Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Cleaning Up America's Hazardous Waste: The Superfund Program

Over the past 25 years, the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund program has cleaned up 966 hazardous waste sites across the United States.

December 9, 2005 – January 29, 2006

Natural History Museum

Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey

See 68 of the world's finest and most luxurious imperial Ottoman royal textiles.

October 29, 2005 – January 22, 2006

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design

View more than 200 works to chart the stylistic design history of modern American production silver from 1925 to 2000 and to reintroduce designers working at this time.

September 16, 2005 – January 22, 2006

Renwick Gallery

Wall of Expression

This mural, painted by staff and artists from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, commemorates the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001.

December 1, 2001 – January 11, 2006

American Art Museum

Air Transportation

Follow the evolution of air transportation of people, mail, and cargo in this exhibit of early aircraft.

July 1, 1976 – January 9, 2006

Air and Space Museum

Visit a rotating exhibition that features innovative, experimental works from the museum's permanent collection. Each installation offers a different grouping of works gathered around a theme or individual artists and provides new ways of looking at its diverse holdings as well as in-depth exploration of notable artists.

November 3, 2005 – January 8, 2006

Hirshhorn Museum

Faces of Inspiration

See the work of 6 Bell Multicultural High School students in the National Portrait Gallery's Teen Ambassadors program who curated Faces of Inspiration, an 8-panel interpretive exhibition showcasing 24 of their photographs and personal essays on community members who they view as heroes.

October 21, 2005 – January 8, 2006

Ripley Center

Retratos: 2,000 Years of Latin American Portraits

Examine an overview of Latin American portraiture, comprising more than 100 portraits from over 15 countries beginning in the Precolumbian era, continuing through the Viceregal and Independence periods, and into the modern era.

October 21, 2005 – January 8, 2006

Ripley Center

Excavating Design: 18th-Century Drawings and Prints from the Permanent Collection

View a selection of 18th-century European drawings and prints of ancient Rome from the museum's expansive collection features works by such artists as Giovanni Panini, Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

November 4, 2005 – January 8, 2006

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Smithsonian Magazine: Through Our Readers' Eyes

View the 50 finalists from the 2005 Smithsonian magazine photo contest for amateur photographers.

June 15, 2005 – January 3, 2006

American History Museum

La Causa: The Delano Grape Strike of 1965-1970

This display features a UFW flag, posters, buttons, and a short-handled hoe used by a California farm laborer to mark the 40th anniversary of the strike.

September 16, 2005 – January 3, 2006

American History Museum

New Tribe: New York: Alan Michelson

In multimedia works created over the last 15 years, Alan Michelson's work focuses on both the city and state of New York and reveals his continuing interest in history and origins.

September 17, 2005 – January 1, 2006

American Indian Museum New York

Smithson's Gift

Trace the history of the Smithsonian beginning with James Smithson (1765-1829) who started the tradition of philanthropy with his bequest to the United States.

January 26, 1996 – December 29, 2005

Smithsonian Castle

Love on Paper: Handmade Greeting Cards by Ernest Dudley Chase

On view are handmade greeting card created to celebrate holidays and special occasions by Ernest Dudley Chase.

August 11, 2005 – December 20, 2005

American History Museum

Tool Chests: Symbol and Servant

A selection of tool chests tells us much about workers and workplaces.

August 16, 1991 – December 9, 2005

American History Museum

Shifting Gears: A National Juried Exhibit for Young Artists with Disabilities, Ages 16-25

View 15 award-winning works of art by young artists (ages 16-25) with disabilities.

September 27, 2005 – November 29, 2005

Ripley Center

Native Modernism: The Art of George Morrison and Allan Houser

See works by George Morrison (Grand Portage Chippewa) and Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache), who have significantly influenced the direction of contemporary Native American art.

September 21, 2004 – November 6, 2005

American Indian Museum DC

Alaska Native Art and Culture

See some 33 objects from the Alaska Native Arts Foundation and 20 photographs depicting Alaskan Native craftspeople and life in rural Alaska by Carrie Anvil-Kiana, Ryan Olson, and Holly Nordlum.

November 4, 2005 – November 6, 2005

Natural History Museum

Latino and Latin American Collections

In three cases, a variety of objects from the museum's collection document various aspects of Latino and Latin American history and culture, including religion, popular culture, business, sports, labor, and entertainment.

September 12, 2005 – October 31, 2005

American History Museum

Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance

Visit the first exhibition devoted to the subject of technical textiles, featuring highly engineered materials designed for ultimate performance.

April 8, 2005 – October 30, 2005

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Directions: Janet Cardiff

Multimedia sound artist Janet Cardiff (b. 1957, Canada) has designed a site-specific, outdoor audio walking tour around the Hirshhorn and National Mall titled Words drawn in water.

August 3, 2005 – October 30, 2005

Hirshhorn Museum

Rusticity Refined: Kyoto Ceramics by Ninsei

See a small exhibition of 13 objects that compares objects by the famed Kyoto potter Nonomura Ninsei that embody the new asethetic form of porcelains with prototypes of the Momoyama period.

March 19, 2005 – October 23, 2005

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Games, Contests and Artful Play in Japan

Visit this exhibition and a concurrent installation of screens in a neighboring gallery that present paintings and objects from the 14th to 20th centuries illustrating a variety of Japanese games and contests.

March 19, 2005 – October 23, 2005

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

View several hundred of the museum's greatest treasures by such artists as Raphaelle Peale, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, and Victor Higgins.

February 27, 2004 – October 22, 2005

Renwick Gallery

Forwarding Address Required

Cards and letters exchanged between Japanese-American children sent away to internment camps during World War II and their San Diego librarian revealed the role of the mail as a civil liberty and witness to history.

May 4, 2001 – October 17, 2005

Postal Museum