What’s On
Upcoming Featured Events
Featured Exhibitions
With over two hundred exhibitions to choose from, we've highlighted select exhibitions from around the Smithsonian—or check out all of our exhibitions.
What's New
-
Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano
October 8, 2021 – May 8, 2022 American Art Museum
-
Critical Distance
September 29, 2021 – Summer 2022 Natural History Museum
-
Laurie Anderson: The Weather
September 24, 2021 – July 31, 2022 Hirshhorn
-
Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies
September 24, 2021 – August 21, 2022 African American Museum
-
Nicolas Party: Draw the Curtain
September 18, 2021 – Spring 2022 Hirshhorn
-
A Nation Grieves
September 17, 2021 – December 14, 2021 American History Museum
-
Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer
September 10, 2021 – April 10, 2022 Cooper Hewitt
-
Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
September 10, 2021 – Ongoing African American Museum
-
Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands, 1968-2020
August 27, 2021 – May 30, 2022 Portrait Gallery
-
Upending 1620: Where Do We Begin?
August 2, 2021 – Ongoing American History Museum
-
Block by Block: Naming Washington
July 30, 2021 – January 16, 2023 Portrait Gallery
-
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa
July 16, 2021 – February 27, 2022 African Art Museum
-
Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore, 1975-1980
July 16, 2021 – January 17, 2022 American Art Museum
-
Hokusai: Mad about Painting
July 16, 2021 – January 9, 2022 Freer Gallery of Art
-
¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues: En los barrios y las grandes ligas
July 2, 2021 – Ongoing American History Museum
-
Jon Gray of Ghetto Gastro Selects
July 1, 2021 – February 13, 2022 Cooper Hewitt
-
Warranted to Give Satisfaction: Daguerreotypes by Jeremiah Gurney
June 25, 2021 – February 6, 2022 Portrait Gallery
-
Documenting Diversity: How Anthropologists Record Human Life
June 18, 2021 – October 18, 2022 Natural History Museum
-
Unsettled Nature: Artists Reflect on the Age of Humans
June 18, 2021 – March 2022 Natural History Museum
-
Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints that Made the Fashion Brand
June 10, 2021 – January 2, 2022 Cooper Hewitt
-
The Modernist French Garden: Designs by the Vera Brothers
June 10, 2021 – January 2, 2022 Cooper Hewitt
-
Picturing Women Inventors
May 21, 2021 – Ongoing American History Museum
-
Visionary: The Cumming Family Collection (Part 2)
May 14, 2021 – October 31, 2021 Portrait Gallery
-
Food for the People: Eating and Activism in Greater Washington
April 17, 2021 – September 17, 2022 Anacostia Community Museum
History and Culture
-
Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies
September 24, 2021 – August 21, 2022 African American Museum
-
A Nation Grieves
September 17, 2021 – December 14, 2021 American History Museum
-
Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
September 10, 2021 – Ongoing African American Museum
-
Upending 1620: Where Do We Begin?
August 2, 2021 – Ongoing American History Museum
-
¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues: En los barrios y las grandes ligas
July 2, 2021 – Ongoing American History Museum
-
Picturing Women Inventors
May 21, 2021 – Ongoing American History Museum
-
The Only One in the Room: Women Achievers in Business and the Cost of Success
November 20, 2020 – TBA American History Museum
-
The Muppets Take American History
November 12, 2020 – Closed Temporarily American History Museum
-
Girlhood (It's Complicated)
October 9, 2020 – January 2, 2022 American History Museum
-
Creating Icons: How We Remember Women's Suffrage
March 6, 2020 – TBA American History Museum
-
Uncle Tom's Cabin: Early and Notable Editions
February 28, 2020 Through February 2022 African American Museum
-
My Computing Device
August 28, 2019 – Ongoing American History Museum
-
75th Anniversary of D-Day
June 6, 2019 – TBD American History Museum
-
More Doctors Smoke Camels: A Close Reading of Historical Advertising
April 5, 2019 – TBD American History Museum
-
All Work and No Pay: A History of Women's Invisible Labor
March 4, 2019 – TBD American History Museum
-
Magnificent Obsessions: Why We Collect
November 7, 2018 – Ongoing American History Museum
-
Art in Industry
March 22, 2018 – TBA American History Museum
-
Americans
January 18, 2018 Through 2022 American Indian Museum
-
American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith
June 28, 2017 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Many Voices, One Nation
June 28, 2017 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Wallace H. Coulter Unity Square
June 28, 2017 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Sounding American Music
June 21, 2017 – TBD American History Museum
-
Giving in America
November 29, 2016 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Slavery and Freedom
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: Era of Segregation 1876-1968
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Power of Place
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Making a Way Out of No Way
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Double Victory: The African American Military Experience
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Musical Crossroads
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Cultural Expressions
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Taking the Stage
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
A Century in the Making: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
American Enterprise
July 1, 2015 – Permanent American History Museum
-
The Value of Money
July 1, 2015 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Patrick F. Taylor Object Project
July 1, 2015 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and American Indian Nations
September 21, 2014 – December 25, 2025 American Indian Museum
-
As We Grow: Traditions, Toys, Games
August 22, 2012 – Permanent American Indian Museum
-
On the Water: Stories from Maritime America
May 22, 2009 – Permanent American History Museum
-
The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag that Inspired the National Anthem
November 21, 2008 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Landmark Objects
November 21, 2008 – Permanent American History Museum
-
The Price of Freedom: Americans at War
November 11, 2004 – Permanent American History Museum
Science and Nature
-
Critical Distance
September 29, 2021 – Summer 2022 Natural History Museum
-
Documenting Diversity: How Anthropologists Record Human Life
June 18, 2021 – October 18, 2022 Natural History Museum
-
Unsettled Nature: Artists Reflect on the Age of Humans
June 18, 2021 – March 2022 Natural History Museum
-
Challenging the Face of Science: The Bearded Lady Project
November 14, 2019 – 09/26/2021 Natural History Museum
-
The David H. Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time
June 8, 2019 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Mega-toothed Shark
May 24, 2019 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Celebrate Smokey: 75 Years of Fighting Wildfires
May 23, 2019 – TBD National Zoo
-
Sea Monsters Unearthed, Life in Angola's Ancient Seas
November 9, 2018 – November 2021 Natural History Museum
-
Naked Mole-Rats on the Move
September 1, 2018 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World
May 18, 2018 – October 2022 Natural History Museum
-
Electric Fishes Demonstration Lab
October 6, 2017 – Permanent National Zoo
-
African Elephant
September 4, 2015 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
American Bison
August 30, 2014 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Elephant Trails
September 3, 2010 – Permanent National Zoo
-
The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins: What Does It Mean To Be Human?
March 17, 2010 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Sant Ocean Hall
September 27, 2008 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Asia Trail
October 17, 2006 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals
November 15, 2003 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Great Cats
October 1, 1998 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals
September 20, 1997 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
FossiLab
1995 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Reptile Discovery Center
May 1, 1994 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Insect Zoo, O. Orkin
September 10, 1993 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Amazonia
November 18, 1992 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Cheetah Conservation Station
August 19, 1992 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Small Mammal House
April 1, 1983 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Primates
April 15, 1981 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Lighting a Revolution
October 9, 1979 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Birds of the District of Columbia
August 24, 1979 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Bone Hall
1964 – Permanent Natural History Museum
Don't Miss
-
The Peacock Room in Blue and White
May 18, 2019 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery
March 12, 2019 – March 6, 2022 Renwick Gallery
-
Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World
May 18, 2018 – October 2022 Natural History Museum
-
Americans
January 18, 2018 Through 2022 American Indian Museum
-
Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts
November 4, 2017 – Permanent African Art Museum
-
America's Presidents
September 22, 2017 – Permanent Portrait Gallery
-
American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith
June 28, 2017 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Many Voices, One Nation
June 28, 2017 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Greensboro Lunch Counter
June 28, 2017 – Indefinitely American History Museum
-
Slavery and Freedom
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Musical Crossroads
September 24, 2016 – Permanent African American Museum
-
Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall
July 1, 2016 – Permanent Air and Space Museum
-
Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There
April 12, 2013 – Permanent Air and Space Museum
-
The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag that Inspired the National Anthem
November 21, 2008 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Sant Ocean Hall
September 27, 2008 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Asia Trail
October 17, 2006 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Luce Foundation Center for American Art
July 1, 2006 – Permanent American Art Museum
-
World War II Aviation
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals
September 20, 1997 – Permanent Natural History Museum
Air and Space History
-
Clouds in a Bag: The Evelyn Way Kendall Ballooning and Early Aviation Collection
January 28, 2017 – Indefinitely Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall
July 1, 2016 – Permanent Air and Space Museum
-
Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar
September 2011 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Moving Beyond Earth
November 19, 2009 – Permanent Air and Space Museum
-
Human Spaceflight
November 1, 2004 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Applications Satellites
November 1, 2004 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Space Science
November 1, 2004 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Aerobatic Flight
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Cold War Aviation
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Commercial Aviation
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
General Aviation
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Interwar Military Aviation
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Korea and Vietnam Aviation
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Pre-1920 Aviation
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Rockets and Missiles
December 15, 2003 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
Asia Meets America
-
Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands, 1968-2020
August 27, 2021 – May 30, 2022 Portrait Gallery
-
Elephant Trails
September 3, 2010 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Asia Trail
October 17, 2006 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Many Voices, One Nation
June 28, 2017 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Body Image: Arts of the Indian Subcontinent
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Engaging the Senses: Arts of the Islamic World
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Promise of Paradise: Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculpture
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
The Beginnings of Buddhism in Japan: Buddhist Art in Japan
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Imperfectly Beautiful: Inventing Japanese Ceramic Style
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
The Power of Words in an Age of Crisis: Buddhist Art in Japan
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
In the Shadow of an Apocalypse: Buddhist Art in Japan
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Rediscovering Korea's Past: Korean Ceramics
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Looking Out, Looking In: Art in Late Imperial China
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Setting the Bar: Arts of the Song Dynasty
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Center of the World: China and the Silk Road
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry: Chinese Bronzes
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Afterlife: Ancient Chinese Jades
October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
The Peacock Room in Blue and White
May 18, 2019 – Indefinitely Freer Gallery of Art
-
Dewing's Poetic World
November 27, 2019 – Indefintely Freer Gallery of Art
Closing Soon
-
Willi Smith: Street Couture
March 13, 2020 – October 24, 2021 Cooper Hewitt
-
Visionary: The Cumming Family Collection (Part 2)
May 14, 2021 – October 31, 2021 Portrait Gallery
-
A Nation Grieves
September 17, 2021 – December 14, 2021 American History Museum
-
Habitat
May 10, 2019 – December 31, 2021 Smithsonian Gardens
-
What Is Feminist Art?
November 26, 2019 – December 31, 2021 Archives of American Art
-
Girlhood (It's Complicated)
October 9, 2020 – January 2, 2022 American History Museum
-
Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting
November 16, 2019 – January 2, 2022 American Indian Museum New York
-
Nature by Design: Cochineal
November 16, 2019 – January 2, 2022 Cooper Hewitt
-
Nature by Design: Plastics
June 8, 2019 – January 2, 2022 Cooper Hewitt
-
Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints that Made the Fashion Brand
June 10, 2021 – January 2, 2022 Cooper Hewitt
-
The Modernist French Garden: Designs by the Vera Brothers
June 10, 2021 – January 2, 2022 Cooper Hewitt
-
Hokusai: Mad about Painting
July 16, 2021 – January 9, 2022 Freer Gallery of Art
Kids' Favorites
-
Girlhood (It's Complicated)
October 9, 2020 – January 2, 2022 American History Museum
-
The David H. Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time
June 8, 2019 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Mega-toothed Shark
May 24, 2019 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Sports: Leveling the Playing Field
September 24, 2016 – Indefinitely African American Museum
-
African Elephant
September 4, 2015 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Patrick F. Taylor Object Project
July 1, 2015 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Immersion Room
December 12, 2014 – Indefinitely Cooper Hewitt
-
Connect with U.S. Stamps
September 22, 2013 – Permanent Postal Museum
-
American Trail
September 1, 2012 – Permanent National Zoo
-
As We Grow: Traditions, Toys, Games
August 22, 2012 – Permanent American Indian Museum
-
Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt
November 17, 2011 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Sant Ocean Hall
September 27, 2008 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Asia Trail
October 17, 2006 – Permanent National Zoo
-
Airmail in America
February 22, 2006 – Permanent Postal Museum
-
Human Spaceflight
November 1, 2004 – Permanent Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
-
Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World
September 21, 2004 – Spring 2022 American Indian Museum
-
Kids' Farm
June 12, 2004 – Permanent National Zoo
-
America on the Move
November 22, 2003 – Permanent American History Museum
-
Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals
November 15, 2003 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Explore the Universe
September 21, 2001 – Permanent Air and Space Museum
-
Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals
September 20, 1997 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Space Race
May 16, 1997 – Permanent Air and Space Museum
-
Insect Zoo, O. Orkin
September 10, 1993 – Permanent Natural History Museum
-
Moving the Mail
July 30, 1993 – Permanent Postal Museum
-
Gunboat Philadelphia
July 3, 1965 – Permanent American History Museum
-
The Dolls' House
Opened 1951 – Indefinitely American History Museum
Outdoor Gardens and Exhibitions
-
Food for the People: Eating and Activism in Greater Washington
April 17, 2021 – September 17, 2022 Anacostia Community Museum
-
Habitat
May 10, 2019 – December 31, 2021 Smithsonian Gardens
-
Common Ground: Our American Garden
June 28, 2017 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
-
Urban Bird Habitat Garden
July 25, 2012 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
-
Native American Landscape
September 21, 2004 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
-
Victory Garden
Spring 2001 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
-
Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden
October 7, 1998 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
-
Pollinator Garden
June 30, 1995 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
-
Mary Livingston Ripley Garden
May 25, 1988 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
-
Enid A. Haupt Garden
May 22, 1987 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
-
Sculpture Garden and Plaza
October 4, 1974 – Indefinitely Hirshhorn
-
Freer Gallery of Art: Courtyard Garden
May 9, 1923 – Permanent Smithsonian Gardens
