Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Flexible Medium: Art Fabric from the Museum Collection

See some 30 works that demonstrate diverse approaches by American artists to the structure and surface embellishment of textiles.

January 20, 1984 – August 18, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Thomas Paine: A Hero Scorned

See likenesses of Paine in this small exhibition including a portrait by John Wesley Jarvis as well as caricatures by British, French, and American satiric artists.

February 21, 1985 – August 11, 1985

Portrait Gallery

View a major retrospective of Robert McCall highlighting his visionary paintings of cities of the future, his work on the movies 2001, The Black Hole, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and his career illustrating books and magazines.

September 26, 1984 – August 5, 1985

Air and Space Museum

China Decorating in America

This exhibition highlights women china painters and the emergence of china decorating as a hobby and a business.

May 10, 1985 – July 30, 1985

American History Museum

Northrop N-1M Flying Wing

See the "flying wing," John K. Northrop's bright-yellow aircraft with its clean, simple design that epitomizes the technological developments that occurred during the "golden age of flight."

April 5, 1984 – July 30, 1985

Air and Space Museum

Rural Electrification

See 16 photographs, documents, and objects highlighting the 50 years since the Rural Electrification Administration was established.

May 1, 1985 – July 30, 1985

American History Museum

1985 Discover Graphics

See some 45 etchings in a juried exhibition of works by promising young art students who have participated in the 1985 Discover Graphics training program.

June 1, 1985 – July 30, 1985

American History Museum

Architecture in Silver

Admire silver coffee and tea services designed by 11 internationally known architects, executed by Italian silversmiths.

May 3, 1985 – July 29, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Aditi: A Celebration of Life

This exhibition features more than 1,500 objects is complemented by some 40 performing artists, craftspeople and performers.

June 4, 1985 – July 28, 1985

Natural History Museum

Fanfare, Part III (19th- and 20th-Century Fans)

View 30 19th- and 20th-century fans from the NMAA collection, including examples of Chinese Export, hand screens, lace, and painted styles. This is the final segment of a 3-part exhibition.

January 25, 1985 – July 21, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Creation & Renewal: Views of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church

Engage with 37 paintings, oil sketches, and drawings of the Ecuadorian volcano, Cotopaxi, in an exhibition that documents the artist's sustained involvement with one theme and demonstrates his scientific beliefs.

March 29, 1985 – July 14, 1985

American Art Museum

Black Women: Achievements Against the Odds

Learn about Black women whose accomplishments have changed our lives, from 1700 to 1977.

October 21, 1984 – June 30, 1985

Anacostia Community Museum

The de Havilland DH-4 (from "Flaming Coffin" to Living Legend)

This aircraft, the most used U.S. combat aircraft in World War I, was on view in the Arts and Industries Building for many years.

November 16, 1984 – June 30, 1985

Air and Space Museum

Thomas Hart Benton Mural

A major mural painting, Thomas Hart Benton's Achelous and Hercules is considered a splendid example of the artist's ability to raise the American experience to the level of myth.

April 1, 1985 – June 30, 1985

American Art Museum

Saving Our Soil: 50 Years

Over 25 documents, photographs, and objects celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Soil Conservation Service.

April 13, 1985 – June 30, 1985

American History Museum

1905 - 1985: 80 Years of Aerospace History

See 10 photographs portraying great events in aerospace history, including the flight of the 1st seaplane, the 1st spacewalk (by a Russian), and the 1stAmerican spacewalk.

January 16, 1985 – June 30, 1985

Air and Space Museum

Duala Cameroon Boat

See a dugout canoe model made by the Duala people of the Cameroon's coastal forests used for sea fishing.

May 10, 1985 – June 20, 1985

African Art Museum

Dimensional Rapture

See a mini-exhibition of 13 three-dimensional works created from "found objects" by members of a local art sorority, Eta Phi Sigma.

May 1, 1985 – June 16, 1985

Anacostia Community Museum

William Edward West: Kentucky Painter

See 40 portraits in the first major study of the ante-bellum painter

April 12, 1985 – June 16, 1985

Portrait Gallery

Quilts

Admire 3 quilts made between 1847 and the early 1900s.

October 15, 1983 – June 15, 1985

American History Museum

The Preservation of the Wright Flyer

The Wright brothers' Flyer, usually on view in Milestones of Flight, is being restored, in the first extensive work to be done on the Flyer since Orville Wright prepared it for exhibition in 1916.

February 8, 1985 – June 13, 1985

Air and Space Museum

African Masterpieces from the Musee de L'Homme

View 100 world-renowned works of art from West and Central Africa, most of which have never been on display outside of France.

April 8, 1985 – June 9, 1985

African Art Museum

Joseph Wright, American Artist (1756-1793)

Visit some 30 paintings and graphics survey the career of the artist, the first American-born student at the Royal Academy of Art, London.

February 15, 1985 – June 9, 1985

Portrait Gallery

20th-Century Drawings from the Museum's Collection

This installation of 30 works on paper includes works by Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Larry Rivers.

April 1, 1985 – June 6, 1985

Hirshhorn Museum

Japanese Dolls of Festivity and Friendship

In honor of the Cherry Blossom Festival, take in a selection of some 12 dolls traditionally associated with Girls' and Boys' Day Festivals in Japan.

March 15, 1985 – May 27, 1985

Natural History Museum