Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Art of the Cosmic Age

Enjoy approximately 70 paintings, prints, and sculptures in a collaborative exhibition by Western and Soviet space artists.

May 15, 1991 – January 6, 1992

Air and Space Museum

The Aviation Careers of Igor Sikorsky

Discover highlights of the life and achievements of Igor Sikorsky, a pioneer of vertical flight. The exhibit features the original VS-300 helicopter.

November 16, 1989 – September 23, 1991

Air and Space Museum

The Gulf War: Air Power in Operation Desert Storm

Take a close look at how air technology fared during one of the largest-scale air offensives in history.

April 8, 1991 – September 3, 1991

Air and Space Museum

The Space Shuttle: 10th Anniversary

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the space shuttle with a display of various shuttle models sporting creative paint schemes.

April 4, 1991 – May 31, 1991

Air and Space Museum

RAP 25th Anniversary Exhibition

See 2 kites from the Smithsonian's Resident Associate Program Kite Festival.

September 16, 1990 – December 31, 1990

Air and Space Museum

Drawings and Things by Rowland Emett

Take a light-hearted look at aircraft and spacecraft, Including drawings, paintings, and artistic machines by the artist who created the moving sculpture Pussiewillow II for the Air and Space Museum.

December 21, 1989 – November 26, 1990

Air and Space Museum

World Aerobatic Championship Trophies

See 3 trophies won by U.S. Aerobatic Team in the 1988 world competition.

December 1, 1989 – May 31, 1990

Air and Space Museum

Eyewitness to Apollo 11 (Art Show)

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the lunar landing through 26 works of art created during the Apollo program.

July 14, 1989 – February 12, 1990

Air and Space Museum

Aeropittura Futurista: Images of Flight in Italian Art (1913-1942)

Learn about Italian Futurism, the first modern art movement to embrace technology as subject matter, in this exhibit of paintings, photographs, documents and books.

June 16, 1989 – October 2, 1989

Air and Space Museum

U.S. Customs Service: The War Against Drugs

Through photographs, films, and aircraft models, the exhibition illustrates the complex technology used in tracking smugglers of illegal drugs.

December 18, 1987 – September 15, 1989

Air and Space Museum

Neptune Encounter With the Voyager

Watch the latest coverage of Voyager encountering Neptune via video monitors in Milestones of Flight and Space Hall.

August 1, 1989 – September 8, 1989

Air and Space Museum

Blockade and Airlift: Legend or Lesson? The Berlin Crisis of 1948-1949

Aircraft models and more than 60 photographs illustrate the remarkable effort of the Berlin airlift.

June 19, 1989 – July 7, 1989

Air and Space Museum

Focus on Flight (1988 Photography Contest Winners)

See the photographs from a recent contest for amateur photographers held at the Air & Space Museum.

October 31, 1988 – April 30, 1989

Air and Space Museum

Horizons: Paintings and Drawings by Robert Taylor

See 50 oil paintings and numerous pencil studies by this contemporary British artist whose work captures the role of Britain in the air battles of World War II, along with other events in British aviation and naval history.

April 28, 1988 – April 2, 1989

Air and Space Museum

European Space Agency (ESA) Exhibition

View models and artifacts that highlight 4 space science missions of the European Space Agency.

August 25, 1988 – January 20, 1989

Air and Space Museum

State of the Universe

See 6 paintings by contemporary artist Andreas Nottebohm exhibited in conjunction with the Albert Einstein Planetarium show, State of the Universe.

November 20, 1986 – January 1, 1989

Air and Space Museum

QN—The Time Traveler

Visit a life-sized, radio-controlled replica of a large prehistoric "creature," a pterodactyl-like craft resembling the Quetzalcoatlus northropi, whose 35-foot-plus fossil remains were found in Texas in the early 1970s.

May 19, 1986 – September 15, 1988

Air and Space Museum

Focus on Flight (1987 Photography Contest Winners)

See 40 photographs, including 12 award winners, that were entries in a recent photography contest at the museum.

January 27, 1988 – July 30, 1988

Air and Space Museum

Leroy Grumman and the F-6F Hellcat

See a newly-restored F-6F Hellcat, displayed on a simulated carrier deck, in this exhibition highlighting aircraft and spacecraft developed under the supervision of Leroy Grumman.

October 2, 1985 – July 4, 1988

Air and Space Museum

Into the Sunlit Splendor: The Art of William S. Phillips

See 40 paintings and drawings by the contemporary artist, from WWII airplanes to the Space Shuttle, and the landscapes surrounding them.

June 19, 1987 – January 31, 1988

Air and Space Museum

Lollipops and Launch Pads: Children's Space Art

See how kindergarten children from Orange County, California schools view space exploration through drawings and paintings.

July 2, 1987 – November 22, 1987

Air and Space Museum

100th Anniversary of Count Gianni Caproni

Commemorate the birth of this leader in Italian aviation, who designed Italy's 1st successful aircraft, and see his 1911 wood-and-fabric monoplane, the Caproni CA-9, used in Italy for passenger and military transport.

September 12, 1986 – August 10, 1987

Air and Space Museum

Lite Eagle: Project Daedalus Prototype Plane

Marvel at a prototype plane for Project Daedalus, in which the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) plans the flight of a human-powered aircraft from the island of Crete to the mainland of Greece.

April 20, 1987 – August 7, 1987

Air and Space Museum

Earth Views

Take in a major juried art competition of views of the Earth from on high, or of various air and spacecraft used to view the Earth from above.

May 8, 1986 – April 27, 1987

Air and Space Museum

Voyager Encounters Uranus

Monitor live-TV images of the black-ringed planet Uranus and its 5 moons as seen by the robot spacecraft Voyager 2 on its fly-by during January and February.

January 17, 1986 – January 1, 1987

Air and Space Museum