Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women

Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women unearths stories of women who have enriched our understanding and appreciation of orchids.

January 29, 2022 – April 24, 2022

Smithsonian Gardens

Biomes: Life in the Balance

Visit deserts, rainforests, grasslands, wetlands, and tundra without leaving the National Mall in this Smithsonian Garden's exhibit.

May 10, 2019 – March 31, 2022

Ripley Center

Explore the Universe

Learn what scientists think our universe is like, how the present scientific view of the universe came to be, how our universe is being shaped today, and what mysteries remain.

September 21, 2001 – March 27, 2022

Air and Space Museum

Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There

This exhibition reveals why a good clock is crucial to navigation and how increasingly accurate timekeeping has influenced how we find our way.

April 12, 2013 – March 27, 2022

Air and Space Museum

Unsettled Nature: Artists Reflect on the Age of Humans

Unsettled Nature offers visitors the opportunity to explore the unparalleled, ubiquitous and still-growing mark that humanity is making on the world through 16 works of art.

June 18, 2021 – March 7, 2022

Natural History Museum

Challenging the Face of Science: The Bearded Lady Project

This project brings into being the missing legacy of female paleontologists to overcome societal stereotypes concerning gender and professional roles.

November 14, 2019 – September 26, 2021

Natural History Museum

Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture

Alexander von Humboldt was arguably the most important naturalist of the 19th century. Alexander von Humboldt and the United States places American art squarely in the center of a conversation on Humboldt’s lasting influence on the way we think about our relationship to our environment.

September 18, 2020 – July 11, 2021

American Art Museum

Turtle Ocean

An art installation composed entirely of recycled plastic trash and marine debris, Turtle Ocean depicts an entangled Hawksbill turtle swimming in an environment of water bottle sea jellies and beached flip flop anemones along with marine debris seaweed and coral made of old buoys, crates, and buckets.

June 8, 2016 – March 13, 2020

Natural History Museum

Beauty Rich and Rare

An immersive sound and light experience recreates the wonder experienced by Joseph Banks and the botanists, scientists, and illustrators who traveled on the HMS Endeavour.

January 9, 2020 – March 13, 2020

Natural History Museum

The Birds of America: from Original Drawings

The museum displays volume four in the Duke of Portland set of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America: from Original Drawings.

March 21, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Natural History Museum

How Things Fly

This interactive gallery explains the basic principles of air and space flight through hands-on activities.

September 20, 1996 – March 13, 2020

Air and Space Museum

Nature by Design: After Icebergs

After Icebergs presents a selection of sketches and studies made by Church that document his first-hand impressions of these majestic forms of floating ice.

November 16, 2019 – March 13, 2020

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Game Change: Elephants Prey to Preservation

Traces the shift in public attitudes about elephants from the late 19th century, an era when big game hunting was prevalent, to the critical conservation concerns of today.

October 4, 2018 – March 5, 2020

Natural History Museum

Bloom: Flowers from the Archives of American Art

Sketches and drawings of flowers from our collections provide a fascinating opportunity to examine flowers from both an artistic and scientific point of view.

March 2, 2019 – October 6, 2019

Archives of American Art

The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World

How do we learn about dinosaurs and their ecosystems? Come see some of their fossils and find out!

November 25, 2014 – September 29, 2019

Natural History Museum

23rd Annual Nature's Best Photography: Windland Smith Rice International Awards

Named for nature photographer and conservationist Windland Smith Rice, Nature’s Best presents breathtaking fine art prints and short videos that highlight the best of nature photography—and our spectacular planet.

October 29, 2018 – September 3, 2019

Natural History Museum

Modern Medicine and the Great War

World War I provided a testing ground for the application of new medical technologies and procedures, and in some cases accelerated their general acceptance or development.

April 6, 2017 – August 11, 2019

American History Museum

Beautiful Blooms: Flowering Plants on Stamps

This exhibition highlights the variety of flowering plants commemorated on US postage stamps during the past 50 years and explores artistic themes that emerged during this period.

October 20, 2017 – July 14, 2019

Postal Museum

Exploring the Planets

This exhibition highlights the history and achievements of planetary exploration, both Earth-based and by spacecraft.

November 7, 1978 – July 8, 2019

Air and Space Museum

Orchids: Amazing Adaptations

Escape the winter cold and step into a floral oasis in the Kogod Courtyard with hundreds of orchids of stunning variety.

February 16, 2019 – April 28, 2019

Smithsonian Gardens

Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color

Featuring over 190 objects spanning from antiquity to the present, the exhibition reveals how designers apply the theories of the world’s greatest color thinkers to bring order and excitement to the visual world.

May 11, 2018 – March 17, 2019

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend

Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend showcases what is known about how narwhals sense their environment, and explores exciting new scientific discoveries about these animals in the context of a changing arctic climate.

August 3, 2017 – January 6, 2019

Natural History Museum

Apollo to the Moon

This gallery traces NASA's manned space program beginning with Project Mercury's Freedom 7 (5/5/61); then the Gemini Project (1965-66); followed by the Apollo Program (1967-1972), with Apollo 17 as the last manned exploration of the moon.

July 1, 1976 – December 2, 2018

Air and Space Museum

Looking at Earth

This gallery traces the development of technology for viewing Earth from balloons, aircraft, and spacecraft.

May 8, 1986 – December 2, 2018

Air and Space Museum

Dazzling Diversity

What is the most diverse group of animals on the planet? Insects! They constitute more than two-thirds of all described animal species—and there are more waiting to be discovered!

August 8, 2017 – September 30, 2018

Natural History Museum