Past Exhibitions

Portraits from The Americans: The Democratic Experience

Visit an exhibition, based on Daniel J. Boorstin's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, that will present the forward-thinking men and women who revolutionized America in the decades following the Civil War.

November 14, 1975 – September 6, 1976

The Sources of Country Music

See a mural completed by Thomas Hart Benton just before his death in 1975, as well as 27 sketches and studies in pencil, ink and oil made by the artist in conjunction with the mural.

June 29, 1976 – September 6, 1976

Homage to Joan Prats

See 11 prints by 8 artists, including Calder and Miro, in tribute to their friend, Joan Prats, a Barcelona hatmaker whose shop was a gathering place for artists and critics until his death in 1970.

June 29, 1976 – September 6, 1976

Behind the Scenes at the National Collection of Fine Arts

Understand the variety and scope of the museum's operations, using the Bicentennial exhibition America as Art as a focus.

April 16, 1976 – September 6, 1976

Robert Rauschenberg: Stoned Moon Series

In conjunction with the opening of the National Air and Space Museum, see a group of 29 lithographs by the artist. They were created after he watched the launching of Apollo 11 in 1969. The Series' title makes reference to stones used in the lithographic process.

June 29, 1976 – September 6, 1976

Bicentennial Banners

Enjoy 20 bright-colored nylon banners hung outdoors in the HSMG fountain court, in keeping with the custom of flying flags and banners at national celebrations.

March 31, 1976 – September 6, 1976

Boxes and Bowls: Decorated Containers by 19th Century Haida, Tlingit, Bella Bella and Tsimshian Indian Artists

View some 80 containers in the first exhibition in an art museum to single out Northwest Coast Indian work in carving, painting, bone-and-shell inlay of wood containers, and carved boxes and dippers of stone and horn.

November 15, 1973 – August 15, 1976

Arne Jacobsen, Danish Architect and Designer

See photographic panels that illustrate his architectural work, while more than 100 objects present a selection of his product designs.

May 13, 1976 – August 1, 1976

Treasures of London

See outstanding examples of 500 years of British silver work, including modern jewelry and pieces.

June 26, 1976 – July 18, 1976

Smithsonian Castle

Ancient Ecuador: Culture, Clay and Creativity, 3000-300 B.C.

See some 600 objects, among the earliest known ceramics in the Western hemisphere, that reveal much about the life of the early peoples along the coast of Ecuador.

April 14, 1976 – July 15, 1976

Natural History Museum

Ethel Floyd: Birder and Photographer

An enthusiastic interest in birds led this Mississippi resident to obtain a federal bird-banding permit. The close-up color photographs on view were taken by her while engaged in this activity.

April 1, 1976 – June 30, 1976

Natural History Museum

Man Made Mobile: The Western Saddle

See an exhibition of 20 saddles tracing the design evolution of American stock, riding, and cavalry saddles from the first Persian/Moorish combat type brought to the New World by Spanish Conquistadors.

July 19, 1974 – June 27, 1976

Portrait of Sarah Porter

View a portrait of the founder of Miss Porter's School.

May 17, 1976 – June 15, 1976

Anacostia Community Museum

John N. Robinson: A Retrospective

John N. Robinson began to paint at the age of twelve and studied art with Professors James V. Herring and James A. Porter at Howard University. In the late 1920s, he moved from northwest Washington, D.C. to Anacostia, a neighborhood in the city’s southeast. Inspired by daily life in Anacostia, he painted family, neighbors, landscapes and lilacs. The Anacostia Neighborhood Museum presents this retrospective in cooperation with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, part of the Corcoran’s Bicentennial year series featuring the work of Washington, D.C. artists. The exhibition will be at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from June 18 through July 30, 1976.

May 9, 1976 – June 13, 1976

Artists, Authors, and Others: Drawings by David Levine

See an exhibition of 65 pen and ink caricatures of personalities in the arts, including Levine's acerbic drawings of Rembrandt, Picasso, Pollock, Hemingway, Joyce, Mann, Stravinsky, Mahler, Fellini, Bogart and Chaplin.

March 4, 1976 – June 6, 1976

Is This Portrait Thomas Sully?

See Sully memorabilia - palette, brush box, easel, mannequin, portraits, price list and other documents included in a small exhibit.

December 22, 1975 – June 6, 1976

The Call: The Founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Follow the circumstances leading to the founding of the NAACP in 1909 and its first years in a small exhibit made up of manuscript pieces, pamphlets, portraits and photographs.

February 12, 1976 – May 23, 1976

George Miller and American Lithography

Salute the printer who did much to further the development of artist-lithographers in the U.S. after World War I.

February 13, 1976 – April 11, 1976

...and there was light: Studies by Abraham Rattner for the stained-glass window, Chicago Loop Synagogue

Trace the development of the monumental 30-foot-high, 40-foot-wide window for the sanctuary of the synagogue through 52 works--ranging from preliminary sketches to large-scale, full-color studies.

January 23, 1976 – March 28, 1976

Kenyans: Paintings by Lunda Hoyle Gill

Take in a series of paintings of the rural peoples of Kenya, whose varied dress and distinctive ornamentation reflect their diverse origins and separate development as well as the kinds of materials available to them.

January 6, 1976 – March 26, 1976

Natural History Museum

Emanuel Leutze, 1816-1868: Freedom is the Only King

See the first major Leutze exhibition held in this country, including 42 oils and drawings. Born a German, but raised as an American, his allegiance to the cause of freedom was constant and undivided.

January 16, 1976 – March 14, 1976

Art for Architecture: Washington, D.C., 1895-1925

Take in a display of some 50 photographs and drawings of murals to be found in buildings such as the Library of Congress, the Capitol, Georgetown University, Anderson House and St. Matthew's Cathedral.

April 4, 1975 – February 29, 1976

Bob Thompson: 1937-1966

View 22 oils and 5 works on paper by the black artist who achieved limited recognition during his lifetime, although his paintings are to be found in important American collections.

December 19, 1975 – February 22, 1976

Craft Multiples

Visit an exhibition representing the best of American production crafts -- those made in at least 10 of the same design.

July 4, 1975 – February 16, 1976