Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

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

The American Revolution: A World War

The American Revolution: A World War examines the American Revolution as a global conflict and the critical interplay of foreign powers—including Britain, France, Holland and Spain—that were involved.

June 23, 2018 – July 9, 2019

American History Museum

Early Flight

This re-created indoor aeronautical exhibition (circa 1913) highlights the early history of the airplane from antiquity through the first decade of powered flight.

March 26, 1980 – July 8, 2019

Air and Space 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

In Memoriam: Leah Chase

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery recognizes the life and legacy of Leah Chase with a painting by Gustave Blache III.

June 4, 2019 – June 30, 2019

Portrait Gallery

Healing Arts

Select pieces from the museum’s permanent collection reveal the skill and range of African artists who create art empowered to counter physical, social, and spiritual problems.

October 3, 2016 – June 27, 2019

African Art Museum

Empresses of China's Forbidden City, 1644-1912

The lives of the Qing dynasty empresses offer a compelling tale of opulence and influence as told in this first-ever, in-depth exhibition of the subject.

March 30, 2019 – June 23, 2019

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Stories on Money

This exhibition explores the history of money—coinage and currency—from the earliest times to the present and showcases objects from the museum's National Numismatic Collection.

June 11, 2009 – June 23, 2019

American History Museum

In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth)

Situated on the museum’s outdoor plaza overlooking the National Mall, the participatory installation is open daily, weather permitting, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

June 8, 2019 – June 23, 2019

Hirshhorn Museum

Rebeca Méndez Selects

Artist and designer Rebeca Méndez draws connections across the diverse collections of Cooper Hewitt, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian Libraries to explore how culture, design, technology, and the natural world have converged.

October 5, 2018 – June 16, 2019

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Tracing American Journeys

Explore the changing face of the nation through the personal stories and objects of a number of entrepreneurs in business, medicine, and technology who came to the U.S. in the last 50 years from around the world.

May 12, 2017 – June 10, 2019

American History Museum

In Memoriam: I. M. Pei

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery recognizes the life and legacy of acclaimed architect I.M. Pei with a photograph by Armenian Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh.

May 17, 2019 – June 5, 2019

Portrait Gallery

Daguerreotypes: Five Decades of Collecting

The 2018 installation of the Daguerreian Gallery celebrates the National Portrait Gallery’s golden anniversary by highlighting fifty years of daguerreotype collecting by the museum.

June 15, 2018 – June 2, 2019

Portrait Gallery

Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture

This exhibition explores the era that shaped Oprah Winfrey’s life and early career in TV, her talk show that dominated daytime TV for 25 years, and the ways in which she has influenced American popular culture.

June 8, 2018 – June 2, 2019

African American History and Culture Museum

Models & Prototypes

Models & Prototypes showcases the exceptional models of staircases donated to Cooper Hewitt by Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw.

December 12, 2014 – May 27, 2019

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Gen. John J. Pershing and World War I, 1917-1918

By recreating Pershing’s war office, this display gives the visitor a sense of America’s global reach and influence in World War I and reveals how the U.S. fit into a reshaped global community.

April 6, 2017 – May 27, 2019

American History Museum

Moustiers Ceramics: Gifts from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Collection

Showcasing nearly 60 works of faience alongside prints and textiles related to the flourishing of this elegant earthenware, the exhibition celebrates the substantial gift of Moustiers ceramics from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw collection to Cooper Hewitt.

May 20, 2017 – May 27, 2019

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

One Year: 1968, An American Odyssey

One Year: 1968 looks back at an extraordinarily important and memorable time in American history.

June 29, 2018 – May 19, 2019

Portrait Gallery

Lincoln's Contemporaries

This exhibition features Mathew Brady’s portraits of twenty celebrities—from showman P.T. Barnum and inventor Samuel Morse to musician Teresa Carreño and clergyman Henry Ward Beecher—who reflect the diversity of American intellectual and cultural life during Lincoln’s presidency.

May 13, 2016 – May 12, 2019

Portrait Gallery

The Historical Buddha and Friends

This exhibition features several figures that hold great meaning in Japanese Buddhism.

November 3, 2018 – May 5, 2019

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Represent: Hip-Hop Photography

Inspired by the four elements of hip-hop—DJ’s, MCs, breakdancers and graffiti—Represent showcases photographs from the Eyejammie Hip Hop Photography Collection.

March 5, 2018 – May 5, 2019

African American History and Culture Museum

Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018

Disrupting Craft presents the work of Tanya Aguiñiga, Sharif Bey, Dustin Farnsworth, and Stephanie Syjuco.

November 9, 2018 – May 5, 2019

Renwick Gallery

Garden Inspirations

Drawing inspiration from images in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens, these miniature landscapes are small-scale works of art designed to spur creativity.

September 3, 2016 – May 4, 2019

Ripley Center

The Case of Luisa Moreno

The display features objects representing Moreno’s work as a civil rights activist and labor organizer with union pins as well as her shawl and a pamphlet to rally national attention and halt Moreno’s deportation.

July 20, 2018 – April 30, 2019

American History Museum

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Pulse

Over the course of six months, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Pulse will animate the vital signs of hundreds of thousands of participants in the Hirshhorn’s largest interactive technology exhibition to date.

November 1, 2018 – April 28, 2019

Hirshhorn Museum