, 1945-1955

View some 50 photographs depicting Rhythm and Blues artists, along with a working 1946 jukebox with R&B records.

February 7, 1986 – May 18, 1986

American History Museum

Classics of Mathematics

See 25 rare books in conjunction with 1986 meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

April 1, 1986 – May 15, 1986

American History Museum

Toys from the Nuremberg Spielzeug Museum

Delight in more than 75 toys from Nuremberg, an important German toy-manufacturing center since the 14th century. See dolls and doll carriages, doll-houses and their furnishings, blocks, pop-up books, a model railroad, games, mechanical, and optical toys.

March 4, 1986 – May 11, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

The Graphic Works of George Elbert Burr (1859-1939)

See 78 prints, drawings, and etchings by Burr, known as "the etcher of the American desert," selected from the 250 works in the NMAA collection.

December 3, 1985 – May 11, 1986

American Art Museum

Business of Black Beauty: Early Development of Afro-American Beauty Culture: 1900-1950

See advertisements, product containers, and information about the development of beauty colleges, cosmetics firms, and the rise of black businesswomen in the cosmetics and hair care industries.

February 19, 1986 – May 7, 1986

American History Museum

Beyond the City Lights: American Domestic Gas Lighting Systems

Examine the advent and development of gas lighting and gas-producing machines in the U.S. from the early 19th century to the early 20th century.

October 17, 1985 – May 4, 1986

American History Museum

Masterpieces of Time: Clocks by Wendell Castle

View 13 floor-standing clocks of exotic woods with inlays of sterling silver and mother-of-pearl. All are sculptural and decorative; several recall French art deco furniture of the 1920s and 30s, while others are more whimsical.

December 24, 1985 – May 4, 1986

Renwick Gallery

Learning Mathematics With Books

Included are a 19th-century "cipher book" and an arithmetic chart, two items that were common in the days when books were rare.

April 1, 1986 – April 30, 1986

American History Museum

Comet Quest: The Search for Halley's Comet

This small exhibition of 19th-century books, photographs, and illustrations complements the Planetarium program Comet Quest which looks at the lore and lure of comets from ancient times to the present -- including Halley's Comet, expected to be visible in 1985-86.

November 1, 1984 – April 30, 1986

Air and Space 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