Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Fantasy and Imagination: Sculpture by Eugenie Gershoy

View 24 fanciful and whimsical works executed in dextrine, papier-mache, and ceramic, many incised and painted. Some were created in the 1930s, while others were produced as recently as 1979.

July 27, 1984 – January 20, 1985

American Art Museum

Aviation Anniversaries: 1934, The Watershed Year in Air Transportation

Examine models of a Sikorsky S-42 and a Douglas DC-2, aircraft considered to be far superior to their antecedents.

September 1, 1984 – January 15, 1985

Air and Space Museum

Photographic Portraits of North American Indians in the Gallery of the Smithsonian

See some 260 photographs of Native Americans, re-creating both the content and the ambience of the 1860s exhibition in the Smithsonian Castle, which marked the beginning of the SI collection of Native American portrait photographs.

June 1, 1984 – January 15, 1985

Natural History Museum

European Modernism: Selections from the Museum's Collection

Some 75 examples of European modernist paintings and sculptures from the permanent collection survey major movements from 1915 through the 1960s.

September 13, 1984 – January 13, 1985

Hirshhorn Museum

Bruno V. Nordberg: Engineer and Builder

This representative selection of photographs, blueprints, and other archival material relate to the steam engine and were selected to illustrate the role of archival materials in museology.

November 16, 1984 – January 10, 1985

American History Museum

Yellow Diamond from Zale Corporation

Marvel at the largest existing diamond-in-the-rough in the world, weighing 890 carats.

November 22, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Natural History Museum

Content: A Contemporary Focus, 1974-1984

The central theme of this major exhibition is the proposition that content--a work of art's meaning in broad social and cultural contexts--has emerged as a central issue of the last ten years, challenging stylistic innovation as the chief impulse in contemporary art.

October 4, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Hirshhorn Museum

Fanfare, Part II

See 29 fans in the second segment of a 3-part exhibition that are examples of neoclassic, brise, Empire, and Gothic Revival fans as well as lithographed fans, popular in the mid-19th century.

July 27, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Contemporary Crafts from Colorado

Admire and purchase objects created by 27 members of the Colorado Artists and Craftsmen, including quilts, jewelry, ceramic and glass pieces, beading on canvas, needlework, batik, and woodwork.

November 8, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Renwick Gallery

Objects of Adornment: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore

Enjoy 213 jewelry pieces ranging from simple stone amulets of the ancient Near East to the elaborate 20th-century creations of Lalique and Tiffany.

October 16, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

China Today

See photographs of present-day China taken by contemporary Chinese photographers, portraying daily life.

November 10, 1984 – January 6, 1985

Natural History Museum

1984 Trees of Christmas

See 12 holiday trees decorated with various themes.

December 14, 1984 – January 6, 1985

American History Museum

John Olson: Concepts for Space

View 21 watercolors by American artist/engineer John Olson, who works at Boeing to create concepts for future space stations, satellites, heavy launch vehicles, and other space craft.

September 27, 1984 – January 2, 1985

Air and Space Museum

Christmas Tree Decorated by Associates in 1984

See holiday decorations in the Great Hall including the Christmas tree decorated with handcrafted ornaments made locally, and collected from the U.S. and abroad.

December 9, 1984 – January 1, 1985

Smithsonian Castle

Islamic Manuscript Illumination

Admire the decoration of religious and secular manuscripts in 19 folios produced in Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan between the 10th and 16th centuries.

January 27, 1984 – December 31, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Early Flight: 1900-1911 (Wright's Photography Collection)

Take in 56 photographs from the Wright brothers' personal photograph collection of their flying machine, many of which were taken by the brothers themselves,

November 28, 1984 – December 30, 1984

Air and Space Museum

Werner Drewes, Sixty-Five Years of Printmaking

See 110 woodcuts, intaglios, and lithographs drawn from NMAA's extensive holdings in an exhibition that celebrates the artist's 85th birthday.

October 5, 1984 – December 24, 1984

American Art Museum

Autumn Colors

View artworks from the Kamakura and Edo periods that bring together the colors that Japanese artists have used to describe a variety of autumnal subjects.

October 19, 1984 – December 14, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Prints 1960-1970/Selections from Collection

Marvel at 38 works that document a new involvement in printmaking by prominent painters, many of them associated with the "pop" and "Op" movements, as well as a spirit of experimentation that characterized the period.

May 25, 1984 – December 9, 1984

American Art Museum

James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art

Visit nearly 300 paintings, watercolors, pastels, drawings, and prints by James McNeill Whistler as part of the observance of the 150th anniversary of his birth.

May 11, 1984 – December 2, 1984

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Gold in Miniature

View a 4-inch gold pendant in the form of a mask, a fine example of the goldsmith's art from the Ivory Coast.

July 13, 1984 – December 2, 1984

African Art Museum

G. Arthur Cooper and Richard E. Grant: Mining a Texas Treasure Trove of Fossils

This Research in Natural History Case highlights the field work of the two MNH paleobiologists in the Glass Mountains of southwest Texas.

April 1, 1983 – December 2, 1984

Natural History Museum

Treasures from the Shanghai Museum: 6,000 Years of Chinese Art

This exhibition spans Chinese art history from prehistoric to modern times. All 232 masterpieces, never before seen in the Western world, are from the Shanghai Museum.

August 11, 1984 – November 30, 1984

Natural History Museum

1984 Friends of the National Zoo Photography Contest

See some 30 photographs by the winners of the Friends of the National Zoo1984 contest.

November 1, 1984 – November 30, 1984

National Zoo

Running Fun (Campaign Humor)

See examples of 19th- and 20th-century campaign humor, including political cartoons and campaign novelties marking the emergence of the donkey and the elephant as symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties.

August 2, 1984 – November 30, 1984

American History Museum