Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Diving for History: Treasures of the Indiana Shipwreck

This showcase includes materials on recent field research done on the wreck of the Indiana.

June 21, 1994 – May 21, 1995

American History Museum

Chicago Artists: Koffler Collection

See 12 works by Chicago artists from the Samuel W. Koffler collection.

February 10, 1995 – May 21, 1995

American Art Museum

Full Deck Art Quilts

View 54 American quilts, each representing a card in a deck of playing cards. Styles range from photographic realism to abstractions of color and form.

March 6, 1995 – April 30, 1995

Renwick Gallery

Best Wishes: Holiday Greetings from the White House

This special holiday display features Christmas cards from the first families beginning with the Eisenhower administration to 1995.

November 28, 1994 – April 23, 1995

Postal Museum

Beyond Paper: Chinese Calligraphy on Objects

Appreciate the varied uses of calligraphy on 36 utilitarian and decorative works, spanning the 7th to the early 19th centuries.

August 27, 1994 – April 21, 1995

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Balloons: The Birth of Flight, 1783-1793

This exhibit tells the story of the invention of the balloon during the late 18th century.

September 2, 1994 – April 16, 1995

American History Museum

Grace Kwami Sculpture: an Artist's Book by Atta Kwami

See a 48-page book created by Ghanaian artist Atta Kwami (b. 1956) that opens like the legs of a spider (ananse), a symbol of wisdom and ingenuity in Ghanaian culture.

November 23, 1994 – April 16, 1995

African Art Museum

Benedicte Wrensted: An Idaho Photographer in Focus

View photos of European and Native Americans taken by Danish immigrant Benedicte Wrensted in her Pocatello, Idaho studio in the late 19th century.

March 1, 1995 – April 2, 1995

Ripley Center

Patty Wagstaff: National Aerobatic Champion

Honor the career of Patty Wagstaff, 1st woman to win the U.S. National Aerobatic Championship in 1991, and again in 1992 and 1993, in her aircraft the Extra 260.

March 11, 1994 – March 31, 1995

Air and Space Museum

Good Offices and Beyond: The Evolution of the Workplace

Visit an exhibit that shows how the physical world of the office has been altered in the past two decades in response to technology, new materials, and the changing nature of work.

October 4, 1994 – March 19, 1995

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

National Design Museum: A New Identity for Cooper-Hewitt

Explore Drenttel Doyle Partners' process of creating the museum's new identity from the new name National Design Museum to a new graphic identity and logo.

September 20, 1994 – March 19, 1995

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

The Guitar in American Popular Music

This showcase exhibit focuses on the technology, design, and development of the electric guitar

June 7, 1994 – March 2, 1995

American History Museum

Imagining Families: Images and Voices

Using mixed media, 15 current American artists weave family images into statements on US culture.

August 15, 1994 – February 28, 1995

Anacostia Community Museum

Free Within Ourselves: African American Art from the National Museum of American Art

Visit paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photos, and folk art by 94 African Americans.

October 28, 1994 – February 26, 1995

American Art Museum

Mohammad Omer Khalil, Etchings; Amir I. M. Nour, Sculpture

See etchings by Khalil and sculptures by Nourthat reflect the artists' African and Islamic heritages in Sudan (the Republic of Sudan).

November 16, 1994 – February 26, 1995

African Art Museum

Points of View: Single Subject/Multiple Artists

Admire 78 works that show how 16 individual sitters are portrayed by several artists in a variety of media. Subjects include Igor Stravinsky, Paul Robeson, and Albert Einstein.

October 14, 1994 – February 20, 1995

Portrait Gallery

Monumental Propaganda

See historic Socialist-Realist monuments from Russia's totalitarian past re-created and reinterpreted in 150 drawings, photographs and proposals by artists worldwide.

December 9, 1994 – February 20, 1995

Ripley Center

Masterpieces of Chinese Calligraphy

See 27 works from the permanent collection by more than 30 calligraphers, from the mid-first century B.C. to the 20th century.

June 11, 1994 – February 19, 1995

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Directions: Gary Simmons

This African American artist's 1st solo exhibit features his 1993 series Erasures.

November 17, 1994 – February 12, 1995

Hirshhorn Museum

Contemporary Crafts and the Saxe Collection

Contemplate 122 objects of glass, ceramics, fiber, metal, and wood from The Saxe Collection of California that survey contemporary crafts of the past decade.

October 28, 1994 – February 5, 1995

Renwick Gallery

Allan West Meets East: Four Folding Screens

See 4 Japanese-style screens that interpret the visible and invisible forces of nature. West's works combine traditional Japanese landscapes, American Color Field Painting, and the style of Sam Gilliam.

November 10, 1994 – February 5, 1995

Renwick Gallery

The Mackay Emerald

A 168-carat egg-shaped, flat emerald--believed to be the largest fine emerald ever to go on public exhibition--has been donated to NMNH.

September 1, 1984 – January 30, 1995

Natural History Museum

Red Diamond

See a 5.03-carat red diamond--the first of its kind ever permanently displayed in a public museum.

February 2, 1988 – January 30, 1995

Natural History Museum

"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

Golden Yellow Topaz

Marvel at a 22,892.5-carat (12.3 pound) golden yellow topaz--as large as an automobile headlight.

May 4, 1988 – January 30, 1995

Natural History Museum