Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Portrait of Sarah Porter

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

May 17, 1976 – June 15, 1976

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

Anacostia Community Museum

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

Hirshhorn Museum

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

Portrait Gallery

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

Portrait Gallery

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

American Art Museum

...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

American Art Museum

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

American Art Museum

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

American Art Museum

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

American Art Museum

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

Renwick Gallery

The Sculpture and Drawings of Elie Nadelman

See a comprehensive exhibition of 102 sculptures and 41 drawings, including Nadelman's neo-classical works, portraits, decorative pieces, and a group entitled Ideal Heads.

December 18, 1975 – February 15, 1976

Hirshhorn Museum

Peggy Bacon: Personalities and Places

The artist, now 80, exhibits regularly, but this is the most comprehensive exhibition of her work every held -- 131 pastels, prints, drawings, paintings and embroideries.

December 5, 1975 – February 8, 1976

American Art Museum

Bust of Henry Wallace

View a recently presented bust of Henry Wallace marking the 35th anniversary of his inauguration as Vice President.

January 1, 1976 – February 3, 1976

Portrait Gallery

Portrait Miniatures from Private Collections

Trace the evolution of the American portrait miniature from Colonial times to that of the Civil War in these 125 works.

June 25, 1976 – January 9, 1976

American Art Museum

19th-Century American Landscape Paintings

See 18 paintings on loan from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, including 6 from the private collection of banker-philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran, the original benefactor of the Corcoran Gallery.

November 1975 – January 5, 1976

Smithsonian Castle

Christmas Seal Paintings 1975

Visit 54 holiday scenes by elementary school children from which the 1975 Christmas seals were selected.

November 14, 1975 – January 4, 1976

American Art Museum

Portrait of Golda Meir

See a recently acquired portrait of Golda Meir.

December 1, 1975 – January 4, 1976

Portrait Gallery

Blacks in the Westward Movement

View historical and biographical materials that illustrate the role of Blacks as explorers, settlers, wranglers, trail bosses, soldiers, government agents, rustlers, and con men in the western expansion of the U.S.

September 14, 1975 – January 4, 1976

Anacostia Community Museum

Unseen Flowers of the Desert

See color photographs by R.I. Gilbreath, who uses sepcial lenses in his camera and the heads of pins in his photos to indicate the size of the desert blooms nearly invisible to the naked eye.

November 4, 1975 – December 31, 1975

Natural History Museum

Bicentennial Bust of George Washington

See a Bicentennial gift to the United States from the world-reknowned English firm of Wedgewood.

November 5, 1975 – December 31, 1975

Portrait Gallery

Frederick A. Walpole, Plant Illustrator

Take a look at line drawings in ink, watercolor and pencil by Walpole, a botanical illustrator for Smithsonian publicatios at the turn of the last century.

November 4, 1975 – December 31, 1975

Natural History Museum

Renderings from the Index of American Design

See watercolor representations of weathervanes, carrousel animals and cigar-store figures from the Index of American Design.

January 15, 1975 – November 30, 1975

Renwick Gallery

Sculpture: American Directions, 1945-1975

The rich variety of materials and techniques used by American artists during the past 30 years is demonstrated in this major exhibition of 63 pieces by 54 artists.

October 3, 1975 – November 30, 1975

American Art Museum