Past Exhibitions

Gifts of Mother Earth: Ceramics in the Zuni Tradition

See some 85 examples of traditional Zuni pottery selected primarily from the Stevenson Collection of NMNH.

June 14, 1985 – October 31, 1986

Natural History Museum

The History of Women's Gym Suits, or the Late Bloomers and How They Blossomed and Died

View graphics and examples of exercise clothes worn by American women from the 1830s to the 1980s.

May 22, 1986 – October 21, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Newcomb Pottery: An Enterprise for Southern Women

See ceramic objects produced at Newcomb College, Tulane University, one of the important centers of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the U.S. and the only major pottery center in the South.

August 19, 1986 – October 19, 1986

Hollywood: Legend and Reality

Explore the development of the motion picture industry in Hollywood and the impact of movies on American culture represented by props, costumes, and artifacts from well-known movies, artists and photographers.

September 5, 1986 – October 12, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Pewter

Admire and purchase a range of objects from functional to sculptural, including boxes with inlaid stones, mirrors, paperweights, candlesticks, vases, and cups.

August 1, 1986 – October 5, 1986

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Wonders of Creation, Oddities of Existence: An Exhibition in Celebration of Halley's Comet

See 21 paintings, 2 pieces of metalwork, and a ceramic bowl that examine Islamic attitudes toward the cosmos from the 13th through the 18th centuries.

March 3, 1986 – October 1, 1986

All in a Day's Work

View photographs depicting the daily work of postal inspectors.

August 23, 1986 – October 1, 1986

A Century of Museum Collecting

The centennial of the Smithsonian's National Philatelic Collection is commemorated in a small exhibit including some of its earliest collected artifacts.

August 23, 1986 – October 1, 1986

Gotcha!

View artifacts of evidence used to solve "mail crimes" by the postal inspection service.

August 23, 1986 – October 1, 1986

A Century of Organized Philately

This small exhibit commemorates the 100th anniversary of the American Philatelic Society, America's largest and oldest philatelic organization.

August 23, 1986 – October 1, 1986

Focusing on Art: Peter A. Juley & Son

Visit 30 photographs selected from the 127,000 photographic negatives comprising the NMAA Juley Collection. Believed to be the largest single photographic record of American art, the collection is particularly valuable because it often contains the only surviving visual record of the original state of many works of art.

November 22, 1985 – September 30, 1986

Recent Acquisitions

View Dabrowsky V by Jacob Kainen and Black and White Tipped Flower by James Surls, two works presented in July to NMAA in honor of Mrs. Adelyn Breeskin's 90th birthday.

August 1, 1986 – September 30, 1986

The Art of Turned Wood Bowls: The Edward Jacobson Collection

See 90 examples of lathe-turned wood bowls in many styles and in a variety of woods, created by 21 American master turners in the past decade.

April 17, 1986 – September 28, 1986

Davy Crockett: Gentleman from the Cane

Get to know Crockett and his contemporaries through mementos and first editions in an exhibition that traces the transformation of a relatively obscure farmer, hunter, and politician from Tennessee into a larger than life hero.

June 14, 1986 – September 14, 1986

Portrait Gallery

Featured Object

View The Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty, a wall hanging by Katherine Westphal.

July 1, 1986 – September 14, 1986

Figure Prints: The Washington Print Club 11th Members' Biennial Exhibition

See 70 prints documenting artists' view of the human figure from the late 19th century to the present

May 16, 1986 – September 7, 1986

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Embroidered Ship Portraits

View some 50 embroidered "ship portraits", which, like scrimshaw, were the work of 19th-century sailors during slow times at sea.

June 3, 1986 – September 7, 1986

Recent Acquisitions

See 9 collages and box constructions by Joseph Cornell selected from 119 of his works recently given to the Joseph Cornell Study Center at NMAA.

August 1, 1986 – September 1, 1986

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Johnson Wax Buildings: Building a Corporate Cathedral

Admire two masterpieces of 20th-century architecture, the Johnson Wax Co.'s administration building (1936) and research tower (1943) in Racine, Wisconsin, documented by 22 original drawings and sketches from Wright's unpublished archives as well as photographs, correspondence, models, furniture, and a videotape of Wright discussing the buildings.

April 26, 1986 – September 1, 1986

Fields of Grass

A worldwide selection of grasses is shown in drawings, watercolors, and prints executed by artists from all over the world.

June 6, 1986 – August 31, 1986

Natural History Museum

The Excellent Mr. Ray

This exhibition celebrates the 300th anniversary of the publication of John Ray's book, Historia Planetarum, the first scientific work on botany.

June 3, 1986 – August 29, 1986

Portraits by Brady: Imperial Photographs from the Harvard College Library

See 60 imperial prints selected from a collection recently located at Harvard University's Fogg Museum.

April 25, 1986 – August 24, 1986

Portrait Gallery

John Frazee, Sculptor

Examine the life and work of Frazee (1790-1852), the first native-born American to carve a successful portrait in marble, and the first to receive federal patronage, through the exhibition of all his major sculpted portraits.

April 25, 1986 – August 24, 1986

Portrait Gallery

25 Years of National Poison Prevention Week

See 25 posters originally prepared for the annual campaigns of National Poison Prevention Week.

August 5, 1986 – August 18, 1986