Past Exhibitions

Locks from Iran: Pre-Islamic to Twentieth Century

Examine the art and technology of lockmaking, particularly the padlock, shown in 460 examples of Persian metalwork.

January 29, 1977 – March 6, 1977

Not the Model Boy

See an exhibition of Mark Twain portraits, photos, books and documents marking the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

December 9, 1976 – March 5, 1977

Chac-Mool: A Bicentennial Loan from Mexico

On loan from the National Museum of History and Anthropology, Mexico City, is a major piece of Maya-Toltec sculpture (978-1185 A.D.) In addition, 12-15 Meso-American works from the HMSG collection are on view.

November 19, 1976 – March 5, 1977

Native American People: Photographs by Susanne Anderson

Visit Ms. Anderson's work, described as having "intimate realism without intrusion of privacy of the individual or tribe."

January 3, 1977 – February 27, 1977

Native Americans 500 Years Later

Photographer Jose C. Farber's work shows Indians as they live today in the U.S.

January 3, 1977 – February 27, 1977

Peter Plagens: Works on Paper

Visit a loan exhibition of about 33 works in mixed media and pastel by the West Coast artist and author of Sunshine Muse: Contemporary Art on the West Coast.

December 2, 1976 – February 6, 1977

e.e. cummings: The Poet as Artist

See the HMSG collection of 63 drawings, 5 watercolors and one oil painting by the American poet exhibited as part of Inscapes: Words and Images, a city-wide festival of poetry and its relation to the visual arts.

December 2, 1976 – February 6, 1977

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Man Transforms: Aspects of Design

Enjoy fresh insight into the causes and effects of design in this inaugural exhibition created by an international team of artists, architects and designers.

October 7, 1976 – February 6, 1977

Abroad in America: Visitors to the New Nation, 1776-1914

Visit the third and final installation of a 3-part Bicentennial exhibition, featuring visitors who were important in taking their views of America to a wide foreign audience.

April 9, 1976 – January 30, 1977

The Art of Poetry: 1950-1975

Visit 53 paintings and graphics presenting a select range of works by American artists based on specific poems, American and foreign.

November 19, 1976 – January 23, 1977

Jacob Kainen: Prints, A Retrospective

See about 70 works of the Washington painter, ranging from representational to non-objective in style, and created in several processes--woodcut, intaglio, and black and white and color lithography.

November 19, 1976 – January 23, 1977

Treasures of Cyprus

Cyprian art and culture, ranging in time from the Neolithic Age to the 19th century, is illustrated through 178 objects.

November 24, 1976 – January 17, 1977

Alfred Leslie

View an exhibition of monumental figurative works, including 11 large oil paintings and a small selection of drawings assembled especially for HMSG by the show's organizer, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

November 11, 1976 – January 9, 1977

Anacostia Community Museum

Black Women: Achievement Against the Odds

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

February 8, 1976 – January 2, 1977

Robert Rauschenberg

Witness the variety of the artist's achievements in combine paintings, sculpture, assemblages, drawings, prints, posters, photographs and multiples. About 150 works from the 1940s to the present are included, some well-known and some never before shown publicly.

October 30, 1976 – January 2, 1977

Hans Hofmann

This major loan exhibition re-examines one of this century's most important painters. View 75 oil paintings, dated 1935-65, spanning Hofmann's career in the United States.

October 14, 1976 – January 2, 1977

A Touch of the Poet: Portraits from the Permanent Collection

Take a self-guided tour of portraits of American poets, including W.H.Auden, Stephen Vincent Benet, Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Marianne Moore.

December 1, 1976 – December 31, 1976

Photoportraits of the Himba: A Cattle Herding People of the Angolia-Namibia Borderland

View 30 color photographs taken by MNH African ethnologist, Dr. Gordon Gibson, during his 1960-73 fieldwork.

October 4, 1976 – December 26, 1976

The Spirit of Fact: The Daguerrotypes of Southworth and Hawes (1843-1861)

View more than 100 daguerrotypes from the nation's most prestigious photographic portrait studio of the mid-19th century.

July 22, 1976 – December 19, 1976

Winslow Homer Drawings

Visit a selection of works from the Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design's collections to mark the opening of that museum in New York.

October 7, 1976 – December 12, 1976

The "Star of Independence" Diamond Necklace

See a 76-carat diamond displayed as a pendant on a necklace made up of 75 smaller diamonds; it is considered to be of near flawless quality.

November 1, 1976 – December 1, 1976

1876: American Art of the Centennial

The majority of the 25 paintings and 5 pieces of sculpture in this exhibition were shown in the American gallery at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876.

May 28, 1976 – November 28, 1976

The American Presidency in Political Cartoons

Enjoy more than 100 cartoons, which provide a visual and narrative commentary on the Presidency from Washington to Ford.

October 15, 1976 – November 28, 1976

Thomas Hart Benton

See the recent acquisition Self-Portrait with Rita, painted in 1922 after Benton's marriage.

September 12, 1976 – November 28, 1976