Anacostia Community Museum

A dynamic, community-oriented exploration of the cultural expressions and social experience of African Americans awaits visitors of the Anacostia Community Museum.

Exhibits:

Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities through Language

08/09/2010 - 03/27/2011
Main Galleries
This exhibition documents the historical journey made by people from Africa to the Americas, along with their language and music. In the 1930s, Lorenzo Dow Turner discovered that the Gullah people of Georgia and South Carolina retained parts of the culture and language of their West African enslaved ancestors. Turner's research produced a living treasury of previously unknown traditions, songs, and folkways that also uncovered and illuminated the connections with West African and Afro-Brazilian communities. On view rare photographs, recordings, and artifacts collected by Turner from those Gullah communities in the United States, Brazil, and West Africa.

Outdoor Sculpture: Real Justice by Allen Uzikee Nelson

05/26/2004 - Ongoing
Near front entrance
Real Justice, the museum's first public sculpture installed May, 26, 2004, was created by Washington metal sculptor Allen Uzikee Nelson. This 15-foot weathered iron sculpture is dedicated to the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and is reflective of African art, as Adinkra symbols are used to depict the justice system and aspects of Marshall's life.

The African Presence in Mexico also includes a section on "Who Are We Now? Roots, Resistance, and Recognition," which charts the history of the relationship between Mexicans and African Americans in the United States, as well as the relationship between African Americans and the country of Mexico.

Separate and Unequaled: Black Baseball in the District of Columbia

11/10/2008 - Ongoing
Program Room
Please Note: Call first to check the monthly viewing schedule as the exhibition may not be available when an activity is taking place in the Program Room: 202-633-4820 (recording).

After a recent successful run at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., a condensed version of this popular exhibition is on view at the museum. From Reconstruction to the second half of the 20th century, baseball, the great American pastime, was played in Washington, D.C., on segregated fields. This exhibition looks at the phenomenal popularity and community draw of this sport when played by African Americans. Featured are such personalities as Josh Gibson and "Buck" Leonard, star players of the Negro Leagues most celebrated team, the Washington Homestead Grays. The show also highlights community teams that gave rise to the various amateur, collegiate, and semi-pro black baseball teams and leagues.

See "Around the Mall" in the July 2008 Smithsonian magazine: p. 22.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Together, the Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art form the national museum of Asian art for the United States.

Exhibits:

Fiona Tan: Rise and Fall

09/25/2010 - 01/16/2011
Sublevel 1
In the first major exhibition of this acclaimed artist's work to be shown in the United States, Rise and Fall documents a new stage in Fiona Tan's longstanding interest in the documentary, featuring photographs, drawings, digital installations, and large-scale projections. Born in Indonesia and based in Amsterdam, Tan explores memory and identity in a world increasingly shaped by global culture. Her photographs and video installations deftly meld the past and the present in profoundly evocative works that explore the power of images in constructing memories and histories. While her recent projects often involve actors and location shootings, Tan continues to draw on historical objects -- Japanese photographs, 17th-century Dutch paintings, or 19th-century architectural follies -- conveying that past and present are always in flux.

Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia

05/15/2010 - 01/23/2011
Sublevel 1
The fascinating story of bronze sculpture and casting in Cambodia is revealed through 36 exceptional works. These magnificent examples dating from the prehistoric period to the post-Angkorian period (3rd century BCE to 16th century CE) presents the origins, uses, and techniques of bronze casting and the development of a distinctly Cambodian style. This exhibition is the result of an ongoing partnership between the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the National Museum of Cambodia, as the museums worked together to establish a metals conservation laboratory at the museum, the first in Cambodia. Seven of the works on view are among the first bronzes conserved in the lab by the staff of the National Museum of Cambodia.

• Lama, Patron, Artist: The Great Situ Panchen: In studying the sacred arts of Tibetan Buddhism, we seldom know who the artist was, let alone his life story. Through new scholarship and recently discovered paintings, this exhibition focuses on an extraordinary Tibetan artist Situ Panchen (1700-1774), who was not only a renowned painter and designer of paintings, but also a revered scholar, teacher, and the founder of Palpung monastery. By bringing together thangkas painted and designed by Situ, sculptures of his chosen deity Tara, and Chinese works from the Freer Gallery of Art collection, this exhibition reveals not only Situ Panchen's genius and enduring influence, but also his engagement with transnational Buddhist culture.

• The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. Kandell Collection: On public display for the first time, this privately held reconstructed shrine room features Tibetan Buddhist sacred art created between the 13th and 19th centuries. Works of art on view include bronze sculptures, thangkas (scroll paintings), ritual objects, textile banners, and painted furniture, all presented in a religiously correct manner. This shrine is acknowledged by practicing Buddhists as a sacred place.

Perspectives: Hai Bo

03/27/2010 - 02/27/2011
Street Level, Pavilion
As part of the Perspectives series of contemporary Asian art, on view are five large-scale photographs from Hai Bo's Northern Series, which invite viewers to enter the vast panoramas of the artist's childhood memories, observe the subtle changes of nature across seasons, and encounter the gentle transience of life. Hai Bo (born 1962, Changchun, China) looks to the desolate plains of northeastern China for his images. Trained as a painter, Hai Bo took up photography in the 1980s as he became captivated by the camera's ability to stop time and evoke memories. For over two decades, he has been returning to his hometown in Jilin Province to capture the people and places of his youth, creating deeply moving portraits of resilience amidst the growing isolation of rural China.

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the May 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 26.

Through photography and video, Yeondoo Jung (b. 1969, Jinju, Korea) invites the viewer into the dreams and memories of others. This exhibition features two new video works, including a multi-screen installation, in which anonymous strangers are filmed recalling moments in their lives. As stories of past loves, youthful ambitions, hardship, or lifelong secrets are shared, a team of stagehands reconstructs the settings for these memories. By orchestrating clever set re-creations and filming the process from beginning to end, or manipulating camera angles and lighting effects in long outdoor sequences, Jung emphasizes the artifice of the scene unfurling before the viewer's eyes. Ultimately, these videos suggest that reality, filtered through nostalgia and the passage of time, exists somewhere between truth and imagination.

Illustrated catalogue: $40 (paper)

Sculpture: Monkeys Grasping for the Moon

- Ongoing
Sky-lit Atrium to Sublevel 3
It was originally created as a temporary display by expatriate Chinese artist Xu Bing (b. 1955) for the 2001 exhibition Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing. In order for it to remain on permanent view, it was re-created under Xu Bing's supervision and was given to the museum by the family of Madame Chiang Kai-shek in 2004 to coincide with the Year of the Monkey. This sculpture -- suspended from the sky-lit atrium down to the 3rd-level reflecting pool -- is composed of 21 laminated wood pieces, with each forming the word "monkey" in a dozen different languages. Based on a Chinese folktale, the monkeys linked arms and tails to form a chain to reach down to the pool below to capture the shimmering moon, only to discover it was a reflection. Moral: We often waste much time on futile goals.

Sculpture of South Asia and the Himalayas (new title)

11/26/1992 - Ongoing
Sublevel 1, South Corridor Galleries
Sculptures from 3 major religions are presented: Hindu stone, bronze, brass, and terra-cotta temple sculptures from India; and Jain and Buddhist bronze, gilt bronze, and stone sculptures from India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Tibet.

Contemporary Japanese Porcelain

- Ongoing
Sublevel 3
Twentieth-century Japanese artists give fresh interpretations to the time-honored art of porcelain in this selection of works from the Sackler Gallery's collection. The distinctive decorations, which range from natural motifs to more abstract designs, are created using iron and cobalt pigments and platinum, gold, and silver enamels.

The Arts of China

11/18/1990 - Ongoing
Sublevel 1
A variety of materials, techniques, and motifs, which span almost six thousand years, are explored in this exhibition of 228 objects highlighting the Sackler Gallery's permanent holdings of Chinese art. The exhibition features jades and bronzes, Buddhist sculpture and wall paintings, glass, lacquerware, furniture, and paintings from the Neolithic period to the 20th century.

Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia

04/01/2007 - Ongoing
Sublevel 1, Galleries connecting Freer & Sackler Galleries
This exhibition of approximately 200 diverse and visually striking ceramic vessels from Southeast Asia explores the migration of pots from their makers to their users. This exhibition also illuminates the dimensions of international trade that brought southern Chinese ceramics into mainland Southeast Asia and from there reaching distant markets -- from Japan to Turkey. Spanning four millennia on invention and exchange, from the prehistoric period to the present, the vessels on view were crafted for rituals, burials, domestic use, and trade. These clay pots and jars, made permanent by firing in bonfires or kilns, form the most enduring record of human activities, interactions, and ideas about form and decoration in mainland Southeast Asia.

Free brochure and online catalogue.

See related article in Smithsonian magazine: December 2007, p. 37.

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design.

Exhibits:

National Design Triennial: Why Design Now?

05/14/2010 - 01/09/2011
1st & 2nd Floors
Inaugurated in 2000, the Triennial program seeks out and presents the most innovative designs at the center of contemporary culture. In this fourth exhibition in the series, the National Design Triennial explores the work of designers addressing human and environmental problems across many fields of the design practice -- from architecture and products to fashion, graphics, new media, and landscapes.

Cooper-Hewitt curators Ellen Lupton, Cara McCarty, Matilda McQuaid, and Cynthia Smith present the experimental projects and emerging ideas for the period between 2006 and 2009.

Ted Muehling Selects: Lobmeyr Glass from the Permanent Collection

04/23/2010 - 01/02/2011
Nancy and Edwin Marks Gallery
New York-based designer Ted Muehling curates the museum's recent acquisition of 160 rare examples of glass from J. and L. Lobmeyr of Vienna, Austria. The collection dates from 1835 to the 21st century, spanning virtually the entire history of the firm since its founding. This addition to the permanent collection provides the unique opportunity to tell the history of glassmaking in central Europe during a 175-year period, with an in-depth look at one influential firm.

Freer Gallery of Art

The Freer holds one of the finest collections of Asian art and the greatest collection of work by the American artist James McNeill Whistler in the Western world.

Exhibits:

Chinamania: Whistler and the Victorian Craze for Blue-and-White (new title)

08/07/2010 - 08/07/2011
Ground Floor
Chinamania discusses the significance of Chinese export porcelain in Whistler's England, where it was first an object of serious aesthetic inspiration but soon proliferated as an aspirational commodity. Whistler himself was an early collector of the wares and depicted them in his paintings, stimulating the craze for blue-and-white porcelain that swept London in the 1870s and that the British press mockingly dubbed "Chinamania."

The exhibition features 23 works of art; a group of 8 wash drawings of Kangxi porcelain produced by Whistler for a collector's catalogue; related examples of blue and white from the Peacock Room; and several paintings, pastels, and etchings inspired by Whistler's interest in porcelain.

Masterpieces of Chinese Painting

06/12/2010 - 11/28/2010
Gallery 13 (Chinese Art)
Some of the finest Chinese paintings in the Freer Gallery's collection are on view, including several by well-known Chinese artists that have not been displayed in years. Diverse traditional categories are represented, such as religious and secular portraits from the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), landscapes from the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), paintings of literati during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), artworks produced in the Zhe and Wu schools of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and images of orthodox and individual painters of the early Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Together these exceptional works trace the development of Chinese painting over generations.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

02/03/2010 - Ongoing
West Corridor
Text to come.

Sculptures

- Ongoing

North corridor at northwest and northeast corners (Jefferson Drive entrance):

• Two huge Kongorikishi (also known as Ni-o) warriors: Japan, Kamakura period, early 14th century, wood

Inside south doors (near Independence Avenue entrance):

• Vimalakirti: A huge 6th-century stone Buddhist sculpture: China, from the Binyang cave at the Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province

Outdoor Sculpture: Twisted Form by Shiro Hayami

- Ongoing
Outdoors near Jefferson Drive entrance
Twisted Form (Traveler's Guardian Spirit), 1981, an Agi stone and Peruvian granite sculpture by Shiro Hayami

Buddhist Art

05/09/1993 - Ongoing
Gallery 17
Buddhism, a religion that originated in India during the 6th century B.C.E., spread eastward across much of Asia during the next thousand years. While its followers are now established worldwide, Buddhism continues to have an especially strong religious and cultural presence throughout the Asian continent. Each of the civilizations that has embraced Buddhism has given a local and distinctive interpretation and sensibility to the representation of the Buddha as well as to the other images and symbols characteristic of Buddhist art.

Garden: Mary Livingston Ripley Garden

05/25/1988 - Ongoing
Outside, between Arts & Industries Building & Hirshhorn Museum
The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden, named for its donor, comprises more than 200 varieties of plants in hanging baskets, borders, and raised serpentine beds flanking an unusual curvilinear walkway designed by architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen. Plantings are augmented seasonally with annuals and exotics.

Cornucopia: Ceramics from Southern Japan

12/19/2009 - 01/09/2011
Galleries 6a, 6, & 7 (Japanese Art)
This exhibition illuminates the engaging variety of local styles of glazing and decoration invented by Kyushu potters over three centuries. Around the year 1600, a heightened fascination with the design and uses of ceramics combined with new access to advanced technology launched an era of extraordinarily diverse and accomplished ceramic production. Southern Japan -- in particular, the island of Kyushu -- was the center for this efflorescence, which included both stoneware coated in muted glazes and porcelain ornamented with cobalt blue or multicolored enamels. Hundreds of kilns produced vessels for the domestic market (with a focus on utensils for dining and for the tea ceremony) and also for export to Europe and Southeast Asia.

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the January 2010 Smithsonian magazine: page 26.

See Around the Mall "Trailblazer" article in the October 2009 Smithsonian magazine: pp. 26-27.

Freer & Whistler: Points of Contact

02/23/2008 - Ongoing
Galleries 10 & 11 (American Art)
Some 23 oil paintings represent a choice selection of the more than 1,300 paintings, prints, and drawings by Whistler in the gallery's collection. The works on view were chosen to exemplify both Freer's philosophy of collecting and Whistler's own self-conscious synthesis of western and Asian artistic traditions. Highlights include a sequence of views of the Thames from Whistler's Chelsea residence; an ensemble of Nocturnes (Whistler's term for his paintings of the moonlit urban landscape), and a pair of full-length portraits, including the magnificent Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F.R. Leyland, which depicts the patron of the renowned Peacock Room, adjacent to this exhibition.

The Religious Art of Japan (rotating)

12/21/2002 - Ongoing
Gallery 8 (Japanese Art)
Important works from the Freer's collection of Japanese religious art are exhibited in several thematic rotations over a period of several years.

Overview: Important works from the Freer's collection of Japanese religious art are exhibited in several thematic rotations over a period of several years. Buddhist iconography was first introduced to Japan from the Asian mainland in the 6th century and the complex belief systems and sacred cosmologies of diverse Buddhist sects have since continued to influence Japanese art. Internationally noted works of Buddhist sculpture on view include delightfully animated representations of the Guardians of the Four Directions and a serenely poised image of a bodhisattva. Paintings include complex, geometric mandala forms, imagined visions of heavenly beings and the austere ink-monochrome visual meditations of Zen masters. Shinto sculpture and paintings are also on view.

The Peacock Room

- Ongoing
Gallery 12
The Peacock Room, originally designed by architect Thomas Jeckyll, was once the dining room in the London home of Frederick R. Leyland, a wealthy shipowner from Liverpool, England. Although the architect merely asked for advice about what color to paint the shutters and doors, James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) took over and eventually transformed the entire room. Between 1876 and 1877, he enhanced the room with golden peacocks, painting every inch of the ceiling and walls to create an elegant setting in which Leyland could display his blue-and-white porcelain as well as Whistler's painting The Princess from the Land of Porcelain. Purchased by Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) in 1904 and installed in the Freer Gallery of Art after his death, the Peacock Room is on permanent display.

Korean Ceramics

03/01/1997 - Ongoing
Gallery 9 (Korean Art)
Ceramics have always been an integral part of Korean culture and an important vehicle of the Korean aesthetic. This gallery presents 30 Korean ceramics made between 200 and 1900 -- from the Three Kingdoms period (1st-7th centuries) Choson period (1392-1910) -- ranging from tableware and Buddhist cinerary urns made for courtiers to bowls, bottles, and storage jars used by peasants.

Japanese Screens (rotating)

05/09/1993 - Ongoing
Gallery 5 (Japanese Art)
Features a selection from the nearly 200 screens held by the Freer Gallery. Ranging in date from the 15th to the 19th centuries, the screens represent the major thematic and stylistic examples of this popular format.

Note: Screens rotate periodically.

Charles Lang Freer and Egypt

06/13/1998 - Ongoing
Gallery 16
Some 70 small glass vessels, bronzes, amulets, and sculptures from the New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.) to the Roman Period (30 B.C.-A.D. 395) are on view from Freer's eclectic collection of Egyptian artifacts. These objects illustrate many features of this ancient civilization, including deities, scripts, and materials and techniques of manufacture. Gallery founder Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) visited Egypt on three separate occasions between 1906 and 1909. He was deeply attracted to the rich blue and green colors of Egyptian glass and glazes and their often luminous appearance.

Arts of the Islamic World

05/03/1998 - Ongoing
Galleries 3 & 4 (Islamic Art)
The arts of the Islamic world flourished in a vast geographic area extending from Morocco and Spain to the islands of Southeast Asia. Although distinct in their cultural, artistic, ethnic, and linguistic identities, the people of this region have shared one predominant faith, Islam. The works on view here represent the three principal media for artistic expression in the Islamic world: architecture (both religious and secular), the arts of the book (calligraphy, illustration, illumination, and bookbinding), and the arts of the object (ceramics, metalwork, glass, woodwork, textiles, and ivory).

The works date from the 9th to the 17th centuries. On view are brass bowls and candlesticks, folios from the Koran, earthenware and ceramics, and paintings representing the traditions of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and other parts of North Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan.

Arts of the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas

10/16/2004 - Ongoing
Galleries 1 & 2 (South Asian Art)
To show the cultural and religious diversity of the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan plateau, this new long-term rotating exhibition currently features 39 artifacts, including Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain sculptures, as well as rarely exhibited paintings and luxury arts from the Mughal, Rajput, and Deccani courts.

Ancient Chinese Pottery and Bronze

03/07/1997 - Ongoing
Galleries 14 & 15 (Ancient Chinese Art)
The selection of ceramic and bronze vessels on view begins at the important juncture between the end of the Neolithic pottery tradition and the emergence of the metalworking tradition (around 2000 B.C.E.), and stops at the end of the Bronze Age and the rise of glazed stoneware (around 200 C.E.). The exhibition shows the complex, changing relationship between two of China's oldest artistic traditions.

Clay, jade, and bronze are the dominant materials used in the art of ancient China from around 4000 B.C.E. to the early centuries C.E. Of these, clay and bronze appear to have been closely linked in their developments. Both materials were used to make pots and containers in a variety of shapes, the best of which were buried with their owners as status symbols or signs of wealth. Both required an intimate knowledge of the materials and expert handling to create the finished product.

See "Around the Mall" in July 2008 Smithsonian magazine: p. 22.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The eye-catching architecture of the Hirshhorn sets it apart from the other museums on the National Mall. The Hirshhorn is an arresting, elevated hollow cylinder that is 82 feet high and 231 feet in diameter.

Food:

Outdoor Cafe (seasonal)
Featuring Hot Dogs, Italian Sausages, Wraps, Salads, and Soft Drinks
Hours: Daily 10a.m.-3p.m.

Exhibits:

Black Box: Superflex

08/09/2010 - 11/28/2010
Lower Level
The Black Box theater showcases rotating exhibitions of contemporary artists who use film or video as their creative medium. Films or videos run continuously.

August 9, 2010-November 28, 2010
Since 1993, Superflex, the Copenhagen and Rio-based art collective -- members include Jakob Fenger (b. 1968, Roskilde, Denmark), Rasmus Nielsen (b. 1969, Hjoerring, Denmark), and Bjornstjerne Reuter Christiansen (b. 1969, Copenhagen, Denmark) -- has used social intervention to call attention to such issues as democratization, environmentalism, and consumerism.

Flooded McDonald's (2009): In this film, the artists meticulously reconstructed a true-to-scale replica of an actual restaurant that slowly fills with water. The film is not a commentary about the multinational company as much as it is the incorporation of a ubiquitous setting that signifies different things to different people. The artists borrow cinematic vocabulary used in documentaries, ads, and disaster films to propose a suspenseful, ambiguous drama. For whatever reason, patrons and staff have all left the restaurant's premises, leaving viewers alone to watch, think, and speculate.

Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers

05/20/2010 - 09/12/2010
2nd Floor
The first American retrospective in nearly 30 years of this highly influential French artist's career examines his life and work from the mid-1950s to his untimely death in 1962. Artist, composer, judo master, Rosicrucian, proto-conceptualist, and performance artist, Klein was a multifaceted talent who believed in the transformative power of art. In his series, including the Monochromes, Anthropometries, Cosmogonies, Air Architecture, Fire Paintings, Sponge Reliefs, and Actions, Klein sought to place the immaterial at the heart of his work.

Related Apple iPhone application available from the iTunes App Store for $1.99.

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the May 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 26.

April 19, 2010-August 1, 2010
Chris Chong Chan Fui (b. 1982, Borneo, Malaysia) lives and works in Kuala Lumpur and is the first Malaysian artist to present work at the Hirshhorn.

Block B (2008, 20 min): In this short film with no special effects or lighting, a motionless camera captures dramas that unfold night and day on the various floors of a huge apartment complex that houses Indian expatriates working on temporary contracts. The artist contrasts the static cinematography with vivid unpredictable narrative. Block B suggests issues related to surveillance and voyeurism, but also evokes the dramatic elements that are part of the fabric of daily life.

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the June 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 29.

ColorForms

03/11/2010 - 01/02/2011
Lower Level
A selection of artworks from the Hirshhorn's collection and several paintings on loan from the National Gallery's renowned Mark Rothko holdings reveals some of the diverse ways that contemporary artists explore color's evocative possibilities, from the purely optical to the metaphysical. Dating from the post-war era to the present, on view are works by Wolfgang Laib, James Turrell, and Paul Sharits, along with a linear yarn sculpture by Fred Sandback, a spherical sculpture by Anish Kapoor, and luminous paintings by Mark Rothko.

Outdoor Sculptures

10/04/1974 - Ongoing
Plaza and Sunken Sculpture Garden
-- Hirshhorn Plaza: The plaza redesign, by landscape architect James Urban (completed in 1993), includes granite surfaces, trees and other plantings, areas of lawn, an outdoor pathway, and ramp accessibility from the northwest end of the Ripley Garden. (For more details, see October 1991 Torch article.)

Works on view include: Spatial Concept: Nature (1959-60, cast 1965) by Lucio Fontana; Subcommittee (1991) by Tony Cragg; Needle Tower (1968) Kenneth Snelson; Last Conversation Piece (1994-95) by Juan Munoz; Geometric Mouse: Variation 1, Scale A (1971) by Claes Odenburg; Antipodes (1997) by Jim Sanborn; and Throwback (1976-79) by Tony Smith.

Note: Calder's stabile Two Discs was removed (effective Oct. 7, 2006) for conservation and is now on loan.

2003:
• Brushstroke: This 32-foot-high by 20-foot-wide towering black-and-off-white painted aluminum sculpture reinforced with I-beams is one of the last examples of Roy Lichtenstein's (American, 1923-1997) ongoing engagement with the brushstroke motif. Based on a model created in 1996, it was enlarged and fabricated 2002-2003 by Amaral Custom Fabrications in Massachusetts under the supervision of the Lichtenstein estate. Installed week of September 16, 2003, on the Plaza near Jefferson Drive.

-- Sunken Sculpture Garden: The garden's extensive renovation that included making it wheelchair accessible with new landscaping and reinstallation of approximately 75 contemporary sculptures was completed Sept. 15, 1981.

Works on view include: The Drummer by Flanagan; Nymph by Maillol; Standing Woman (Heroic Woman) by Lachaise; Burghers of Calais, Monument to Balzac, and Walking Man by Rodin; Horse and Rider by Marini. Other sculptors represented include Archipenko, de Kooning, Giacometti, Lipchitz, Manzu, Miro, Moore, Shea, and Smith.

2008:
• For Gordon Bunshaft 2007: This site-specific work by conceptual artist Dan Graham consists of a triangular pavilion with two-way mirrors (with glass doors to enter the structure) and an open wooden lattice that stands approximately 7.5-foot tall. The two-way mirrors allow visitors inside and outside to simultaneously see themselves, each other, and the surrounding landscape. Graham describes this mirror-and-wood structure as a hybrid because one side is derived from traditional Japanese architecture while the other two sides allude to modern corporate architecture and Bunshaft's design of the iconic Hirshhorn building. Installed near the reflecting pool in the Sunken Sculpture Garden May 30, 2008.

1999:
• Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore) 1967: Installed in the street level section adjacent to the sunken sculpture garden, this sculpture created by Mark di Suvero (b. 1933) is composed of industrial I-beams painted bright red and rises some 40 feet from the ground. The 10-ton work refers to a poem by the American poet Marianne Moore (1887-1972). Installed August 22, 1999.

Note: The book A Garden for Art: Outdoor Sculpture at the Hirshhorn Museum is available in the Museum Store for $15.95.

Permanent/Indefinite: Collection Highlights

- Ongoing
Lower Level, 2nd Floor, 3rd Floor
Collection Highlights is a rotating display of 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. These installations often display rarely seen or innovative recent works as well as favorite masterpieces.

Lower Level:
This level provides a first view of recent additions to the collection.

2nd Floor: This level also provides a first view of recent additions to the collection, as well as space for traveling exhibitions.

3rd Floor: The galleries offer an in-depth look at 5 individual's work: the groundbreaking mobiles of Alexander Calder; the modern figural paintings of Balthus; a chronicle of Willem de Kooning's expressionist style as it evolved during his 50-year career; the abstract, richly textured creations by Clyfford Still; and the recently restored paintings by D.C.-based Color Field artist Morris Louis. Recent acquisitions are also on view.

Article on Hirshhorn Museum, see Smithsonian magazine: April 2007, pp. 39-40.

November 30, 2009-April 4, 2010:
Curator and arts advocate Phoebe Greenberg worked with Caroline Binet, Denis Villeneuve, Jacques Davidts, and a feature film-style team to bring this part dream, part morality tale scenario to life.

Next Floor (12 min., 2008, created and produced by Phoebe Greenberg) -- part nightmare, part morality tale -- is inspired by the lavish cinematic tableaux associated with Peter Greenaway and responds to the endless appetites of pre-economic crash consumerism. The themes suggested in this film continue to resonate during a time of global struggle to regain economic equilibrium. In 2008, it was awarded Best Short Film in Cannes, France.

Outdoor Installation: UP7TH

10/02/2009 - Ongoing
Offsite at the corner of 7th & H Streets, NW
The Hirshhorn Museum debuts new works by animator David Polonsky (b. 1973, Kiev, USSR) on three massive high-resolution LED screens outside above the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Station (7th and H Sts.). Several times each hour, a 30-second-long artwork appears.

With new technologies offering artists opportunities to create works with dimensions no one has seen before, he uses customized 3-D gaming software to re-imagine landscape art. A former student of the Art Institute of Chicago, Gerrard is inspired by the look, the history, and politics of the Dust Bowl region. He creates contemplative, vivid scenes of farms and oil fields that raise questions about the effect of human progress on the environment.

National Air and Space Museum

Since the building opened in 1976, the National Air and Space Museum has been the most-visited museum in the world, and a must-see for visitors to Washington, DC.

Food & Entertainment:

Dining Court features McDonald's, Boston Market and Donatos Pizzaria
Features hamburgers, French fries, chicken, pizza, salad and desserts
Group and bulk packages available
Hours: Daily 10a.m.-5p.m.

McCafé
Features panini and wrap sandwiches, pastries, specialty coffees and teas
Hours: Daily 10a.m.-5p.m.

Outdoor Kiosk (seasonal, weather permitting)
Providing hot dogs, chips, bottled beverages and ice cream
Hours: Daily 9a.m.-4p.m.

Flight Simluators
Experience being an engineer and.or astornaut during a space shuttle mission.

Exhibits:

Beyond: Visions of Our Solar System

05/26/2010 - 05/02/2011
Flight in the Arts, Gallery 211, 2nd Floor, East Wing
Combining art, science, photography, and exploration, this exhibition presents 148 images of the Sun, the planets, and their moons taken over the last 50 years by unmanned robotic space probes. These images give viewers a look at these distant places in great and colorful detail and provide a photographic introduction to these astonishingly diverse landscapes.

Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

04/24/2008 - Ongoing
1st Floor, West End, suspended above Gallery 104
On view are 6 aircraft -- Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) -- that represent a cross-section of modern unmanned flight systems technology. These aircraft are commonly used by all four military services around the globe to perform many types of missions, including reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, bomb damage assessment, and attack. The evolution of unmanned military aircraft began during World War I and continues today.

Flight and the Arts

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
Gallery 211, 2nd Floor, East Wing
Note: This hall features changing exhibitions, generally art exhibitions related to flight. See "New" section (keyword: Flight and the Arts) for the current exhibition.

Welcome Center with Murals by Robert T. McCall and Eric Sloane

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
Independence Ave. Lobby (South Lobby), Gallery 108, 1st Floor
The South Lobby/Welcome Center features the information desk and the following:

• Robert T. McCall Mural: The Space Mural -- A Cosmic View by Robert T. McCall portrays the past, present, and future of the universe with a depiction of the Big Bang, an Apollo astronaut on the Moon, and a lunar rover and second astronaut.

• Eric Sloane Mural: Earth Flight Environment by Eric Sloane illustrates different weather phenomena in our atmosphere -- lightening, rain, a rainbow -- and a variety of cloud forms as a single airplane streaks across the sky.

• Trophy Case
The following objects are on view:
- The Aero Club Trophy for Aviation Excellence, along with a list of winners.
- The NASM Trophy for extraordinary achievements in aerospace.
- A model of Ascent by John Safer, a 65-foot sculpture installed at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

• Voyager: Around the World Without a Pit Stop
For details see separate entry under Permanent/Indefinite.

Voyager: Around the World without a Pit Stop

09/14/1986 - Ongoing
Independence Ave. Lobby (South Lobby), Gallery 108, 1st Floor
This exhibit features the Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world without landing or refueling. The flight was made by pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager Dec. 14-23, 1986.

The Teledyne engine used to propel the aircraft is included, as well as a video showing the building of the plane and its test flights. The plane was designed by Burt Rutan.

The exhibit also presents the history of round-the-world flights and the evolution of aircraft construction techniques, including a sample of the Voyager's composite material.

Outdoor Sculptures

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
Outdoors
Near Jefferson Drive entrance:

• Ad Astra sculpture by Richard Lippold

Near Independence Avenue entrance:

• Continuum -- cast bronze sculpture (1976) by Charles O. Perry

Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation

09/23/1982 - Ongoing
Pioneers of Flight, Gallery 208, 2nd Floor, Center
Note: This exhibition is part of Pioneers of Flight, which is closed for renovation and is anticipated to reopen fall 2010. For details, see Pioneers of Flight.

An adaptation of this exhibition will travel under the auspices of SITES. For venues, call SITES at 633-3168 or visit www.sites.si.edu.

Moving Beyond Earth

11/19/2009 - Ongoing
Gallery 113, 1st Floor, East Wing
This exhibition explores the achievements and challenges of human spaceflight in the United States during the space shuttle and space station era through artifacts, immersive experiences, and interactive computer stations. Highlights include:

• a 12-foot-tall space-shuttle model and other launch-vehicle models
• astronaut gear, space gloves, and parts of the Hubble Space Telescope, including COSTAR, an instrument designed to correct the Hubble's spherical aberration
• the suit worn by space tourist Dennis Tito and a model of the Ares launch vehicle
• a presentation center for live events, broadcasts, and webcasts

Organized to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the first Apollo Moon Landing on July 20, 1969.

World War II Aviation

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
World War II Aviation, Gallery 205, 2nd Floor, West Wing
This gallery highlights land-based aviation during World War II and features fighter aircraft from each of 5 countries.

Highlights include:
• North American P-51D Mustang: an outstanding fighter plane used in every theater of war
• Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero: maneuverability and range were excellent; the Japanese navy used it in almost every action throughout the war
• Martin B-26 Flak Bait (nose only): flew the most missions of any American bomber in Europe
• Supermarine Spitfire Mark VII: the legendary British fighter used to defeat the Germans in the Battle of Britain, along with the Hurricane
• Messerschmitt Bf 109G: the principle Luftwaffe fighter; major opponent of the Spitfires and American bombers
• Macchi C.202 Folgore: the most successful Italian fighter to see extensive service; used in the African campaign and in Italy and Russia
• USS Enterprise aircraft carrier model: represents the 1st nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, launched 9/24/1960 (located between WWII Aviation and Sea-Air Operations)

The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age

10/11/2003 - Ongoing
Gallery 209, 2nd Floor, East Wing
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' historic first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, this exhibition presents the Wrights' technical achievements and examines the cultural impact of early powered flight. The centerpiece of the gallery is the original Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer, displayed on the ground for the first time since acquired by the Smithsonian in 1948. Also on view are 250 photographs and 150 other artifacts, including the stop watch used to time the first powered flights, a Wright wind tunnel test instrument used in unlocking the secrets of aerodynamics, a reproduction of the Wright Brothers' 1899 experimental kite, and full-size reproductions of their 1900 and 1902 experimental gliders.

Hands-on stations and interactive computer stations: both provide an understanding of flight

Free Family Guide

- See related articles in Smithsonian magazine: April 2003, pp. 50-62; December 2003, p. 46 and pp. 50-57.
- See related March 2003 Air and Space Smithsonian centennial of flight edition.

Companion publication by curators Tom Crouch and Peter Jakab, $35 (cloth)

Space Race

05/16/1997 - Ongoing
Space Race, Gallery 114, 1st Floor, East Wing
This major exhibition traces the competition in space between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union from its origins in the 1950s to the recent international cooperation. Objects include a Soyuz TM-10 spacecraft, a Kosmos 1443 "Merkur" spacecraft, and a space suit made for the never-accomplished mission to land a Russian on the Moon. The exhibition is divided into the following sections:

• Military Origins of the Space Race examines the rivalry to develop rockets powerful enough to send thermo-nuclear warheads across the globe.
• Secret Eyes in Space reveals long-secret reconnaissance projects and includes the recently declassified "Corona" spy satellite camera.
• Racing to the Moon looks at the public accomplishments of both countries and includes the Soviet "Krechet" lunar space suit and the Apollo space suit.
• Exploring the Moon looks at the equipment developed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth, to perform chemical analyses of the soil, and to do other scientific experiments and includes an Apollo Lunar Landing Module.
• A Permanent Presence in Space looks at the efforts of both countries to establish permanent space stations for continued scientific discovery and the beginning of an era of cooperation in space.
• Models of the Space Shuttle

See Aug. 1997 Smithsonian magazine, p. 2

The Golden Age of Flight

04/05/1984 - Ongoing
Golden Age of Flight, Gallery 105, 1st Floor, West Wing
This gallery covers the years between the World Wars (1919-1939) but focuses on the period shortly after Lindbergh's flight in 1927 through 1939. Described as "golden" because of many advances in aviation technology, record-making flights, and intense interest by the public in aviation events, the era produced many of today's legendary aviation heroes. Aircraft and engines, newsreel coverage of aviation events, photographs, models and reproductions, and newspaper headlines are included. Opening coincided with the 60th anniversary of the takeoff of the Douglas World Cruisers, a major event during the Golden Age.

Highlights include:
• Wittman Buster: 1947 air racer that won the most races in aviation history
• Beechcraft Staggerwing: popular general aviation aircraft of the 1930s
• Northrop Gamma Polar Star: first transantarctic flight, 1935
• Curtiss Robin Ole Miss: set endurance record of 27 days over Meridian, Mississippi, in 1935
• a reproduction of the Gee Bee Z
• the Golden Age Theater, featuring film footage of famed pilot Jimmy Doolitle

Sea-Air Operations

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
Sea-Air Operations, Gallery 203, 2nd Floor, West Wing
This gallery explores overwater flight, focusing on carrier operations from 1911 to the present.

Highlights include:
• Carrier Hangar Deck for All Times: displays major aircraft from different periods in the history of sea-air
• Boeing F4B-4 biplane: a shipboard fighter used from 1932 to 1937
• Douglas SBD Dauntless: the principle carrier-based bomber used throughout most of WWII
• Grumman FM-1 Wildcat: the first-line Navy fighter and the start of WWII
• Douglas A-4 Skyhawk: the first-line naval attack aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s
• Re-creation of the bridge of an aircraft carrier where visitors can step aboard the USS Smithsonian to watch simulated aircraft take off and land
• Ship's Museum presents the history of flight over water

Pioneers of Flight, Barron Hilton

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
Pioneers of Flight, Gallery 208, 2nd Floor, Center
Note: This gallery closed for renovation February 1, 2009, and is anticipated to reopen November 19, 2010 (new reopening date).

Milestones of Flight

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
Milestones of Flight, Gallery 100, 1st Floor, Center
This gallery features famous airplanes and spacecraft that exemplify the major achievements in the history of flight.

Highlights include:
• Mercury Friendship 7: the first manned orbiting flight, carrying John Glenn, Feb. 20, 1962
• Gemini IV: the first U.S. space walk by Edward H. White II, June 3-7, 1965
• Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia: 1st manned lunar landing, 1969, carrying Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins
• Touchable Moon Rock: a "gem" from the lunar surface, collected by Apollo astronauts
• Goddard Rockets: a full-scale model of the world's 1st liquid propellant rocket, flown on March 16, 1926, and a large rocket constructed in 1941 by Robert Goddard, father of American rocketry
• Bell XS-1 (X-1) Glamorous Glennis: 1st manned flight faster than the speed of sound, flown by Chuck Yeager, Oct. 14, 1947
• Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis: Lindbergh's plane for 1st solo trans-atlantic non-stop flight 1927
• Explorer I: back-up model of 1st U.S. satellite to orbit the earth, 1958
• Sputnik I: Russian replica of 1st artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, 1957
• North American X-15: 1st winged, manned aircraft to exceed 6 times the speed of sound and the 1st airplane to explore the fringes of space, 1967
• Langley Aerodrome No. 5: unmanned, research aircraft model, flew successfully, 1896
• Mariner 2: model of 1st spacecraft to study another planet when it flew by Venus, launched Dec. 14, 1962
• Pioneer 10 (prototype): 1st spacecraft to fly by Jupiter and 1st aircraft to venture beyond the planets, launched March 3, 1972

Note: The 1903 Wright Flyer is now on view in The Wright Brothers and The Invention of the Aerial Age. The aircraft, flown by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 1903, was the 1st heavier-than-air, powered aircraft to make a sustained, controlled flight with a pilot aboard.

Additions include:
October 5, 2005:
• SpaceShipOne, the first privately built and operated vehicle to reach space. The ship was designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. On Oct. 4, 2004, pilot Brian Binnie took SpaceShipOne 70 miles (112 km) above the Earth. On Sept. 29, pilot Mike Melvill flew the vehicle 64 miles (102 km) above the Earth. SpaceShipOne flew previously on June 21, 2004, with Melvill piloting and exceeding an altitude of 62 miles. (See article in May 2005 Smithsonian magazine, p. 42.)

September 23, 1999:
• Breitling Orbiter 3 Balloon Gondola: The gondola from the Breitling Orbiter 3, the first balloon to fly around the world nonstop, is on view. After 19 days, 21 hours, and 47 minutes in the air, the Breitling Orbiter 3 and crew -- Switzerland's Bertrand Piccard and Britain's Brian Jones -- landed on March 21, 1999, marking the first successful nonstop circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon. The gondola is 20 feet long and 8 feet high, while the balloon itself is the same height as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

July 18, 1996:
• Bell XP-59A Airacomet (#1 of 3): 1st American turbojet aircraft, direct ancestor to all American jet aircraft, flown by Robert M. Stanley, Oct. 1, 1942

June 20, 1990:
• INF (Intermediate Nuclear Forces) Treaty Compliance: On view are a U.S. Pershing II missile and a Soviet SS-20 missile, examples of the weapons banned by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The Objects were part of Trust But Verify/Do Veri, No Pro Veri exhibition in Space Hall (closed 5/15/97).

February 6, 1980:
• Viking Lander: The Viking Lander is an unmanned proof test capsule used in ground tests before and during the Viking flights to Mars in 1976 (Two Viking spacecraft have softlanded on Mars.). The Viking Landers were the first unmanned American spacecraft to provide a close-up, in-depth look at the surface of another planet. The 2 remotely controlled spacecraft sent back photographs of Mars as well as data on its meteorology and geology. (Note: See Smithsonian magazine "Highlights," Jan. 1980.) In January 1982, the Viking Landing was installed on a simulated surface of Mars.

Lunar Exploration Vehicles

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
Lunar Exploration Vehicles, Gallery 112, 1st Floor, East Wing
This gallery highlights NASA lunar surface exploration.

Highlights include:
• Apollo Lunar Module: a duplicate of the spacecraft that carried astronauts to the surface of the moon in the Apollo Program, late 1960s and early 1970s
• Surveyor Spacecraft: soft-landed on the moon to study lunar soil composition and physical properties of the lunar surface, 1966-68
• Lunar Orbital Spacecraft: circled the moon to perform mapping of the entire lunar surface, 1966-67
• Ranger: provided the first closeup photographs of the lunar surface, 1962-65
• Clementine: designed for a two-month mapping mission in orbit around the moon in 1994. Clementine provided answers to many of the questions about the moon that remained from the Apollo era.

Looking at Earth

05/08/1986 - Ongoing
Looking at Earth, Gallery 110, 1st Floor, East Wing
This gallery traces the development of technology for viewing Earth from balloons, aircraft, and spacecraft. The quest for ever-higher, ever-clearer images of the Earth is reflected in photographs and spacecraft images from a few feet to 7.5 million miles away. Some photographs are mural-size.

Highlights include:
• de Havilland DH-4: an American World War I aircraft used extensively for mapping and surveying in the 1920s
• Lockheed U-2C: key U.S. high-altitude reconnaissance jet developed in 1954-55 during the Cold War era, with flight suit and typical camera, dating from the 1950s to the present
• Earth observation satellites: prototypes of TIROS, the world's first weather satellite, built in 1960; ITOS weather satellite (engineering test model), 1970s; GOES geostationary satellite (full-scale model), 1975 to the present; and models of other satellites
• Landsat image of your state: interactive touchscreen display showing orbital views of the 50 states. Visitors to the gallery can also "punch in" an image of their hometown area as seen by a Landsat satellite

Additions include
• Gary Powers Memorabilia:
A case of memorabilia and personal artifacts belonging to WWII American fighter pilot Gary Powers is on view.
• A model of the SR-71 Blackbird is on view

Legend, Memory, and the Great War in the Air (WWI Aviation)

11/13/1991 - Ongoing
Great War in the Air, Gallery 206, 2nd Floor, West Wing
This gallery features the emergence of air power in World War I. Gear, pontoons, and a streamlined boat hull examine the real nature of WWI aviation, plus the power of legend and public perception in history.

Highlights include:
• Voisin 8: early type of night bomber, 1915
• SPAD XIII: French fighter aircraft also used by Americans
• Fokker D.VII: considered the best German fighter aircraft of WWI
• Albatros D.Va: German fighter aircraft that flew on all fronts during WWI
• Sopwith Snipe: British aircraft considered one of the best all- around single-seat fighters, although it came quite late in the war
• German factory scene: WWI mass-production techniques, with original equipment
• A model of the Spruce Goose and several artifacts related to its construction (outside the gallery)

Small theater with video presentations

Jet Aviation

07/01/1981 - Ongoing
Jet Aviation, Gallery 106, 1st Floor, West Wing
This gallery illustrates the first 40 years of jet aviation (1939-1979), including the evolution of commercial and military jet aircraft.

Aircraft on display include:
• Messerschmitt Me 262: world's 1st operational jet fighter
• Bede-5
• McDonnell Lockheed XP-80 Shooting Star Lulu Belle: world's 1st operational carrier jet fighter
• the FH-1 Phantom

Also on view is a 25' by 70' mural of 27 jet aircraft by Keith Ferris.

How Things Fly

09/20/1996 - Ongoing
How Things Fly, Gallery 109, 1st Floor, East Wing
This interactive gallery explains the basic principles of air and space flight through hands-on activities. The gallery features a Cessna 150, a section of a Boeing 757 fuselage, a model of the International Space Station, and more than 50 interactives. The exhibition is divided into 7 sections:

• The Basics: Gravity and Air demonstrates the properties of gravity and air with a barometer that slides from floor to ceiling and an 11-foot, radio-controlled blimp overhead.
• Winging It uses a series of wind tunnels to demonstrate the forces of lift that lift an aircraft off the ground. "Explainers" are on hand to perform demonstrations.
• Faster Than Sound: High-Speed Flight demonstrates how aircraft fly faster than the speed of sound through the use of a supersonic wind tunnel.
• Getting Aloft: Thrust explores propellers, jets, and rockets that provide thrust, the forward motion needed to sustain lift and counter drag.
• Gravity and No Air: Flight in Space uses computer interactives and a "gravity well" to demonstrate how a spacecraft in orbit is affected by gravity.
• Staying Aloft: Stability and Control explains "attitude" (orientation) using a rotating platform, a model Cessna 150 in an airstream, and a real Cessna 150 with operable rudder, ailerons, and elevator.
• The Makings of a Flying Machine: Structure and Materials explains how materials and structure shape the way air and space craft look and perform, explores the advantages and disadvantages of different materials used, and includes a cut-away Cessna 150.

An amphitheater-style area features "Explainers" performing demonstrations. "Forces of Flight" demonstrations, paper airplane contests, "Air and Space Touchables" demonstrations, and videos rotate throughout the day.

A Visitor Resource Center is filled with science activities, video programs, interactive computer programs, children's literature, and other reference materials related to flight sciences.

Note: Magellan T. Bear, a teddy bear featured in an elementary school project designed to stimulate children's interest in geography, science, and exploration, is on view in the gallery indefinitely. He was added May 1, 1998.

See Nov. 1996 Smithsonian magazine, p. 36.

Exploring the Planets

- Ongoing
Exploring the Planets, Gallery 207, 2nd Floor, West Wing
This gallery highlights the history and achievements of planetary exploration, both Earth-based and by spacecraft.

Highlights include:
• Voyager: full-scale replica of the spacecraft that explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in the 1970s and 1980s
• A Piece of Mars? A meteorite fragment discovered in Antarctica in 1979 and thought to be from Mars (placed on view 6/16/1990)
• Surveyor 3 television camera: retrieved from the surface of the Moon by the Apollo 12 astronauts

Explore the Universe

09/21/2001 - Ongoing
Explore the Universe, Gallery 111, 1st Floor, East Wing
Through objects, interactives, and videos, this exhibition explains what scientists think our universe is like, how the present scientific view of the universe came to be, how it is being shaped today, and what mysteries remain. With the development of each new tool to explore the universe -- telescopes, photography, spectroscopy -- our understanding of the universe changed dramatically. Despite these new advances, many of our questions remain unanswered: What is the universe? How big is it? How old is it? How did it begin? A changing section on what's new in our exploration of the universe will keep the exhibition up to date and attempt to answer these questions.

• Exploring the Universe with the Naked Eye examines our first, basic understanding of the universe. Featured artifacts include Islamic astrolabes and a replica of the armillary sphere and portable mural quadrant used by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.
• Exploring the Universe with the Telescope illustrates how the telescope revolutionized the way we see the universe. Featured artifacts include the telescope tube through which William Herschel discovered thousands of nebulae and star clusters, leading him to postulate that other galaxies exist beyond our Milky Way.
• Exploring the Universe with Photography shows how photographs changed the way astronomers recorded the universe. Featured artifacts include the camera used by Edwin Hubble in discovering other galaxies.
• Exploring the Universe with Spectroscopy demonstrates how the composition of light reveals histories within the universe. Featured artifacts include an early spectrograph from the late 1800s and a 1912 letter from Albert Einstein discussing the warping of space by matter.
• Exploring the Universe in the Digital Age explains how digital detectors and processors have enhanced the power of the earlier tools. Featured artifacts include the "Z machine" that gathered data for the first 3-D map of the universe.

Related book: Beyond the Earth, $40 (cloth)

Early Flight, The Samuel P. Langley Gallery of

03/26/1980 - Ongoing
Early Flight, Gallery 107, 1st Floor, West Wing
This re-created indoor aeronautical exhibition (circa 1913) highlights the early history of the airplane from antiquity through the first decade of powered flight. Period furnishings, talking mannequins, and ragtime music combine to bring back the special ambience of the time.

Highlights include:
• Wright 1909 Military Flyer: the world's 1st military airplane
• 1908 Rinek Voisin
• Lilienthal glider: glider that inspired Wilbur and Orville Wright, 1894
• 1912 Curtiss Pusher
• 1914 Bleriot monoplane

Theater with video presentation

Beyond the Limits: Flight Enters the Computer Age

05/12/1989 - Ongoing
Beyond the Limits, Gallery 213, 2nd Floor, East Wing
The gallery illustrates how the electronic computer has revolutionized aerospace engineering, aviation, and spaceflight. Computers are used to design and build air- and spacecraft, monitor air traffic, navigate and control flights, and train pilots.

The exhibition is divided into 7 areas:
• Design
• Aerodynamics
• Computer-Aided Manufacture
• Flight Testing
• Air Operations
• Flight Simulators
• Space Operators

Highlights include:
• X-29: forward-swept-wing airplane (full-scale model)
• Cray-1 supercomputer: once the world's fastest computer
• Interactive computers: Visitors can test their skills at designing the wing of a jet airplane, guiding a lunar landing safely to the moon's surface, and landing an airplane at a busy airport in New York.
• HiMAT: robot airplane that pioneered the use of fly-by-wire technology, in which a computer -- not the pilot -- controls the aircraft's flaps, rudder, and ailerons
• Minuteman III ICBM Guidance and Control System: the brain of the Minuteman missile, the standard U.S. land-based intercontinental ballistic missile
• Full-size space shuttle cockpit simulator

Apollo to the Moon

07/01/1976 - Ongoing
Apollo to the Moon, Gallery 210, 2nd Floor, East Wing
This gallery traces NASA's manned space program beginning with Project Mercury's Freedom 7 (5/5/61); then the Gemini Project (1965-66); followed by the Apollo Program (1967-1972), with Apollo 17 as the last manned exploration of the moon.

Highlights include:
• Space flight time line, with photos of participating astronauts
• Items and equipment used by astronauts during the Apollo Project
• Information about the moon and selected lunar scenes showing Lunar Rover and astronauts at work
• Saturn Booster: S-1C rocket propulsion system
• Lunar Samples: 4 types of lunar soils and rocks
• Apollo 16 telescope backup; the original, designed by George Carruthers, is on the moon

America by Air

11/17/2007 - Ongoing
1st Floor, NW Wing, Gallery 102 (previously Air Transportation)
How did the first commercial airline companies get off the ground? How has the experience of air travel changed over the past century? How will the politics of today affect the way we fly tomorrow? These are some of the issues in the development of commercial air transport this gallery explores, while expanding on the history of air transportation from only a few years after the invention of powered flight to the commercial challenges and technical sophistication of the 21st-century jet age. Featuring seven complete airplanes, engines, and other objects, this exhibition focuses on the following time periods:

• The Early Years, 1914-1927
• Airline Expansion and Innovation, 1927-1941, featuring a Ford Tri-Motor and a Douglas DC-3, the most successful airliner of the 1930s.
• The Heyday of Propeller Airliners, 1941-1958, featuring a Douglas DC-7, the first airliner to provide nonstop coast-to-coast service.
• The Jet Age, 1958-Today, featuring the forward fuselage section of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Note: Visitors can enter from the second floor to view the cockpit.

See November 2007 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 40-42

Booklet: $5.95

National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

The National Air and Space Museum's spectacular Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is a massive complex displaying aviation and space artifacts both large and small.

Food & Entertainment:

McDonald's
Full service McDonald's menu featuring burgers, fries, chicken sandwiches, sodas, and sundaes.
Group and bulk packages available
Hours: Daily 10 a.m.-5p.m.

McCafé
Offering specialty coffees, teas and pastries
Hours: Daily 10 a.m.-5p.m.

Flight Simluators
Experience being an engineer and.or astornaut during a space shuttle mission.

Exhibits:

World War II Prints by Robert Taylor

- Ongoing
1st Floor, near Claude Moore Education Center
On view are prints by Robert Taylor that depict World War II.

Case: Japanese American Pioneers of the Jet Age

- Ongoing
Near Dulles International Airport, Rt. 28 & Air & Space Pkwy.
In 1955, Pan American World Airways -- in an effort to become the pre-eminent carrier for routes over the Pacific -- recruited Japanese American stewardesses as ambassadors to the growing tide of world travelers and established an Asian language base in Honolulu. Photographs and such memorabilia as uniforms, flight bags, and scrapbooks provide a peak at the role of these Japanese America stewardesses.

James S. McDonnell Space Hangar

11/01/2004 - Ongoing
West of Aviation Hangar
Some 160 large space and missile artifacts and 500 smaller space history artifacts are on view to illustrate the scope of space exploration history as organized around the following 4 main themes: rocketry and missiles, human spaceflight, application satellites, and space science. Highlights include:

• Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101), which flew landing tests for the shuttle program in the 1970s
• An unflown Mercury series spacecraft
• Gemini 7 space capsule, flown by Frank Borman and James Lovell on their two-week orbital endurance mission in 1965
• Apollo command module Boilerplate, used by Navy personnel to train for shipboard retrieval procedures
• Spacelab Laboratory Module
• Mobile Quarantine Facility #3, 1 of 4 Airstream trailers built by NASA to isolate astronauts in order to prevent the spread of any lunar-based contagions ("moon germs"); used by the crew of Apollo 11 after their return to Earth
• 69-foot floor-to-ceiling Redstone missile
• CRAY-1 Supercomputer
• A collection of space suits
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind Mothership model, used for the filming of the movie of the same name
• A case of popular culture space toys
• Anita, a spider used for web formation experiments aboard Skylab

Cases: Balloonamania

12/15/2003 - Ongoing
Boeing Aviation Hangar
The commotion created when the Montgolfier brothers sent the first successful unmanned balloon aloft in 1783 in France was as great as that created by the Wright Brothers' first flight a century later. Because communication worked differently in the 18th century, historic events were recorded visually on a variety of objects from clocks to teacups. Some 400 objects from the museum's collection of ballooning memorabilia illustrate the impact of ballooning upon the public's imagination of the day both in Europe and America. Included in the 2 exhibition cases are such items as ceramic saucers; ashtrays; pocket watches; paperweights; boxes of tortoiseshell, ivory, and amber; and 18th-century walnut chairs -- all beautifully decorated with ballooning scenes. Also on view is the barometer carried by American physician John Jeffries on the first balloon crossing of the English Channel in January 1785.

Boeing Aviation Hangar

12/15/2003 - Ongoing
Main Level
Some 161 aircraft are currently on view to illustrate the scope of aviation history, including military, commercial, business, sports, and pre-1920 aviation and vertical flight (helicopters). Highlights include:

• The Pathfinder Plus, a high-altitude, solar-powered, unmanned experimental aircraft, went on view early March 2007. See related article in Smithsonian magazine: May 2007, pp. 42.
• The Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, the 1st non-stop solo airplane flown around the world without refueling in 2005 by Steve Fossett (donated to the Smithsonian on May 23, 2006).
• SR-71 Blackbird: This reconnaissance aircraft is the world's fastest flying airplane in the atmosphere (donated to the Smithsonian by the Air Force on March 6, 1990).
• Air France Concorde 205 Fox Alpha: This 27-year-old aircraft flew at Mach 2, twice the speed of sound.
• Enola Gay (Boeing B-29): This bomber helped to end WWII.
• Grumman Goose: This amphibian is Grumman's 1st twin-engine monoplane and its 1st aircraft to enter commercial airline service
• Boeing 307 Stratoliner: This is the 1st airliner to have a pressurized fuselage; 1st flown in 1938.
• Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation: Known as the Connie, this plane, introduced in 1951, shortened transcontinental travel by an astounding 5 hours
• Langley Aerodrome A: This craft represents the failed attempt at human flight by Samuel Pierpont Langley (Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1887-1906)
• Biplanes, gliders (e.g., Bensen B-6 Gyroglider), ultralights, and aerobatic planes (e.g., Little Stinker, flown by Betty Skelton) suspended from the ceiling
• Several helicopters, including a Bell UH-1H "Huey" and the Bell LongRanger Model 206L, Spirit of Texas (spring 2010), in which H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn completed the 1st around-the-world helicopter flight, Sept. 1-30, 1982
• Artifacts of varying sizes (e.g., uniforms, equipment, aircraft models, etc.) on view in a number of glass-fronted cases
• Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, the 1st aircraft to fly mail, has been moved from the Mall museum (fall 2009) and is on view here while it is being restored

National Museum of African Art

The National Museum of African Art is America's only museum dedicated to the collection, conservation, study and exhibition of African art in all its forms.

Exhibits:

A Brave New World

08/09/2010 - 04/24/2011
Sublevel 1
The National Museum of African Art celebrates its 2008 acquisition of the mesmerizing, video-based artwork Brave New World II with a small, focused installation of contemporary works from its permanent collection that examines the theme of travel. In this new world, grainy film footage of dancers performing in a restaurant in Bali join stencils of body builders and prints named after Bob Dylan tunes to give vision to the very real, global experiences of African artists.

The Healing Power of Art: Works of art by Haitian children after the earthquake

06/17/2010 - 01/09/2011
Ripley Center, Concourse
Soon after the devastating January 12, 2010, earthquake, First Lady of Haiti Elisabeth D. Preval called on Haitian artist Philippe Dodard and his fellow artists, as well as psychologists, educators, and politicians, to create a safe place for children to express their feelings through art. Featured are nearly 100 paintings and drawings created by Haiti's young people at Plas Timoun (The Children's Place), arts centers housed in converted buses at two locations in Port-au-Prince. In addition, the exhibition includes the film Thirty Five Long Seconds: Haiti's Deadly Earthquake (18 min) and two short videos -- one is about Plas Timoun and the other is about a visit to Haiti by First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden and a professor at Northern Virginia Community College.

Free brochure

Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art

06/23/2010 - 11/28/2010
Sublevel 2
By tracing the story of the beautiful coiled basket on two continents, Grass Roots demonstrates the enduring contribution of African peoples and cultures to American life in southeastern United States. On view are approximately 200 objects, including baskets made in Africa and the American South, African sculptures, paintings from the Charleston Renaissance, and historic photos and videos. The exhibition also reveals how a simple farm tool, once used for processing rice, has become an important tool for making coiled baskets in the South.

Videos (running continuously)

Exhibition Catalogue: $35 (paper); $60 (cloth) Related publication and video

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the June 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 29.

Pavilion Sculptures (rotating)

- Ongoing
Pavilion
Note: Objects on display in the Pavilion are rotated constantly.

The following are examples of objects that have been displayed:

• Pair of Figures (mid-20th century): Senufo peoples, Cote d'Ivoire. Wood.
• Medicine Staff (18th century to 19th century): Edo peoples, Benin Kingdom, Nigeria. Iron.
• Vessel (early to late 20th century): Nsei peoples, Bamessing Chiefdom near Bamenda Grassfields region, Cameroon. Terracotta.
• Door with Lock (20th century): Nuna peoples, Burkina Faso. Wood and iron.
• Reduced Angled Spouted Black (1990): Magdalene Odundo. Ceramic.

Brochure

See "What's Up Around the Mall" in the September 2009 Smithsonian magazine: p. 25.

Ceramics at the National Museum of African Art

01/14/1998 - Ongoing
Sublevel 3
Drawn from the museum's extensive collection of 140 ceramic works, on view are 14 vessels representing various regions of the African continent, including five objects that have never been exhibited in the museum. The vessels are representative of master potters, primarily women who display their dexterity by hand-building a variety of vessels. A few pieces from an important group of 85 vessels from Central Africa are on display, along with a beer container from the Chewa of Malawi, a water vessel from the Yoruba of Nigeria, and water and oil containers from the Berber of Algeria.

The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection Highlights

05/18/2009 - 09/18/2011
Sublevel 1
On view are 60 objects and 4 in the lobby from this comprehensive 525-piece collection of African art representing 20 African countries and 75 peoples and covers 5 centuries of African art, including most major styles ranging from a highly abstract Cameroon mask to a naturalistic carved wooden male figure from Madagascar. Many of the works inspired such 20th-century artists as Picasso and Juan Gris.

Catalogue: $39.95 (paper)

Free family guide

See related articles in the February 2007 Smithsonian magazine: pp. 29-30, 32.

National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center

The National Museum of American History collects artifacts of all kinds, from gowns to locomotives, to preserve for the American people an enduring record of their past. The Museum has more than three million artifacts in its collection.

Food & Entertainment:

Stars and Stripes Cafe
The main eatery for the National Museum of American History is the newly renovated Stars and Stripes Cafe, which seats 600 and is large enough to accommodate groups. Menu includes all-American barbeques, soups, salad bar, burgers, pizza and desserts. Cash and credit cards accepted.
Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Constitution Cafe
The new Constitution Cafe, open the same hours as the Museum, is the perfect place for morning coffee, a light lunch or a mid-afternoon ice cream. Its large picture window has a terrific view of the Museum’s fountain and the street.
Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Ride Simulators
If taking a short, wild adventure is your idea of a break, then you will enjoy our new ride simulators. They will take you on a variety of journeys like driving a racecar or riding a roller coaster.

Exhibits:

Archives Center Cases: Solomon "Sol" Adler: Restless Inventor, 1901-1990

- Ongoing
Albert Small Documents Gallery, 2nd Floor, East Wing
In changing display cases, the Archives Center features items from the museum's archival collection that document America's history and its diverse cultures, ranging from correspondences, diaries, financial and legal documents, photographs, and sound recordings. The following case is on view:

• Solomon "Sol" Adler: Restless Inventor, 1901-1990 These cases feature drawings and documents related to inventor Solomon "Sol" Adler, who developed the first sewing machine that offered decorative stitches. Also on view are three sewing machine models Adler built between 1939 and 1954 to work through his improvements and a Brother Pacesetter sewing machine with the ""wishing dial" he invented that allowed for 30 different decorative machine stitches.

Note/s: • No photography permitted

• Visitors wishing to use the Archives Center for research are encouraged to call in advance for an appointment: 202-633-3270.
• Archives' Center Web address: americanhistory.si.edu/archives

Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop and Turn

06/14/2010 - 09/30/2011
1st Floor, West Wing, SI Libraries Gallery
This exhibition on innovative book design highlights movable, pop-up, folding, and multiple-construction books from the year 1570 to the present day. Although today pop-up books are often found in the children's book section, the earliest movable books were tools to educate and document information, such as a calendar, the moon's movements, or the inner workings of the human heart. The show features more than 50 works arranged by construction type in four areas:

• movables (primarily books that have movable parts that do not emerge from the surface of the page)
• pop-ups (book that in variant ways do emerge from the page)
• folding books (accordion forms)
• fantastic forms (that use multiple constructions)

The exhibition also features two interactive videos (run continuously)

Free brochure

Cosmos in Miniature: The Remarkable Star Map of Simeon De Witt (new title)

05/25/2010 - Ongoing
Albert Small Documents Gallery, 2nd Floor, East Wing
This exhibition features the oldest surviving Anglo-American star map. Hand-drawn in 1780 by Simeon De Witt (1756-1834), a surveyor for George Washington and the Continental army, the map shows the stars visible from De Witt's post in New Jersey. Drawing such a map, as De Witt himself later said, fostered an appreciation of "the ever shifting scenery of the skies and all the gorgeous drapery of heaven." Also on view are De Witt's drawing instruments and examples of European star maps and astrolabes.

• Jazz at the Philharmonic
These cases feature business, travel, and performance documents related to "Jazz at the Philharmonic," a series of jazz concerts, tours, and performances produced by Norman Granz in the 1940s to 1960s. Celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month in April.

Note/s:
• No photography permitted

• James Brown's cape and jumpsuit
• Michael Jackson's fedora worn at Amateur Night in 1967 with the Jackson 5
• The Supremes' dresses
• Cab Calloway's baton
• Sammy Davis' childhood tap shoes
• Peg Leg Bates' peg leg
• Duke Ellington's score for "Black and Tan Fantasy" (1927)
• Ella Fitzgerald's dress worn at Amateur Night at the age of 17
• Miles Davis' flugelhorn
• LL Cool J's jacket and hat
• Celia Cruz's dress

Introductory film
Video alcoves
Companion book: $35 (cloth)

Organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The Modern Gown Gallery: A First Lady's Debut

03/10/2010 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, West, First Ladies at the Smithsonian's new gallery
This new gallery features 11 inaugural gowns from the country's contemporary first ladies, beginning with Mamie Eisenhower to Michelle Obama. It focuses on the public interest and media coverage of the first lady's "debut" during the inauguration, using contemporary accounts to relay first impressions of each woman and the role she might play in the White House. The white chiffon, one-shoulder, floor-length gown that Jason Wu designed for Michelle Obama to wear to the 2009 inaugural balls, along with shoes by Jimmy Choo and the diamond jewelry she wore, is displayed in a case in the center of the gallery. Also on view are watercolor sketches of 14 gowns from the collection. This gallery is an extension of the First Ladies at the Smithsonian exhibition and collectively the two galleries feature a total of 24 dresses and more than 100 other objects.

4-minute video featuring first ladies and designers of the gowns (runs continuously)

YouTube Video: Museum staff members provide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the work involved in conserving the first ladies' dresses and accessories.

For more information on First Ladies at the Smithsonian, see separate listing.

Outdoor Sculptures

- Ongoing
Outdoors, Mall Entrance and Northwest Grounds
• Gwenfritz, a mammoth stabile by Alexander Calder, is on the northwest museum grounds (installed 1968)
• Infinity, a stainless-steel sculpture by Jose de Rivera, is at the Mall entrance (installed 1967).

Landmark Object: Vassar Telescope

11/21/2008 - Ongoing
1st Floor, West Wing Corridor
This landmark object -- the Vassar Telescope -- identifies the science and innovation wing of the museum.

On view is the telescope used by Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), the first professional woman astronomer in the United States. She gained recognition in scientific circles through establishing the orbit of a new comet in 1847. The following year, she became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and from 1865 to 1888 she served as professor of astronomy at Vassar Female College. In 1963, the president of Vassar donated Mitchell's astronomical telescope, built by Henry Fitz, to the Smithsonian.

Landmark Object: John Bull Locomotive

- Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing Corridor (outside America on the Move)
This landmark object -- the John Bull Locomotive -- identifies the transportation and technology wing of the museum.

On view is the steam locomotive John Bull and a section of the first iron railroad bridge in America.

The steam locomotive John Bull was built in 1831 and ran for 35 years, pulling trains of passengers and cargo between the two largest cities of the time, Philadelphia and New York. The locomotive propelled trains at 25 to 30 miles per hour. The John Bull, which was ordered from England by Robert Stevens for his railroad company, was named after the mythical gentleman who symbolized England. It was assembled by Isaac Dripps, a young steamboat mechanic who had never seen a locomotive before.

Landmark Object: Greensboro Lunch Counter

12/16/1994 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, East Wing Corridor
This landmark object -- the Greensboro Lunch Counter -- identifies the American ideals wing of the museum.

This section of the Woolworth's lunch counter with 4 stools from Greensboro, North Carolina, represents the February 1, 1960 sit-in that challenged segregated eating places.

On February 1, 1960, four African American students -- Ezell A. Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond -- sat down at this counter and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. They were all enrolled at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College. Their "passive sit-down demand" began one of the first sustained sit-ins and ignited a youth-led movement to challenge injustice and racial inequality throughout the South.

On view Jan. 15, 2010-July 2010 (TBA)
-- A banner and timeline of Civil Rights events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the sit-in.

See February 2010 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 28-29

Landmark Object: George Washington Sculpture

- Ongoing
2nd Floor, West Wing Corridor
This landmark object -- the George Washington Sculpture -- identifies the American lives wing of the museum.

On view is the marble statue of George Washington commissioned by Congress in 1832 to commemorate the centennial of our first president's birth. The artist, Horatio Greenough, modeled his figure of Washington on a classical Greek statue of Zeus, but the semi-clothed statue attracted controversy and criticism as soon as it arrived in the city in 1841. In 1908, Congress transferred the statue to the Smithsonian, where it went on view in the Castle. Then in 1964, it was moved to the museum for its opening.

Landmark Object: Disneyland's Dumbo the Flying Elephant

- Ongoing
3rd Floor, West Wing Corridor
This landmark object -- Disneyland's Dumbo the Flying Elephant -- identifies the entertainment, sports, and music wing of the museum.

On view is one of the elephants from the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride from the original Disneyland theme park in Los Angeles, California.

Landmark Object: Clara Barton's Red Cross Ambulance

- Ongoing
3rd Floor, East Wing Corridor (outside The Price of Freedom)
This landmark object -- Clara Barton's Red Cross Ambulance -- identifies the American wars and politics wing of the museum.

This ambulance is one of eleven vehicles purchased in 1898 by the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New York for use by Clara Barton and the American National Red Cross. Commissioned and sent to Camp Thomas in Georgia right before the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, the ambulance was used to care for U.S. Army soldiers before their deployment to Cuba. Later, Barton used the ambulance at her Maryland home, which served as the Red Cross headquarters, storehouse, and distribution center.

The letter remained in the Stuart family until 2009, when it was acquired by the museum through a donation of Dr. Peter Buck.

• Selections from The Lockwood Greene Engineering Records, 1871-2004

On view are documents, including drawings, from the recently acquired Lockwood Greene Engineering Records. Founded by Amos Lockwood, who brought in Stephen Greene as his business partner, the firm first focused on the supervision of construction of textile mills and later expanded into factories and other commercial buildings. The company is still in operation today as a subsidiary of CH2M Hill Companies.

Note/s:
• No photography permitted

• Bobcat Machines

On view are photographs, product literature, advertisements, and other documents related to the Bobcat Co. to illustrate the progression of a once-small, North Dakota family-owned company that emerged as an industry leader. The Bobcat Co. was originally named Melroe Manufacturing Co., which had its beginnings in 1947, as a family-owned agricultural equipment maker. In 1962, Melroe introduced the "Bobcat," a skid-steer loader, that became so successful the company took the Bobcat name. These archival materials record the company's contribution to American entrepreneurship and its role in the history of American manufacturing.

Note/s:
• No photography permitted

Invention Case: Hot Spots of Invention

11/06/2009 - Ongoing
1st Floor, West Wing
This case featuring rotating displays complements the Lemelson Hall of Invention exhibit nearby on the first floor and its case on the third floor.

• Hot Spots of Invention
Invention happens everywhere, but sometimes a "hot spot of invention" takes shape when the right mix of creative people, resources, and inspiring surroundings come together. In the 1930s, a hot spot began to form among the industrial labs and universities of New England. As World War II neared, this hot spot matured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This case highlights how three war-era labs at MIT helped transform Cambridge, Massachusetts, into a dynamic place of invention.

Holidays on Display

11/13/2009 - Ongoing
3rd Floor, West Wing, near National Treasures of Popular Culture
This exhibition examines the art, industry, and history of holiday displays across the United States, primarily between the 1920s and the 1960s, at the height of their popularity. On view are photographs, postcards, and illustrations of parade floats and window displays -- featuring Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and Marshall Field and Company's Christmas windows -- as well as objects relating to the early creation of these displays.

Artifact Walls: Constitution Ave. Entrance Corridor

11/21/2008 - Ongoing
Constitution Ave. Entrance Corridor
On view in floor-to-ceiling, glass-fronted walls on both sides of the Constitution Avenue entrance are objects highlighting the depth and breadth of the museum's permanent collection and our nation's rich and diverse history. The objects are organized around the following themes:

• Arts
• Popular Culture
• Business, Work, and the Economy
• Home and Family
• Community
• Land and Natural Resources
• Peopling America
• Politics and Reform
• Science
• Medicine
• Technology
• America's Role in the World

On view in floor-to-ceiling, glass-fronted walls flanking the grand staircase near the Constitution Avenue entrance are five cases dedicated to the following themes:

• Toys from the Attic
June 1, 2010-TBA
Toys reflect changes in both technology and society. This case examines toys produced in 19th-century America, when childhood began to be seen as a distinct stage of life with its own unique needs. Featured are dolls, kitchen and housewares, hand tools, educational games, and other toys intended to entertain, educate, and prepare children for adult work. The case also explores early toy marketing.

• Celluloid: The First Plastic
early June 2010-TBA
This case examines celluloid, the world's first commercially successful plastic, which was invented by John Wesley Hyatt in 1869. Initially made to imitate natural materials, celluloid was mainly used to manufacture inexpensive yet stylish goods -- ranging from beauty accessories and housewares to postcards and advertising keepsakes -- proving that inexpensive but durable products could be made from plastic. Though celluloid was no longer a popular material by the 1940s, it remains the primary material for Ping-Pong balls.

• Fifty Years of Lasers
March 5, 2010-September 2010 (TBA)
During 1960, scientists in the U.S. invented three different types of lasers. Since then many other lasers have been developed and adopted for a range of uses. This case features objects from the inventors on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of this important invention. Also displayed are objects representing both practical and entertaining uses of lasers, including a laser disc player.

• Cameras Before Digital
October 28, 2009-September 8, 2010 (new closing date)
This case features from the museum's collection 22 cameras -- from daguerreotype and view cameras to 20th-century military, aerial, digital, and promotional models -- that reveal the technological progress made from the camera's invention in 1839 to the advent of digital photography.

• Creating Hawai'i
August 21, 2009-August 2010 (TBA)
Objects from the museum's collection highlight Hawaii's unique culture and the extensive changes in tradition and diversity throughout its history -- from kingdom to republic, and from territory to state. Celebrates the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming the 50th state (1959).

Stories on Money

06/11/2009 - Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing
Through objects from the museum's National Numismatic Collection, this exhibition explores the development and meaning behind American coinage and currency and demonstrates the interplay among people, money, and history from the earliest times to the present.

• "America's Money" shows what money looked like in colonial America and at pivotal times in the nation's history, including the gold rush, the Great Depression, and the current era. It also compares coins from the 19th century with those produced during the renaissance of American coinage in the early 20th century.

• "The Power of Liberty" features an array of coins from the U.S. and around the world depicting Liberty, the feminine personification of freedom, as well as coins featuring real and mythological women.

Interactive stations allow visitors to view enlarged images and learn more about numismatic history.

Within These Walls...

05/16/2001 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, West Wing
This exhibition tells the history of the re-created, 2 1/2-story, Georgian-style house that stood at 16 Elm Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and 5 of the many families who occupied it from the mid-1760s through 1945. The exhibition explores some of the important ways ordinary people, in their daily lives, have been part of the great changes and events in American history. Walking around the exterior of the house, visitors can view -- through open walls, windows, and doorways -- settings played out against the backdrop of Colonial America, the American Revolution, the abolitionist movement, the industrial era, and World War II. Near the exit is a list of all the families who lived in the house through the 1960s.

The Victory Garden -- a re-created World War II-era garden (installed by Smithsonian Horticultural Services Division) -- features "heirloom" vegetable varieties related to 1940s strains of popular Victory Garden vegetables, and flowers. The plantings are rotated seasonally spring-fall. The Garden is located outdoors, Lower Level, West Side, outside the Stars and Stripes Cafe.

Free brochure "House Detective: Finding History in Your Home"

See June 2002 Smithsonian magazine, pp.31-32

The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag that Inspired the National Anthem

11/21/2008 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, Center
After undergoing an 8-year conservation period, the nation's flag is the centerpiece of the museum. Soaring above the entrance to the gallery is an architectural representation of a waving flag -- approximately 40 feet long and up to 19 feet high and composed of 960 reflective tiles made of polycarbonate material.

An introductory section in the entry corridor sets the scene for the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. Around the corner, the 30-by-34-foot wool-and-cotton flag is on view in a new dramatic display behind a 35-foot-long, floor-to-ceiling glass wall in a climate-controlled gallery that re-creates the dawn's early light, similar to Francis Scott Key's experience the morning of September 14, 1814, when he saw the flag flying over Ft. McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, inspiring him to pen the famous lyrics. The first stanza of the national anthem is projected prominently on the wall above the flag. Sections in the exit corridor trace the flag's history, including its safekeeping by Major George Armistead and his descendants, the Smithsonian's efforts to preserve it for more than 100 years, and how both the flag and the national anthem have come to represent diverse ideas of patriotism and national identity.

Also at the exit are an interactive table with a virtual, life-size image of the flag and a tactile panel with an outline of the flag and a full-size star for visitors who are visually impaired.

No photography permitted

See November 2008 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 68-76

Related publications:
- The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of an American Icon: $29.95 (cloth)
- Book of 33 postcards:$7.95

The Miniature World of Faith Bradford: The Dolls' House (new title)

- Ongoing
3rd Floor, West Wing (south of original location)
This miniature dollhouse represents a romantic view of the life of a large and affluent American family in the early 1900s. Its 23 rooms contain more than 800 items, including furniture, linens, toys, and other household items. The late Faith Bradford, a records expert at the Library of Congress, spent more than a half century designing and building the miniature furnishings; it was donated to the museum in 1951. Also on view is Ms. Bradford's scrapbook, which shows her methods of creating the house.

Science in American Life

04/27/1994 - Ongoing
1st Floor, West Wing
Note: The following sections are closed for renovation: Starting at "Mobilization for War" through "Robots on the Road." Reopening date: TBA.

This exhibition examines the interaction between science and society from 1876 to the present. Through artifacts, historical photographs, computer interactives, and multimedia technology, the exhibition brings to life many of the scientific issues, controversies, and achievements that have shaped modern American culture.

Major topics addressed include the founding of a pioneering chemical laboratory in an American university, the use of experimental psychology and intelligence testing, science as a promoter and entertainer at the 1939 World's Fair, industrial science and the invention of nylon, the mobilization of science for World War II and atomic bomb research in the Manhattan Project, the growth of environmental awareness, and the new frontiers of biotechnology.

New to this exhibition is the new Looking Ahead Gallery, which explores how American society reacts to recent research and innovation on mobile robots. The first display in this gallery is:

Robots on the Road: Stanley
Nov. 21, 2008 - Indefinitely

This experimental robot car named "Stanley," a modified Volkswagen Touareg, offers a glimpse into the future of "smart" cars. It can drive itself without a human in the driver's seat or at remote controls; it sees the road ahead through roof-mounted laser sensors, video cameras, radar, and GPS resources and uses sophisticated computers to navigate the environment and avoid obstacles. "Stanley" was the winner of the 2005 Grand Challenge, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Highlights include:
• a re-creation of an 1876 chemical laboratory
• a family fallout shelter
• more than 1,000 scientific instruments
• Stanley, the experimental robot car

Price of Freedom: Americans at War, The

11/11/2004 - Ongoing
3rd Floor, East Wing, Armed Forces History Hall
This exhibition surveys the history of America's military from the Colonial Era to the present conflict in Iraq, exploring how wars have been defining episodes in American history. Through more than 800 artifacts, images, and interactive stations, the exhibition reveals how Americans have fought to establish the nation's independence, determine its borders, shape its values of freedom and opportunity, and define its role in world affairs. It also explores the social impact of America's wars, presenting the link between military conflict and American political leadership, social values, technological innovation, and personal sacrifice.

The exhibition is arranged chronologically into the following 10 sections:
• Introduction, including the French and Indian War
• Revolutionary War, featuring George Washington's uniform and commission from Congress as commander in chief of the Continental Army.
• Wars of Expansion -- including the Indian Wars, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War -- featuring the buckskin coat worn by George Custer while he was stationed at frontier Army posts in the West during the Western Indian War.
• Civil War, featuring the chairs Civil War generals Lee and Grant used during the surrender ceremony at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
• World War I, featuring a doughboy uniform, gas mask, and carrier pigeon Cher Ami.
• World War II, featuring a Willys Jeep used for transporting troops and supplies.
• Cold War and Korean War
• Vietnam War, featuring restored UH-1H Huey Helicopter.
• Recent conflicts -- including the 1991 Gulf War and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- featuring Colin Powell's uniform from Operation Desert Storm.
• Medal of Honor, featuring videos in which recipients recount their experiences.

Free brochure
Catalogue: $17 (paper)

See November 2004 Smithsonian magazine, p. 14 and pp. 39-42

Satellite Museum Store

Power Machinery

- Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing
By the late 19th century, America's Industrial Revolution had a full head of steam. This hall follows the development of the increasingly efficient power machinery that helped the United States become a world leader in industrial production during this time. Full-size engines and models illustrate attempts to harness atmospheric force (1660-1700), the early age of steam power (1700-1770), the development of high-pressure and high-speed engines (1800-1920). The exhibition also shows the evolution of steam boilers and the steam turbine and progress in the techniques of harnessing water power. A number of pumps, waterwheels, and historic internal combustion engines are also on view.

National Treasures of Popular Culture

11/21/2008 - Ongoing
3rd Floor, West Wing
This exhibition displays iconic and well-loved artifacts -- Dorothy's ruby slippers, Minnie Pearl's hat, Warner Brothers cartoon animation cells, Jim Henson's Kermit the Frog, Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs -- that mirror the ways music, sports, and entertainment have played major roles in American life, shaping our national memory and often defining what is American to the nation and to the world.

- Rotation of Objects:
Added December 1, 2009:
-- Carol Burnett's "Went with the Wind" dress from her 1970s TV musical comedy show
-- Fonzie's jacket from the 1970s TV show Happy Days
-- Rafiki costume and Simba mask from the Tony Award-winning musical The Lion King

Added February 19, 2010:
-- Olympic objects, including Anastasia "Nastia" Luikin's pink gymnastics leotard worn during the 2008 Beijing games, Brian Boitano's ice skates worn during the 1988 Calgary games, a relay torch from the 1984 LA opening ceremonies, and Apolo Ohno's speed skates worn during the 2002 Salt Lake City games, to name a few

On the Water: Stories from Maritime America

05/22/2009 - Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing, American Maritime Enterprise
Marine transportation and waterborne commerce underlie American history like a strong and steady ocean current. Maritime trade established major cities, created connections between people and places, and opened the continent. This exhibition traces American maritime history from 18th-century sailing ships, to 19th-century steamboats and fishing craft, to today's huge container ships. Items featured include rigged ship models, patent models, documents, and images from the Smithsonian's National Watercraft Collection. American maritime history is brought to life through the stories of whaling crews, fishermen, shipbuilders, merchant mariners, passengers, and many others who work on the nation's waterways.

Audio and video components
Interactive stations

See September 2009 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 21-22

Musical Instruments Hall

- Ongoing
3rd Floor, West Wing, North Gallery
The Hall of Musical Instruments -- made up of a Concert Hall and north and south galleries -- presents samples of instruments and music relating to the history, performance styles and techniques of European and American music and the development of musical instruments dating from the 17th century. Some have been carefully restored to playing condition.

Included in the Hall are several instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, universally acknowledged to have been the greatest of all violin makers. The Servais Cello (1701) is considered to be one of the best preserved Stradivarius cellos. Also included is the Herbert R. Axelrod Quartet of Decorated Instruments, also made by Stradivari. Among only 11 rare decorated Stradivarius instruments that survive today, the Axelrod Quartet features the following: Violin, the Ole Bull (1687); Viola, the Axelrod (1695); and Violin, the Greffuhle (1709). While generally on display, these instruments also are used for performances of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society.

Notes:
• Because many of the musical instruments are used during special concerts, some instruments may be off view periodically.
• The south gallery remains under renovation.

Lemelson Center Case: Jerome Lemelson: Toying with Invention

11/21/2008 - Ongoing
3rd Floor, West Wing
This changing exhibition case complements the Lemelson Hall of Invention on the first floor.

• Jerome Lemelson: Toying with Invention

On view in this case are notebooks with sketches of toy ideas and examples of some of the toys Jerome Lemelson invented. Lemelson earned more than 600 patents; some 70 of them describe toys -- inflatable toys, jumping toys, toys with propellers, toys that run on tracks, target games, dolls, and more. In fact, Lemelson's first patent, issued in 1953, was for a new kind of propeller beanie.

Invention at Play

11/21/2008 - Ongoing
1st Floor, West, Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Hall of Invention
What do the inventors behind Post-it Notes, robotic ants, Kevlar, and the telephone have in common with children? Play! Created especially for families, this exhibition focuses on the similarities between the ways children and adults play and the creative skills and processes used by inventors. Through interactive and engaging activities, it encourages various playful habits of mind that underlie invention: curiosity, imagination, visual thinking, model building, and problem solving. It introduces inventors and innovators through compelling personal stories, photos, and artifacts. It even provides a chance to try learning to windsurf on the Sailboard Simulator, which is based on a design by sailboard inventor Newman Darby. This is the first exhibition in the new Lemelson Hall of Invention.

Free Brochure and Family Guide

See Smithsonian magazine: April 2005, p. 14, and November 2002, p. 46.

Gunboat Philadelphia

- Ongoing
3rd Floor, East Wing
Built in 1776, the gunboat Philadelphia is the oldest American fighting vessel in existence. She sank on October 11, 1776, in Lake Champlain during the battle of Valcour Island, when an American flotilla commanded by General Benedict Arnold was defeated by a British fleet. The gunboat Philadelphia was raised in 1935 and came to the museum in 1964, complete with the 24-pound ball that sent it to the bottom.

Additions:
mid-December 2009 (tentative):
• Information about the gunboat Philadelphia's recovery in 1935, the history of its display at Lake Champlain, and its early preservation and acquisition by the museum
• Historical video footage of the 1935 raising of the gunboat Philadelphia from Lake Champlain
• New cases featuring artifacts recovered with the gunboat and the crew payroll

First Ladies at the Smithsonian

12/19/2008 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, West Wing
This exhibition highlights the role of the first lady and features in two galleries a total of 24 first ladies' gowns and more than 100 other objects, including portraits, White House china, and personal possessions from the Smithsonian's collection. A section discussing the tradition of the first ladies' inaugural gown answers some of the most frequently asked questions about the gown collection. Another section focuses on the contributions of the first ladies, the country's expectations of them, and the ways in which they have supported the most powerful office in the country.

Gowns on view in the first gallery include those worn by Helen Taft (2), Martha Washington, Mary Todd Lincoln, Lucy Hayes, Frances Cleveland, Florence Harding, Grace Coolidge, Dolley Madison, Julia Grant, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower, and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Additions include:
March 10, 2010:
• The Modern Gown Gallery: A First Lady's Debut
This new gallery features 11 inaugural gowns from the country's contemporary first ladies, beginning with Mamie Eisenhower to Michelle Obama. It focuses on the public interest and media coverage of the first lady's "debut" during the inauguration, using contemporary accounts to relay first impressions of each woman and the role she might play in the White House. The white chiffon, one-shoulder, floor-length gown that Jason Wu designed for Michelle Obama to wear to the 2009 inaugural balls, along with shoes by Jimmy Choo and the diamond jewelry she wore, is displayed in a case in the center of the gallery. Also on view in the hallway outside this gallery are watercolor sketches of 14 gowns from the collection.

YouTube Video: Museum staff members provide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the work involved in conserving the first ladies' dresses and accessories.

6-minute video featuring First Lady Michelle Obama's donation of her inaugural gown to the museum, with remarks by designer Jason Wu and Secretary Clough (runs continuously in the exhibition)

Electricity: Lighting a Revolution

- Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing, Electricity Hall
This exhibition reveals -- through five interwoven stages -- how Thomas Edison's incandescent electric light bulb and other inventions began to transform our world and examines the similarities and differences between the process of invention in Edison's era and today.

Highlights include:
• several of Edison's early light bulbs

Communities in a Changing Nation: The Promise of 19th-Century America

02/12/1999 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, West Wing
This permanent exhibition explores the excitement and dynamism of American life during the 19th century through the experiences of 3 communities: Industrial Era Bridgeport, Connecticut; Jewish Immigrant Community of Cincinnati, Ohio; and African-Americans living in 19th-century Charleston, South Carolina. Major artifacts include a model of an Eli Whitney cotton gin and an Edison light bulb.

• Owners, Mechanics, and Operatives: The Promise of Industrialization looks at the new world of mills and factories through the eyes of owners and workers at the Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Co., a sewing-machine factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
• Jewish Immigrants: The Promise of a New Life considers the experiences of the 200,000 central Eastern European Jews who arrived in the United States between 1820 and 1880, focusing on Cincinnati, Ohio, an important city in the development of American Reform Judaism. Many Jewish immigrants to this area worked as peddlers, merchants, and manufacturers. This section features a fully outfitted late 19th-century peddler's cart.
• African Americans in Slavery and Freedom: Promise Deferred provides insights into the experience of urban and rural slavery and the limits placed on free blacks though the eyes of people who lived in low-country South Carolina in the 1800s. This section features re-creations of an 1840s slave cabin and of the Charleston Market.

Cases: Taking America to Lunch

04/13/2004 - Ongoing
Lower Level, near entrance to Stars and Stripes Cafe, south wall
On view are more than 50 children's and workers' illustrated metal lunch boxes and beverage containers dating from the 1890s through the 1980s to celebrate the history and endurance of American lunch boxes. After reaching the height of their popularity at the dawn of the television era, lunch box sales became barometers for what was current in popular culture.

See September 2004 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 43-44

Bon Appetit! Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian

08/19/2002 - Ongoing
1st floor, West Wing
Ms. Child's 14-foot x 20-foot kitchen -- custom-made by her husband -- has been reassembled here exactly as it was in her Cambridge, Massachusetts home. The kitchen, which Child (1912-2004) used as the set of three television shows and as the testing ground for many recipes featured in her cookbooks, is composed of more that 1,200 individual pieces, including everything from her stainless-steel kitchen sink, to her six-burner Garland commercial range, to her personal cookbooks. The kitchen represents Julia Child's extraordinary influence on the way Americans think about their food and its history. When Child moved back to her home state of California in 2001, she donated her kitchen to the museum. The museum staff packed and catalogued the entire kitchen, then reassembled it in the museum exactly as it was in Child's home.

Video (runs continuously)

See February 2002 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 36 and 37

Related books, DVDs, etc. available in the main Museum Store.

Artifact Walls: Mall Entrance Corridor

11/21/2008 - Ongoing
Madison Dr. Entrance Corridor
On view in floor-to-ceiling, glass-fronted walls on both sides of the Mall entrance are objects highlighting the depth and breadth of the museum's permanent collection and our nation's rich and diverse history. The objects are organized around the following themes:

• Arts
• Popular Culture
• Business, Work, and the Economy
• Home and Family
• Community
• Land and Natural Resources
• Peopling America
• Politics and Reform
• Science
• Medicine
• Technology
• America's Role in the World

See November 2008 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 27-30

American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, The

11/15/2000 - Ongoing
3rd Floor, Center Corridor, Views into the Collection Gallery
More than 900 objects related to the 43 men who have held the nation's highest office are used to explore the public, personal, ceremonial, and executive boundaries of the presidency. Composed of 11 thematic sections, the exhibition addresses such topics as inaugural celebrations, presidential roles, life at the White House, limits of presidential power, assassinations and mourning, the influence of the media, and life after the presidency.

Highlights include the lap desk Thomas Jefferson used to draft the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln's life mask and top hat, Lewis and Clark compass, the horse-drawn carriage that carried Ulysses S. Grant in his second inaugural parade in 1873, a radio microphone used by Franklin D. Roosevelt to give his fireside chats during World War II, an early teddy bear (named after Theodore Roosevelt), and Bill Clinton's saxophone.

Videos, including an introductory video welcoming visitors to the exhibition
Interactive Stations
Catalogue: $50 (cloth); $24.95 (paper)
See November 2000 Smithsonian magazine, p. 75; October 2004, pp. 52-65
See June 2002 Smithsonian magazine for article on LBJ, pp. 98-111
Satellite Museum Store (new location west of exhibition entrance)

America on the Move

11/22/2003 - Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing, Transportation Hall
This major exhibition examines how transportation -- from 1876 to 1999 -- has shaped our American identity from a mostly rural nation into a major economic power, forged a sense of national unity, delivered consumer abundance, and encouraged a degree of social and economic mobility unlike that of any other nation of the world.

Arranged chronologically and through 19 sections, historical moments explored include the coming of the railroad to a California town in 1876, the role of the streetcar and the automobile in creating suburbs outside of cities, and the transformation of a U.S. port with the introduction of containerized shipping in the 1960s.

Among the 300 objects on view, highlights include:
• The "Jupiter," a steam-powered locomotive built in 1876 for the Santa Cruz Railroad
• the 260-ton "1401" locomotive, which pulled President Franklin Roosevelt's funeral train on part of its journey to Washington, D.C.
• the 1903 Winton was the first car driven across the U.S. -- by H. Nelson Jackson and Sewall Crocker, with Bud the Dog as a passenger
• 1926 Ford Model T Roadster; the Ford Motor Company ceased production of the Model T in 1927
• a 1942 Harley-Davidson motorcycle
• a Chicago Transit Authority "L" mass transit car built in 1959
• a piece of U.S. Route 66, the "People's Highway," that connects Chicago to Los Angeles

Hands-on stations
Videos
Free brochure: America on the Move TripTik
Bilingual (English/Spanish) Family Guide
Companion book: $35 (cloth)

See October 2003 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 14 and 37-38; November 2003, pp. 32-34

Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life

01/16/2009 - 05/30/2011
3rd Floor, Center, Rose Gallery, enter from American Presidency
To celebrate Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday in 2009, this exhibition explores the life and legacy of our 16th president through objects from the museum's collection, augmented with personal stories told by him and the people who knew him best. It showcases more than 60 historical treasures associated with Lincoln's life -- from an iron wedge he used to split wood in the early 1830s in New Salem, Illinois, to his gold pocket watch and his iconic top hat he wore the night he was assassinated at Ford's Theatre.

Video (runs continuously)

Free American Heritage publication available at both Welcome Desks

Related publication: $12.95 (paper)

See related articles on Lincoln in Smithsonian magazine, September 2008, pp.61-66, and February 2009, pp. 32-38, and a small article on his pocket watch, May 2009, p. 28, and related video

-- Why are pictures so powerful? Pictures influence, inform, and inspire us in many ways. They attract us, offering a feast for the eye as well as food for the mind. They explain complicated ideas at a glance and even teach those who cannot read.

-- Why do books include pictures? Pictures reach audiences more directly than text alone. They add beauty, color, and life to the printed page. They communicate the author's tone and approach to the subject, and enhance our understanding and enjoyment of the text. They engage us, prompt our imagination, and appeal to readers and non-readers alike.

Free brochure

Video (runs continuously)

National Museum of Natural History

The wonders of the natural world await you beneath the dome of this classical building, which has recently been undergoing extensive renovation.

Food:

Atrium Cafe (Ground Floor)
Featuring natural and sustainable foods including natural beef burgers, rotisserie chicken. pizza, taqueria, sandwiches, soups, salads, pastas and desserts.
Discounts for Smithsonian members
Group packages available
Hours: Mon-Fri: 11a.m.-3p.m. Sat: 11a.m.-5p.m. Sun: 11a.m.-4p.m.

Firday Night Jazz Cafe
call 202-633-1000 for schedule and details

Fossil Cafe (First Floor)
Espresso/Cappuccino bar featuring sandwiches, salads, soups and desserts.
Discounts for Smithsonian Members
Hours: Daily 10a.m.-7p.m.

Specialty Ice Cream and Coffee Bar (Ground Floor)
Daily from 11:30a.m.-5p.m., 7p.m. on Fridays

Outdoor Carts (seasonal)
Hot Dogs, Pretzels, Sodas, Ice Cream and Dippin' Dots
Hours: Daily 10a.m.-3p.m. Sat-Sun: 11a.m.-5p.m.

Exhibits:

Cyprus: Crossroads of Civilizations

09/29/2010 - 05/01/2011
2nd Floor, Northeast Wing, Special Exhibit Gallery (Hall 23)
The easternmost island of the Mediterranean has been a crossroads of civilizations for 11,000 years. Discover the history of Cyprus, its struggles, and achievements -- through a rich collection of antiquities, many of which are on view for the first time outside the country.

Losing Paradise: Endangered Plants Here and Around the World

08/14/2010 - 12/12/2010
1st Floor, West Wing, Special Exhibit Gallery (near Mammals)
This exhibition features 45 compelling botanical illustrations by members of the American Society of Botanical Artists to convey the vital importance of plant conservation. Our planet's rich diversity of plant life is at risk; more than 20 percent of the world's flora is threatened with extinction. Scientists are racing to gather information on known plants before they disappear forever -- with botanical illustrators working alongside them to capture plant diversity in their artworks for future generations.

Celebrating 100 Years at the National Museum of Natural History (new title)

05/29/2010 - 03/20/2011
2nd Floor, Northwest Wing, Special Exhibit Gallery (Hall 25)
To mark the museum's 100th birthday, this exhibition highlights the behind-the-scenes research that advances scientific knowledge and inspires the museum's public educational programs. Over the last century, scientists have used technological advances in photography to see farther, deeper, and in more detail than ever before. On view are photographs, both old and new, that show how these researchers have relied on photography to document their findings and to reveal the natural world that lies hidden to the naked eye.

Related Web and video sites celebrating the museum's 100th birthday:
100 Years of the Natural History Museum

Video: Natural History Museum is 100 Years Old

Several Interactive Science Stations

Videos (run continuously)

Natural History Museum Turns 100 on March 17, 2010

- Ongoing

To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the museum opened the David H. Koch Hall of Human Orgins, see related exhibition. For additional information on the museum's marking its 100th anniversary, see the following links:

100 Years of the Natural History Museum

Video: Natural History Museum is 100 Years Old

The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins: What Does It Mean To Be Human?

03/17/2010 - Ongoing
1st Floor, Northwest Wing (Halls 11 & 12)
The museum marked its 100th anniversary on the National Mall with the opening of this new exhibition hall on the same date when the museum opened to the public: March 17, 1910.

This major new exhibition hall focuses on the story of human origins and probes the ecological and genetic connections that human beings have had with the natural world over time. It examines the shared framework of humankind -- the biological and cultural history we all share -- as well as the differences that exist and preoccupy us today.

Highlights include:
- An amphitheater show featuring One Species Living Worldwide
- "Changing the World," a special gallery where visitors can address pressing questions and issues surrounding climate change and humans' impact on the Earth
-Interactive snapshots in time using the actual field site where research is being conducted
- An interactive human family tree showcasing 6 million years of evolutionary evidence from around the world
- A time tunnel depicting life and environments over the past 6 million years

See related articles in March 2010 Smithsonian magazine: pp. 15-20 and 34-41.

Related catalogue: What Does It Mean To Be Human, by Rick Potts ($24.95)

A Rare Encounter: The Hope and Wittelsbach-Graff Diamonds

01/29/2010 - 09/06/2010
2nd Floor, East Wing, Gems Hall, Harry Winston Gallery
The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is displayed together with the Hope Diamond for the first time. The Wittelsbach-Graff's deep blue color, flawless clarity, and royal history make it one of the most celebrated gemstones known. Its story goes back over 340 years, and the diamond has not appeared in public for more than 50 years. Both diamonds come from India and share their rare blue color. Could they have come from the same mine? Smithsonian scientists compare the properties of both gems and explore this intriguing possibility.

See "What's Up around the Mall" in April 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 26.

Welcome to the National Museum of Natural History

10/24/1991 - Ongoing
Ground Floor, Constitution Ave. Lobby
This exhibition offers an array of objects selected for their beauty including minerals, fossils, sea shells, butterflies, Pueblo ceramics, prehistoric stone artifacts, and totem poles and wood carvings from Northwest Coast Indian cultures.

• The Easter Island Head -- without the hat (which was not original) -- was installed on the east side of the lobby the week of Aug. 29, 2005. Also called a Moai, this ancestor sculpture from the South Pacific had previously been on view in Pacific Cultures Hall (which is now permanently closed).

• Totem Poles, Northwest Coast: The 3 Northwest Coast totem poles near the east stairwell of the lobby are from the Haida and Tsimshian tribes of British Columbia. They previously had been on view at the Arts and Industries Building. The display includes an ongoing video about these tribes.

• Yap Money: The Yap Money (large stone "coin") is located on the ground floor near the entrance to the main Museum Store. It had previously been on view in Pacific Cultures Hall (which is now permanently closed).

Outdoor Sculptures, including Sculptures from Nature

- Ongoing
Outside
Near Constitution Avenue entrance:

• Colossal Head: This replica of an Olmec "Colossal Head" (Monument #7) from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan in Veracruz, Mexico, was sculpted by Ignacio Perez Solano of Veracruz. Installed Oct. 19, 2001.

• Triceratops Head: The bronze statue of a Triceratops head was installed on July 19, 2001.

Near Madison Drive entrance: Sculptures from Nature:

• Banded Iron Ore Boulder: On one plinth is a banded iron ore boulder, 7 x 5 feet in size and approximately 2.25 billion years old. One side is cut and polished. The boulder is from Ishpeming, Michigan. Installed March 16, 1985.

• Petrified Logs: On the other plinth are two petrified logs, each 8 feet long x 3 feet in diameter and over 180 million years old. One end of each log is cut and polished. The logs are from Holbrook, Arizona. Installed March 16, 1985.

Korea Gallery

06/08/2007 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, Center, North Corridor (Hall 24)
To celebrate the country's distinctive art, culture, and 2,000-year history, on view are some 85 objects, including Korean ceramics, wooden furniture, stone and wooden sculptures, paintings, and textiles.

The exhibition is divided into the following thematic sections:
• Korean Ceramics: A Tradition of Excellence
• Honoring Family
• The Korean Wedding
• Hangeul: Symbol of Pride, exploring Korean calligraphy and the Korean writing system
• Landscapes of Korea, exploring the country's natural history and built landscape
• Korea Beyond Borders, exploring the cultural identity of Koreans and their descendants living around the world
• Contemporary Korean Art, illustrating that modern Korea finds inspiration in the rich traditions of its past

See related article in Smithsonian magazine: June 2007, p. 40.

Ice Age: Ice Age Mammals and the Emergence of Man

- Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing (Hall 6)
This hall provides a glimpse of the Ice Age, one of the most extraordinary times in earth's history. Mounted skeletons of some of the largest Ice Age mammals dominate the hall: a towering giant ground sloth, a woolly mammoth, an Irish elk, a long-tusked American mastodon, a saber-toothed cat, the mummified remains of a big horned bison, and dozens of other Ice Age animals are displayed. At the northeast entrance, is a life-sized diorama of a reconstructed Neanderthal burial site depicting a Neanderthal family burying a young man in a shallow grave, along with tools and food; the reconstructed diorama is based on a 70,000-year-old site found in the Regourdou cave in Dordogne, France.

Mummies On View:
- Animal mummies on view in the hall include a naturally mummified (freeze-dried) big-horned bison and the rear lower leg and foot of a horse.
Note: For information on the Iceman and human mummies, see Origins of Western Cultures.

Addition:
April 1998:
• Text panels on human evolution explain advances in the study of human evolution made since the exhibition hall opened in 1974.

Fossils Galore: A Grand Opening

- Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing, Entrance to Dinosaurs Hall
This exhibition documents the dramatic explosion of hard-shelled life at the beginning of the Paleozoic Era 570 million years ago. Rare 530-million-year-old fossilized soft-bodied animals of the Burgess Shale are on display here. These fossils, which are among the Smithsonian's greatest finds, were discovered in 1910 by the Institution's 4th Secretary, Charles D. Walcott.

Early Life: Earliest Traces of Life

06/27/1986 - Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing (1st half of Hall 4), near Dinosaurs Hall
Presented is an overview of the origin and early evolution of life. Included is the oldest fossil, a cabbage-sized, 3.5-billion-year-old fossil algal mat, as well as the earliest animal fossils, to relate a large portion of the earth's history known as the Precambrian.

Time Column
Animated film

Discovering Rastafari!

11/02/2007 - Ongoing
1st Floor, Northeast Wing, African Voices Focus Gallery (Hall 7)
Featuring rare photographs, artifacts, and ephemera, this exhibition moves beyond the popular Jamaican music known as reggae to explore the origins and practice of the Rastafari religion in Jamaica and the movement's subsequent spread across the Caribbean and around the world.

Video footage featuring male and female Rastafari of different ages, nationalities, ethnicities, and socioeconomic classes highlights the unity of the movement. An overview of the three major "mansions" (organizations) reveals the diversity of Rastafari and the core of sacred practices that guide the daily lives of its practitioners.

See Jan. 2008 Smithsonian magzine, pp. 31 and 34.

Burgess Shale Diorama

- Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing, inside entrance to Dinosaurs Hall (Hall 2)
Soft-bodied and hard-shelled animals, tall sponges and algae offer a rare glimpse into the earliest explosion of animal life about 515 million years ago. This plethora of weird wonders was reconstructed based on fossils preserved in the rocks of the Burgess Shale. In 1909, Charles Wolcott, then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, discovered the Burgess Shale fossil deposit in British Columbia, Canada. The museum houses more than 65,000 Burgess Shale fossils, many of which are still intensively studied by scientists around the world. Dozens are on display.

See Smithsonian magazine: February 1983, p. 153, and August 2009, pp. 15-17.

The Sant Ocean Hall

09/27/2008 - Ongoing
1st Floor, North Center (Halls 8, 9, & 10)
Covering 71% of the Earth's surface and containing 97% of the planet's water, the ocean is a vast and complex ecosystem; it is intrinsically connected to other global ecosystems and is essential to all life, including our own. In this new hall, the importance and complexity of the ocean is revealed through a cross-disciplinary perspective -- biological, geological, and anthropological. Information on understanding and predicting changes to the Earth's environment and on how to conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet our nation's economic, social, and environmental needs is also highlighted.

Highlights include a life-size model of a 45-foot North Atlantic right whale, based on the real female whale named Phoenix, the centerpiece of the exhibition; two giant squids; a set of 7-foot-tall jaws of the extinct great white shark (Carcharodon megalodon), the biggest shark that ever lived; and a 26-foot long Northwest Coast canoe, carved especially for the exhibition by a Tlingit master carver.

The other 10 sections are as follows:
• Living on an Ocean Planet presents cutting-edge research and critical ocean-related issues and features interactive computer stations.
• Shores to Shallows highlights different kinds of coastal ecosystems around the world and how they are affected by humans.
• The Coral Reef, a 1,500-gallon aquarium featuring a living model of an Indo-Pacific coral reef ecosystem with some 50 live, colorful specimens.
• The Poles demonstrates the differences between the North and South poles and how life thrives at both through extreme adaptations.
• Ocean Systems, featuring "Science on a Sphere," a large rotating 360-degree global display suspended from the ceiling with images and narration that explains many of the complex aspects of the ocean, including what the ocean produces, how it changes, and how it interacts with the atmosphere.
• Journey Through Time gives visitors the opportunity to compare fossils of a large number of ancient animals; some are more than 500 million years old.
• Deep Ocean Exploration, a 13-minute video shown continuously in the exhibit theater, takes visitors on a dive to the very bottom of the ocean's floor in a submersible with scientists as they uncover some of the her deepest mysteries.
• Collections, featuring a special showcase, displays the world's largest and most diverse collection of marine specimens and explains how this collection helps scientists make sense of ocean life.
• Ocean in the News: An "Ocean Today" kiosk provides interactive ocean news -- giving regular updates on ocean-related topics around the world.
• Focus Gallery featuring changing exhibitions (see separate listing).

Also, the exhibition uses modern technology to create the following:
• High Bay Media Experience: The main hall's upper walls are transformed into windows into the ocean through high definition underwater footage.
• The Ocean as a Laboratory The work of marine scientists around the world is revealed through 7 audio-visual stories, a large map, and photo essays.

See related articles in Smithsonian magazine: April 2010, p. 25; September 2008; and December 2005, p. 10.

Related Smithsonian publication Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World: $39.95

Small Shop, at the north entrance of the exhibition

Created in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution

02/15/2008 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, Southwest Wing, near Insect Zoo (Hall 30)
This exhibition shows how butterflies have evolved, adapted, and diversified with their plant partners over millions of years. Housed within this exhibition is a special Butterfly Pavilion, which looks like a cocoon, where visitors can walk among hundreds of live butterflies and pesticide-free plants to observe butterfly behaviors ranging from flying and sipping nectar at flowers to roosting and emerging from chrysalides. These butterflies will hatch from pupae raised on farms in Africa, Asia, and North and South America.

Note: To maintain an environment conducive for butterflies, the temperature inside the Pavilion will be 80-85 degrees with high humidity.

For operating hours, visit the Web

For ticketing information, visit the Web

See Smithsonian magazine, Dec. 2007, "From the Secretary" (p. 28) and Feb. 2006 (p. 10).

Photography permitted

Wheelchairs permitted in Pavilion, but no strollers allowed

This traveling exhibition is on loan from the Bergen Museum, University of Bergen, Norway.

See "What's Up around the Mall" in May 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 26.

Celebrates the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.

See February 2009 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 40-48 and 50-54.

See also related exhibition Cases: Darwin's Legacy

Cases by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries: Darwin's Legacy

09/10/2009 - 10/17/2010
Ground Floor, Constitution Ave. Lobby, East & West Sides
Charles Darwin served as an unpaid naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle during a scientific expedition around South America and the Galapagos Islands from 1831 to 1836. The studies he performed and the specimens he collected during that voyage served as the basis of his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he expounded in his groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species. These two cases -- on the east and west sides of the lobby -- feature objects and books related to that voyage to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth.

Highlights include:
• Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships 'Adventure' and 'Beagle' between the years 1826 and 1836 (4 volumes)
• Beautifully illustrated volumes from the Zoology of the H.M.S. Beagle, edited by Charles Darwin and published 1838-1843
• Galapagos land iguana and mockingbird specimens from the museum's collections
• Charles Darwin's silk neckerchief
• Portrait of Charles Darwin

Organized by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Western Cultures Hall: Origins of Western Culture

- 09/26/2010
2nd Floor, West Wing (Hall 26)
The institutions, traditions and ideals of North American cultures are deeply rooted in those of western Asia, northern Africa, and Europe. This hall explores some examples from various cultures in the western world including northern Iraq, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome and the recent discovery of the Iceman, a Copper Age mummy found in an Italian glacier.

Reptiles

- Ongoing
2nd Floor, West Wing (Hall 29)
Life-size displays illustrate the eating habits, defenses, and locomotion of a variety of snakes and amphibians. Reptiles on view include a preserved king cobra, reticulated python, and boa constrictors from the Malayan and Amazonian jungles; sea turtles; crocodiles; and lizards.

Osteology: Hall of Bones

- Ongoing
2nd Floor, West Wing (Hall 28)
Hundreds of skeletons of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes -- ranging from the gigantic extinct Steller sea cow to the tiny pocket mouse -- are shown in characteristic poses and grouped by order to illustrate their relationships. The groupings of these skeletons show how bone structures evolved in adaptation to environment.

Compare, bone for bone, one skeleton against another and observe unique skeletal features in any animals.

Mammals, Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of

11/15/2003 - Ongoing
1st Floor, West Wing, Mammals Hall (Halls 14, 15, & 16)
This hall showcases some 274 mammals and explores their diversity and how they originated and adapted to changing landscapes and environments over the last 225 million years -- from polar to desert regions and from dry to humid environments. The exhibition addresses such questions as: What is a mammal? Why do some mammals live in groups while others live alone? How many kinds of mammals are there and what are their habitat preferences? How are mammals related? How and why do scientists study mammals? The exhibition also shares information about the unusual -- the oddest specimens (including egg-laying mammals), the rarest specimens (an okapi from Africa), and the oldest known mammal (Morganucadon) from 210 million years ago.

Highlights include:
• various habitats: Africa, North America, South America, and Australia
• an Evolution Theater with an 8-minute film. Seated on a bench in the theater is a bronze sculpture of a chimpanzee named Harriet.
• Discovery areas that include computer interactives, touchable objects, and educational question-and-answer stations for families
• A small area in the South America section highlights the work of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the history and background of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, where STRI scientists do research (added summer 2005).

See related articles in Smithsonian magazine: Nov. 2003, p. 14 and pp. 41-44.

Related book: $75 (cloth)

Satellite Museum Store

Life in the Ancient Seas

05/18/1990 - Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing (Hall 5), near Dinosaurs Hall
Fantastic marine fossils tell the story of evolution and extinction in the seas in three acts: the Paleozoic Era (540 to 250 million years ago), when odd prehistoric creatures such as trilobites abounded; the Mesozoic Era (250 to 65 million years ago), when marine reptiles such as mososaurs appeared; and the Cenozoic Era (65 million years ago to today), when the numbers and kinds of shelled animals increased, and when the primitive whale took to the seas.

Through sound and lighting, the hall gives the feeling of being underwater in the marine realm. Among the approximately 2,000 fossils on exhibit is the Zygorhiza fossil. To bring these creatures to life, the exhibition features a series of murals showing the fleshed-out animals these fossils once were and a full-scale diorama of a 250-million-year-old reef made of more than 100,000 models.

Fossils added to the exhibition:
- Zygorhiza kochii, an early whale fossil, is currently on view and replaced Basilosaurus
- Squalicorax, a relative of today's great white shark

Insect Zoo, O. Orkin

09/10/1993 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, West Wing, near Reptiles
The Insect Zoo focuses on insects and their relationships with plants, animals, and humans. The exhibition contains a section about the evolution of insects and showcases live insects and their environments, including:

• The Termites' Turf
• Water-loving Bugs
• Familiar Insects
• The Bee Hive
• Desert Dwellers
• Rain Forests--Home to Millions

Geology, Gems, and Minerals, Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of

09/20/1997 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, East Wing (Halls 18, 19, & 20)
This hall features 2,500 minerals and gems, including the Hope Diamond, Hooker Emerald Brooch, and Star of Asia sapphire. It also explores the birth and evolution of the solar system and the earth's changing surface through computer interactives and video presentations and is divided into the following sections:

• The Harry Winston Gallery houses the Hope Diamond, in a specially designed case.

Sept. 23, 2009-late 2010:
To mark the Hope Diamond's 50th anniversary at the museum, the museum held a contest to vote on one of three new temporary settings designed by Harry Winston, Inc. Through November 17, 2010 (tentative), while the winning design is being crafted, the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond is on view as a stand-alone gem, with no setting at all. Beginning November 18, 2010 (tentative), the diamond will be on view in its new setting through late 2010, when it returns to its historic setting.

• The National Gem Collection features:
- the Marie Antoinette diamond earrings
- a 263-carat diamond necklace and a diadem (tiara) given by Napoleon to Empress Marie-Louise
- the Janet Annenberg Hooker fancy yellow diamonds
- 2 topaz crystals from Brazil, weighing 111 and 70 pounds respectively, and a 23,000-carat cut-and-polished topaz
- a 423-carat sapphire set in diamonds
- the DeYoung red and pink diamonds
- the 127-carat Portuguese diamond, the largest cut diamond in the collection
- the Rosser Reeves ruby
• The Minerals and Gems Gallery features some 2,000 specimens grouped by shape, color, growth, and other characteristics.
• The Mine Gallery features a re-creation of 4 mines showing crystal pockets and ore veins in created dioramas.
• The Plate Tectonics Gallery illustrates how earthquakes, mountain chains, and volcanoes result from the constantly shifting plates of the Earth's surface and features the "Plate Tectonics Theater" and interactive computer stations.
• The Moon, Meteorites, and Solar System Gallery explores the birth and evolution of our solar system through films, computer interactives, and specimens and features moon rocks, a touchable Mars rock, meteorites, and stardust.
• The Rocks Gallery focuses on how rocks record and verify the geological processes that have shaped our planet -- erosion and deposition, which destroy and create rocks on Earth's surface and heat and pressure, which transform and melt rocks within the Earth.

Additions include:
April 11, 2007:
• New Acquisitions (Rotating Case)
This case displays two gemstones acquired by the Tiffany and Co. Foundation Endowment (established in 2007).
-- a 40.10-carat Elbaite, a type of purple tourmaline
-- a 15.93-carat Grossular (variety tsavorite), a type of blue-green garnet

Oct. 16, 2004:
• The Carmen Lucia Ruby, weighing 23.1-carats, is one of the largest faceted Burmese rubies known to exist. The stone is set in platinum and flanked by 2 triangular colorless diamonds measuring 1.1 and 1.27 carats. Note: Donated by Peter Buck, co-founder of the Subway sandwich chain.
See related article in Feb. 2005 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 40 and 43

Early December 2001:
• The Eberly Gallery features aquamarine, garnet, and tourmaline gemstones from Africa, including a 12.11-carat trillion-cut tanzanite in a platinum setting, 2 Nigerian tourmalines, a Malian grossular, a Nigerian spessartine, a Kenyan catseye alexandrite, and a Madagascan liddicoateite.

See April 2005 Smithsonian magazine, p. 4.
September 1997 Smithsonian magazine, page 56.
May 1995 Smithsonian magazine, pages 18, 20, and 22.
March 1994 Smithsonian magazine, page 24.

Related books:
• The National Gem Collection, $39.95 (cloth), $24.95 (paper)
• Blue Mystery: The Story of the Hope Diamond, $9.95 (paper)

Garden: Butterfly Habitat Garden (outside, seasonal)

06/30/1995 - Ongoing
Outside along 9th Street between Madison Dr. & Constitution Ave.
The Butterfly Garden has signs that identify four habitats: wetland, meadow, wood's edge, and urban backyard. The signage discusses the connections between plants and butterflies and explains butterfly behaviors. As many as 30 species of butterflies may be attracted to the native plants in the Garden. The Butterfly Garden is a joint project of Smithsonian Gardens and the museum, with partial funding from the Smithsonian Women's Committee.

See August 1995 Smithsonian, pp. 14-16.

Fossil Plants and Animals: The Conquest of Land

04/17/1980 - Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing, (2nd half of Hall 4), near Dinosaurs Hall
This exhibition focuses on the earliest plants and animals to evolve the complex adaptations needed to live on land. In an animated video, evoking television coverage of the first lunar landing, characters Frank Anchorfish and Arthur Pod explain the characteristics plants and animals needed to pioneer the harsh, dry terrestrial environment. Just beyond an arbor formed by a diorama of the first forests are still more fossils: specimens of a 16-foot fossil of an early tree, Callixyon; other fossil trees and smaller plants from the ancient coal forests of North America.

Also included are the skeletons of many early amphibians and reptiles. Completing the section are displays on the seed and the amniotic egg -- the two evolutionary innovations that secured the conquest of land for plants and animals. A fossilized dinosaur egg is on view.

Fossil Mammals: Mammals in the Limelight

05/30/1985 - Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing (Hall 3), behind Dinosaurs Hall
This exhibition focuses on the spectacular evolution of mammals as the dominant class of vertebrates following the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Four huge murals -- painted by Jay Matternes, Robert Hynes, and John Gurche -- re-create scenes of animal and plant life in successive epochs of the Age of Mammals. The murals provide settings for fossil specimens, including mounted skeletons, many of them assembled from fossils unearthed in the American West by Smithsonian scientists.

Dinosaurs: Reptiles: Masters of Land

12/04/1981 - Ongoing
1st Floor, East Wing (Hall 2)
All of the old favorites are on view in the exhibition hall, including the gigantic 90-foot-long Diplodocus, horned Triceratops, and the Stegosaurus model. Other attractions include Quetzalcoatlus, a huge toothless pterosaur with a 40-foot wingspan, posed in flight; a nest of dinosaur eggs; and the meat-eating Allosaurus -- 8 feet tall and 20 feet long -- challenging newly re-mounted Stegosaurus.

Additions include:
• Case: Dinosaurs in Our Backyard: April 28, 2010 (new opening date)
From 225 to 65 million years ago, dinosaurs lived everywhere on Earth -- including around Washington, D.C. This case explores how scientists piece together information about dinosaur biology, ecology, and evolution from fossil specimens and reveals the important contributions amateur collectors make to the museum's collections and knowledge. It features a unique skeleton impression of a baby dinosaur of a species new to science.

See February 2010 Smithsonian magazine, p. 26

• Stegosaurus: June 2003
Originally discovered in 1887 and first exhibited in 1917, the museum's original Stegosaurus skeleton was replaced with a more dynamically posed cast, and now defends itself against the approaching predator Allosaurus.

• Triceratops: May 2001
The museum's 65-million-year-old Triceratops -- named "Hatcher" in honor of John Bell Hatcher, who discovered the original fossil in Wyoming in 1891 -- has received a 21st-century overhaul. Through digital technology, this three-horned dinosaur has been re-mounted with a more accurate skeletal structure and posture. Positioned in a face-off with its rival T. rex, it is placed with related species to reveal the evolution and diversity of the ceratopsian dinosaur group. Nearby, an interactive video explains the conservation of the original fossil, how laser scanning created the first "digital dinosaur," the computer-aided creation of the new mount, and a digital animation of the new skeleton. See the related article in Smithsonian magazine: October 2000, p. 34.

• T. rex, "King of the Tyrant Lizards": November 1999
This full-size cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton is on loan indefinitely from Voyage Expanded Learning, Inc. The original specimen was 65% complete and was discovered in South Dakota.

Also the following areas are featured nearby:
• FossiLab: This working preparation laboratory allows visitors an opportunity to watch museum technicians at work removing fossilized remains from blocks of sediment.
Note: There is no set schedule when staff are working in the lab, but visitors can always see the lab and examples of fossils at various stages of extraction.

• Fossils and Flight (balcony, back part of Dinosaurs Hall): This exhibition provides an overview of airborne animals over the past 300 million years. These animals can be divided into two groups:
- Flapping fliers, which actively propel themselves through the air. These include flying reptiles (pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus), mammals (bats), birds (Archaeopteryx), and insects (dragonflies and cockroaches).
- Gliders, which soar or "fall" through the air from one place to another, using membranes to control and prolong their descent. Examples include gliding fishes, mammals (flying squirrel), amphibians (gliding frog), and reptiles (gliding lizard and snake).

• Living Fossils (balcony, back part of Dinosaurs Hall): A phrase coined by Charles Darwin, "living fossils" are modern plants and animals that have remained similar in appearance to their fossil ancestors. Although primitive in appearance, they can be successful and diverse, ranging from stony sponges to the dawn redwood tree, and from horseshoe crabs to the tuatara (a lizard-like reptile).

• Fossil Ray-fins and Sharks (ramp leading from balcony to 2nd floor): Fossils of ray-fin fishes dating from the Devonian Period (350 million years ago) to the Eocene (50 million years ago) are on view, including a complete Ananogmius within the body cavity of Xiphactinus (Late Cretaceous, 85 million years ago). The jaws of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) are shown next to an outline of the extinct giant white shark (Carcharodon megalodon).

Blast from the Past (case)

06/27/1997 - Ongoing
1st Floor, Dinosaurs Hall (Hall 2), south side of FossiLab
This showcase features a 11.5-meter tubular core sample that shows physical and biological effects of Earth's collision with a giant asteroid 65 million years ago, which resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs. The sample, taken from 130 meters below the ocean floor east of St. Augustine, Florida, contains the best preserved Cretaceous/Tertiary sequence yet recovered. The exhibition highlights the work of Smithsonian micropaleontologist Brian Huber, who interprets past climate change by studying tiny marine fossils.

Video

Birds of the District of Columbia

- Ongoing
Ground Floor, East Ambulatory
Year-round and seasonal residents, migrants and vagrants--hundreds of bird species--are displayed. They all live in the region extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Allegheny Mountains. Learn where and when to look for a snowy owl or ruffed grouse, warbling vireo or orange-crowned warbler, chickadee or indigo bunting.

African Voices

12/15/1999 - Ongoing
1st Floor, Northeast Wing, African Cultures Hall (Hall 7)
This exhibition examines the diversity, dynamism, and global influence of Africa's peoples and cultures over time in the realms of family, work, community, and the natural environment. Included are historical and contemporary objects from the museum's collections, as well as commissioned sculptures, textiles, and pottery. Video interactives and sound stations provide selections from contemporary interviews, literature, proverbs, prayers, folk tales, songs, and oral epics.

Sections include:
• Wealth in Africa demonstrates how exchanges of objects build relationships between people; objects include an iron blade, a king's carved staff, a bridal veil, and a modern designer coffin (airplane).
• Market Crossroads re-creates the hustle and bustle of the downtown market in Accra, Ghana, and features a yam vendor, a kola-nut vendor, a cloth vendor, and a vendor of house wares.
• Working in Africa explores different types of work and how work is valued through ceremony and art.
• Living in Africa features an aqal (a portable Somali home) and a carved wood door from Zanzibar.
• Kongo Crossroads displays objects of reverence and remembrance used to honor ancestors, including Kongo power figures, Christian crosses, and grave memorials.
• Global Africa addresses the forced versus voluntary migrations of African peoples and includes the diaspora in America and Freedom Theater.
• History Pathway features displays of historical moments to create a walk through the millennia, including the pharaohs of ancient Nubia and the election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa in 1994.
• Focus Gallery houses the temporary exhibition Discover Rastafari! (see separate listing).

Freedom Theater (two 15-minute videos run continuously)

African Elephant

- Ongoing
1st Floor, Kenneth E. Behring Family Rotunda & 2nd Floor Balcony
The museum's 8-ton, 14-foot-tall African elephant is in a setting that re-creates the Angolan bush. Important ideas in botany, entomology, mineral sciences, and zoology, as well as information on the ancestors of modern-day elephants and the elephants' importance in African cultures, are discussed.

The Elephant's World -- located on the Rotunda Balcony, second floor -- includes interactive Elephant Discovery Stations that provide additional information on elephants and their habitat and is made up of the following two sections: Fossil Elephants and Elephants in Art.

Videos (run continuously; in Rotunda and on Balcony)
Interactive Learning Stations (Balcony)

Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake

02/07/2009 - 01/06/2013
2nd Floor, West, between Reptiles & Western Cultures (new space)
This exhibition features archaeological discoveries that reveal the historic importance of Jamestown and its contribution to the American way of life. The exhibition addresses such subjects as life and death in the colonies, activity and physical labor, health and disease, dietary resources, internal strife, and inter-population relationships and includes the stories of all peoples affected by the colonization of North America -- Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans -- and their role in the formation and function of the first permanent settlements and capitals of Maryland and Virginia.

Catalogue: $34.95 (paper)
Children's book: $22.95

Hands-On Interactive Components
Theater: 10-minute detective story about soil (runs continuously)
Soil Display: On view are 54 soil samples representing each U.S. state and territory and the District of Columbia.

National Museum of the American Indian

The National Museum of the American Indian is home to one of the largest and most diverse collections of American Indian art and cultural objects in the world.

Food:

Mitsitam Cafe
"Mitsitam" means "let's eat!" in the Native language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples. The museum's Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe enhances the museum experience by offering Native-inspired cuisines from five regions of the Western Hemisphere including the Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Meso America and the Great Plains.
Menu includes tamales, roasted turkey, grilled salmon, homemade seasonal soups, buffalo burgers, Indian fry bread, and a seasonal variety of aqua fresca.
Discount for Smithsonian members
Group dining packages available
Hours: Daily 10a.m.-5p.m.

Exhibits:

Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art Collection

09/25/2010 - 08/07/2011
3rd Level, W. Richard West Jr. Contemporary Arts/3M Gallery
This exhibition highlights the museum's young but vital collection of contemporary art, with significant works by 25 artists in media ranging from paintings, drawings, and photography to video projection and mixed-media installation. These complex and richly layered works speak to the concerns and experiences of Native people today; they address memory, history, the significance of place for Native communities, and the continuing relevance of cultural traditions. The artists featured include James Lavadour (Walla Walla), Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk), Alan Michelson (Mohawk), and Marie Watt (Seneca).

Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture

07/01/2010 - 01/02/2011
2nd Level, Sealaska Gallery
This banner exhibition highlights Native people who have been active participants in contemporary music for nearly a century. Musicians like Russell "Big Chief" Moore (Gila River Indian Community), Rita Coolidge (Cherokee), Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree), and the group Redbone are a few of the Native performing artists who have had successful careers in popular music. Many have been involved in each form of popular music -- from jazz and blues to folk, country, and rock. In this exhibition their stories will be told, along with the history behind them. Visitors can hear samples of these music greats and find out with whom they collaborated, learn by whom they were inspired, and consider contemporary artists whom they influenced. Highlights include:

• Jimi Hendrix's (Cherokee) colorful patchwork full-length leather coat

Cases: Orientation Exhibition

11/13/2008 - Ongoing
1st Level, South Wall, Potomac Atrium
These nine introductory exhibition cases cover the following topics:

• Our Place in the Universe
• Ceremony
• Native Identities
• Leadership
• Contact and Confrontation
• Challenges and Solutions
• Achievements and Contributions
• Learning More

Free brochure

Related publication $19.95 (paper)

10-minute video

Free brochure

Catalogue: $29.95 (paper)

See September 2009 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 17 and 20

Window on Collections: Many Hands, Many Voices

09/21/2004 - Ongoing
3rd and 4th levels
These permanent displays feature more than 3,500 items from the museum's collection that reveal the remarkable breadth and diversity of Native American objects. Located on the third and fourth levels of the museum and housed in drawers and glass-fronted cases, objects are arranged by categories, including beadwork, peace medals, arrowheads and other projectile points, containers, dolls, and animal objects.

Through the use of interactive technology, visitors can enjoy a self-guided learning experience. They may access information about each object; watch video clips of community members and specialists talking about broad categories or particular objects; and through computerized imagery, electronically rotate a selection of objects for a 360-degree-viewing or zoom-in on special details.

Sculptures and Individual Art Installations

- Ongoing

• Crux: (as seen from those who sleep on the surface of the earth under the night sky) (2008): Brian Jungen's suspended mobile depicts five animal and is constructed from steel, new and used suitcases, and a wooden rowboat. 1st level, Potomac Rotunda (opened late July/early August 2009).

• Sacred Rain Arrow (1988, 94" x 58"): Allan Houser's bronze sculpture represents the legend of a young Apache warrior selected in times of drought to shoot a sacred arrow to the heavens carrying his people's prayer for rain to the Spirit World. 3rd Level, near entrance to Our Lives (new location as of July 22, 2009).

Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of Chesapeake

11/13/2006 - Ongoing
2nd level
Through photographs, maps, ceremonial and everyday objects, and interactives, this panel display provides both an overview of the history and events affecting the Native peoples -- Nanticoke, Powhatan, and Piscataway tribes -- of the Chesapeake Bay region (what is now Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) and information on their continued presence today.

Outdoor Sculptures

09/21/2007 - Ongoing
Outside
• Buffalo Dancer II: 2010-Indefinitely:
On view outside the main entrance to the museum is George Rivera's (Pueblo of Pojoaque) 12-foot, 2-ton bronze sculpture depicting a Buffalo dancer who performs during a celebration of thanksgiving.

• Always Becoming: September 21, 2007-Indefinitely:
On view outside near the Maryland Ave. entrance to the museum is a family of five sculptures hand-built by artist Nora Naranjo-Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo, Espanola, N.M.), winner of the museum's outdoor sculpture design competition. Based on aboriginal architecture and made of organic, nontoxic materials -- dirt, straw, sand, clay, wood, and moss -- the tipi-like forms are from 6 to 15 feet tall and 3 to 4 inches deep. Each will take on a life of its own as the elements of nature slowly erode the organic materials over time, thus the name Always Becoming.

Free brochure
Note: Nora Naranjo-Morse is the first Native American woman to create an outdoor sculpture in Washington, D.C.

Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World

09/21/2004 - Ongoing
4th level
Focusing on Native cosmology and organized around one solar year, this exhibition explores the annual ceremonies of Native peoples as a window on their ancestral teachings. Under a "night sky" of fiber-optic stars and constellations, discover how celestial bodies shape the daily lives -- and establish the calendars of ceremonies and celebrations -- of Native peoples today. Featured communities: Mapuche (Chile), Lakota (South Dakota), Quechua (Peru), Yup'ik (Alaska), Q'eq'chi, Maya (Guatemala), Santa Clara Pueblo (New Mexico), Anishinaabe (Hollow Water, Manitoba, Canada), and Hupa (California). The exhibition also highlights the Denver (Colorado) March Powwow, the North American Indigenous Games, and the Day of the Dead -- seasonal celebrations that bring Native peoples together.

Our Peoples: Giving Voice to Our Histories

09/21/2004 - Ongoing
4th level
This exhibition discusses events that shaped the lives and outlook of Native peoples from 1491 to the present. The first part of the exhibition reveals the forces that affected the lives of Native peoples; it shows how Native peoples have struggled to maintain traditions in the face of adversity, and explains why so little of this history is familiar. The second area consists of eight small galleries that recount the histories of individual tribes: Blackfeet (Montana), Chiricahua Apache (New Mexico), Kiowa (Oklahoma), Tohono O'odham (Arizona), Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation (North Carolina), Nahua (Mexico), Ka'apor (Brazil), and Wixarikari -- sometimes known as Huichol -- (Mexico). The exhibition also includes a "wall of gold" featuring over 400 gold figurines, dating back to 1490, along with European swords, coins, and crosses made from melted gold.

Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities

09/21/2004 - Ongoing
3rd level
This exhibition examines the identities of Native peoples in the 21st century, and how those identities, both individual and communal, are the results of deliberate, often difficult choices made in challenging circumstances. This exhibition explores the forces in modern Native life that Native peoples are profoundly influenced by -- their families and communities, the language they speak, the places they live and identify with, and their own self determination. Eight communities contributed their stories to this telling: the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians (Southern California), urban Indian community of Chicago (Illinois), Yakama Nation (Washington State), Igloolik (Nunavut, Canada), Kahnawake Mohawk (Quebec, Canada), Saint-Laurent Metis (Manitoba, Canada), Kalinago (Dominica), and Pamunkey (Virginia).

National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center

Opened in October 1994, the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, at the historic Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in lower Manhattan, serves as the National Museum of the American Indian's exhibition and education facility in New York City.

Exhibits:

Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor: Part II

09/04/2010 - 01/16/2011
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
The featured artists selected for this exhibition draw upon this rich subject in multifaceted ways, using both the material and concept of skin as a metaphor for widespread issues surrounding race, representation, as well as personal, historical and environmental trauma and perseverance. Part II includes works by Michael Belmore (Ojibway) and photographers Arthur Renwick (Haisla), KC Adams (M‚tis), Terrance Houle (Blood), Rosalie Favell (Cree M‚tis), and Sarah Sense (Chitimacha/Choctaw).

Dresses are more than simple articles of clothing for Native women-they are aesthetic expressions of culture and identity. Embodying messages about the life of the wearer, dresses offer Native women the opportunity to blend artistic tradition and bold innovation while preparing themselves, their families, and their communities to partake in the "dance of life." Bringing together a vast array of dresses and accessories from the Plains, Plateau, and Great Basin regions of the United States and Canada, Identity by Design highlights Native women's identity through traditional dress and its contemporary evolution. The exhibition examines the individual, communal, and cultural identity of Native women, and explores how women, gifted with highly developed artistic skills, benefited not only their families, but the entire community.

A Song for the Horse Nation

11/14/2009 - 07/07/2011
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
This exhibition presents the epic story of the horse's influence on American Indian tribes from the 1600s to the present. It features approximately 100 works from the museum's collection to reveal how horses shaped the social, economic, cultural, and spiritual foundations of American Indian life, particularly on the Great Plains. Highlights include historical ledger drawings, beaded bags, hide robes, and paintings, including new works by contemporary Native artists. Also on view is a Hunkpapa Lakota winter count by Long Soldier (c. 1902) that depicts the horse's first appearance in the community.

Orientation Exhibition

10/30/1994 - Ongoing
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
Informational panels provide a brief history of the Delaware or Lenni Lenape tribe, one of the first inhabitants of Manhattan; the museum's mission; and the architecture of the Custom House.

Beauty Surrounds Us

09/23/2006 - Ongoing
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
In this space especially designed to showcase the integration of art and daily life in Native cultures throughout the hemisphere, the exhibition features 77 extraordinary objects from the museum's permanent collection. Highlights include an elaborate Quechua girl's dance outfit, a Northwest Coast chief's staff with carved animal figures and crest designs, Seminole turtle shell dance leggins, a conch shell trumpet from pre-Columbian Mexico, a Navajo saddle blanket, and an Inupiak (Eskimo) ivory cribbage board.

National Portrait Gallery

Generations of remarkable Americans are kept in the company of their fellow citizens at the National Portrait Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum are located in the heart of downtown Washington, DC.

Food:

Courtyard Cafe
Featuring soups, sandwiches, salads, antipasti, desserts, ice cream, coffee, beer, wine, and soft drinks.

Hours
Daily, 11:30 AM-4 PM: See menu above
Daily, 4 PM-6:30 PM: Limited selection of menu above

Portico Cafe (seasonal and weather permitting)
Features pastries, sandwiches, specialty coffees and beverages. Wine, beer and cocktails are available in late afternoon and evening hours.
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Exhibits:

Americans Now

08/20/2010 - 06/19/2011
1st Floor
Drawn from the Portrait Gallery's permanent collection, this exhibition features individuals prominent in sports, entertainment, and other fields of endeavor during the last 10 years. It also reflects the variety of media the Portrait Gallery is now collecting and addresses the museum's recently established policy of accepting living subjects into the collection. Individuals represented in this show include: Chuck Close, Michael Eisner, LL Cool J, Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, Willie Nelson, President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Martha Stewart. Also featured is a projected video -- The Late Night Triad by Jason Salavon, which features Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and David Letterman -- and video portraits of George Clooney and LeBron James that are created through a process pioneered by Lincoln Schatz.

Remembrance Gallery

- Ongoing

This small rotating gallery next to the New Arrivals exhibition honors a recently passed individual who has shaped our national culture.

Portrait of J.D. Salinger by Robert Vickery:
Salinger had one of the great successes of all time with his novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951). This image of Salinger by Vickery is on view Feb. 1-March 29, 2010, in the "Remembrance Gallery" on the 1st floor; it had appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1961.

Glimpse of the Past: A Neighborhood Evolves

03/05/2010 - 09/25/2011
2nd Floor, Riley Gallery
Experience the sights, scenes, and beautiful buildings that make up the ever-changing Penn Quarter neighborhood in downtown Washington, D.C. Featuring photographs, postcards, and posters from the 1850s to the present, the history of the neighborhood comes alive. Works include the evolution of the Hecht's building, construction of the Metro stop, Chinatown bike tours, the arrival of the Verizon Center, and a visual history of the Patent Office Building -- one of the oldest federal buildings in Washington, D.C., now home of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum. Also, an interactive piece in the exhibition features snapshots of the area during the 1960s and 1970s made by Washingtonian Chris Earnshaw.

New Arrivals

01/30/2009 - Ongoing
1st Floor, North Side, Corridor
This rotating exhibition highlights newly acquired objects -- paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters, prints, and photographs -- in the National Portrait Gallery collection.

Renovating a Landmark: From Patent Office to Reynolds Center

11/17/2007 - Ongoing
Historic Fabric Room, 1st Floor, S. of F St. Lobby, near lockers
This small exhibition commemorates the opening of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, the final phase of a major renovation of the National Historic Landmark building that houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. It highlights aspects of the renovation with photographs, architectural artifacts from the building, and objects discovered during the excavation of the courtyard. Also included are historic images of the building, a 7-foot segment of one of the 19th-century cast iron fountains from the courtyard, and an architect's model of the building.

Related publication: Temple of Invention: History of a National Landmark by Charles Robertson, who is also the guest curator of the exhibition: $19.95 (paper)

America's Presidents

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, South Wing
This exhibition displays multiple images of the 43 presidents of the United States, including the greatest historical painting in our nation's history, Gilbert Stuart's "Lansdowne" portrait of George Washington. Also included are whimsical sculptures of Presidents Johnson, Carter, and Nixon by caricaturist Pat Oliphant. Five presidents are given expanded attention because of their significant impact on the office: Washington, Andrew Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Audio and video interpretive materials augment the exhibition.

Recent Addition:
• President George W. Bush's portrait, painted by artist Robert Anderson, was installed on December 19, 2008.

The Struggle for Justice

02/12/2010 - Ongoing
2nd Floor
This new permanent exhibition showcases major cultural and political figures -- from key 19th-century historical figures to contemporary leaders -- who struggled to achieve civil rights for disenfranchised or marginalized groups. On view are more than 40 photographs, paintings, posters, buttons, and sculptures, including portraits of Civil Rights leaders Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King Jr.; women's-rights advocates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Betty Friedan; Native American activist Leonard Crow Dog; cultural icons Jackie Robinson and singer Marian Anderson; United Farm Workers organizer C‚sar Ch vez; gay and lesbian rights leaders, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

A video created exclusively for the exhibition and narrated by Soledad O'Brien is also featured.

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the April 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 26.

From FDR to Obama: Presidents on Time

02/12/2010 - 09/26/2010
2nd Floor
Regardless of how newsworthy a person may be, there is no magic formula for getting one's picture on the cover of Time magazine, with one exception: the president of the United States. Founded in 1923, Time has put on its cover all incumbent presidents from Warren Harding to Barack Obama, with the exception of Herbert Hoover. Beginning with Franklin Roosevelt, this exhibition explores the modern presidency through the covers of America's oldest and most recognized weekly news magazine. The show includes approximately 30 works of presidential cover art, representing a variety of mediums, from traditional oil paintings to a pop-art sculpture bust of Richard Nixon made from strips of newspaper headlines.

This exhibition features Elvis Presley and celebrates the 75th anniversary of his birth. Although Elvis died more than 30 years ago, the world remains fascinated with his image and music. His records have continued to sell by the millions and public interest in his music, career, and life has yet to subside. During the last half century, Elvis became part of the artistic discourse as well. Early in Elvis's career, Andy Warhol illuminated the role he played in the new and youth-powered popular American culture; later, Ralph Wolfe Cowan, Red Grooms, and others created mythical, spiritual, and earthly images of the man whose legacy includes multiple superlative moments in music, entertainment, life, and afterlife. To this day, both the historical Elvis Presley and the fantasy-based vision of Elvis are the subject of poetry, literature, music, film, and the visual arts.

See "Around the Mall: What's Up" in the January 2010 Smithsonian magazine: p. 26

Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009

10/23/2009 - 09/06/2010
2nd Floor
The National Portrait Gallery presents 49 of the finalists' works that were selected from the second triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Dave Woody, winner of the competition, received the grand prize of $25,000 and an opportunity to create a portrait for the Portrait Gallery's permanent collection. The competition invited artists working in the figurative arts to submit portraits of people close to them. Submissions were accepted in all visual arts media, including film, video, and digital animation. Through January 18, 2010, the public can vote online or on-site for the artwork to receive the People's Choice Award.

Related catalogue: $13.95

See "What's Up" in the November 2009 Smithsonian magazine: p. 28

Twentieth-Century Americans

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
3rd Floor, South Side and Mezzanines
Six galleries focus on 20th-century Americans:

3rd Floor, south side: Four galleries showcase the major cultural, and political hallmarks of the 20th century. Paintings, sculpture, photographs, and prints portray those who were at the center of these moments. People from a range of backgrounds -- Gertrude Stein, Jane Addams, Douglas MacArthur, Robert F. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Michael Jackson among others -- tell the story of America's 20th century.

3rd Floor, mezzanines: Two additional exhibitions relating to the 20th century are featured:
• BRAVO! showcases individuals who have brought the performing arts to life, beginning with P.T. Barnum, who raised the curtain on modern entertainment in the late 19th century and continuing to the present.
• Champions showcases American sports figures whose impact has extended beyond the ring, the court, and the field to become a part of the larger story of the life and culture of our nation.
Note: A lively combination of portraits, artifacts, memorabilia, and videos enhances both exhibitions.

Lunder Conservation Center

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
3rd Floor Mezzanine & 4th Floor, West
The Lunder Conservation Center -- shared with the Smithsonian American Art Museum -- is the first facility that provides a unique opportunity for the public to view through glass walls conservators at work in several labs examining, treating, and preserving art.

Jo Davidson: Biographer in Bronze

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, North and Northwest
On view are 14 bronze and terra-cotta portraits made by renowned American sculptor Jo Davidson between 1908 and 1946, including depictions of Gertrude Stein, Franklin D. Roosevelt, artist John Marin, and Lincoln Steffens.

American Origins, 1600-1900

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
1st Floor
In 17 galleries and alcoves, this exhibition chronologically arranged starts from the days of contact between Native Americans and European explorers through the struggles of independence to the Gilded Age. Major figures from Pocahontas to Chief Joseph, Sam Adams to Henry Clay, and Nathaniel Hawthorne to Harriet Beecher Stowe are included. Three of the galleries are devoted to the Civil War, examining this conflict in depth. Complementing this section is a group of modern photographic prints produced from Mathew Brady's original negatives. Highlights from its daguerreotype collection -- the earliest practical form of photography -- also are on view.

National Postal Museum

Don't look for it on the National Mall but on Capitol Hill at the corner of First St. and Massachusetts Ave., NE, just west of Union Station. The building, which was the Washington City Post Office from 1914 to 1986, is big and grand, and the National Postal Museum occupies most of the lower level.

Exhibits:

Collecting History: 125 Years of the National Philatelic Collection

08/08/2010 - 01/09/2012
Lower Level
The National Philatelic Collection is the collection of the National Postal Museum, but predates the museum by more than 100 years. The collection was established at the Smithsonian in 1886 with the donation of a sheet of 10-cent Confederate postage stamps by M.W. Robertson and through generous gifts from individuals, transfers from government agencies, and occasional purchases has grown to become the largest and oldest intact national stamp collection today. The museum celebrates the 125th anniversary of its collection with this exhibition that traces the history of this national treasure and reflects on what it can teach about world cultures and the American experience.

Pony Express: Romance vs. Reality

04/03/2010 - Ongoing
Lower Level, North, within Binding the Nation
The legendary name of the Pony Express calls up thrilling images of horse and rider racing across treacherous terrain. Yet the actual Pony Express lasted for less than two years (April 1860 to October 1861). It owes its enduring fame to the romanticizing of the American West that began in the late 19th century. Pony Express riders have raced through Wild West shows and dime novels, comic books and movies. Pony Express: Romance vs. Reality examines fictional and actual stories from the history of the world's best known mail carriers.

See related articles in Smithsonian magazine: May 2010, p. 24-25; April 2010, p. 28

Postal Inspectors: The Silent Service

02/07/2007 - Ongoing
Lower Level, North, Binding the Nation
This exhibition spotlights the oldest federal law enforcement agency and its role in fighting crime from the earliest days of our nation to the present. Featured objects include the handcuffs used on Ted Kaczynski (the "Unabomber") when he was apprehended, a mail bomb, a Tommy gun, a detonator used in a 1923 train robbery, and a bio-hazard suit.

Hands-on learning activities

See February 2007 Smithsonian magazine, p. 38

• FDR's stamp tools, including magnifier, perforation gauge, watermark detector, and box for albums, on loan from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York
• 15 of the 20 uncut and ungummed press sheets of postage stamps purchased by Postmaster General James A. Farley and autographed to give as political favors, which led to a scandal and the special printing known as "Farley's Follies"
• 6 original sketches by FDR for stamp designs, to be shown on a rotating basis due to the paper's fragility
• An envelope postmarked "Honolulu, December 7, 1941," at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor

Free brochure

See November 2009 Smithsonian magazine, p. 22

The Art of Cards and Letters

07/30/1993 - Ongoing
Lower Level, Northwest, The Art of Cards and Letters
While other galleries focus on mail service, this gallery emphasizes the art of letter writing, a cherished art form providing a window into history. Used to relate personal stories of survival, success, and tragedy, letters are displayed in the following three categories:

• Mail Call: Through an array of wartime correspondence from World War I to Desert Storm, as well as objects and a video, this section highlights the struggle of soldiers and their loved ones to maintain ties during war. (previously titled Military Mail)

• Undercover: The Evolution of the American Envelope: Six patent models from 1849-1879, illustrations, and stories of the inventors examine the evolution of envelope manufacturing in the mid-1900s. (Added May 6, 1997)

Philatelic Gallery

07/30/1993 - Ongoing
Lower Level, West, U.S. & International Stamp Galleries
The history of the stamp begins in 1840, when Great Britain issued the first gummed postage stamp. Since then stamps of every subject, shape, and design have been produced for consumer use or as collectibles. Some stamps tell stories while others contain secrets and hidden meanings. This gallery is for all collectors, as well as for those who know little about the renowned hobby of philately.

With over 13 million philatelic objects in the museum's collection, this gallery features the Rarities Vault, the National Stamp Collection (housed in pull-out cases), and changing and rotating exhibitions (see On View). The section More American Stamps, which opened Oct. 12, 1997, features a selection of more than 55,000 American stamp, rotated every six months.

Videos

Moving the Mail

07/30/1993 - Ongoing
Lower Level, Center, Moving the Mail
Faced with the challenge of moving the mail quickly, the postal service looked to trains, automobiles, airplanes, and buses to deliver the mail, all of which are the focus of the museum's 90-foot-high Atrium gallery.

• Mail by Rail: After the Civil War, postal officials began to take advantage of railway trains for moving and sorting the mail. Sorting the mail while it was being carried between towns was a revolutionary approach to mail delivery, involving generations of devoted postal employees who worked as railway mail clerks.

• Owney: Mascot of the Railway Mail Service Owney was a stray mutt who wandered into the Albany, New York, post office in 1888. He began to ride with the bags on trains across the state--and then the country. In 1895 Owney traveled with mailbags on steamships to Asia and across Europe before returning to Albany. He was beloved by Railway Mail Service clerks, who adopted him as their unofficial mascot.

• Networking a Nation: Star Route Service: Some of the most ambitious movers of the mail were not railway mail clerks, aviators, or even postal employees, but were Star Route contractors. Star Routes were established in 1845 when the Postal Service began hiring contractors to use the most appropriate and efficient methods of transportation to carry the mail. The name "Star Routes" came about because postal clerks became weary of writing "Celerity, Certainty, and Security" over and over again in the contract books and began using "***" instead. These routes have been covered by all modes of transportation from stagecoaches, trucks, and planes to less conventional means, such as dog sleds, showshoes, and bare feet. "Star Routes" were renamed "Highway Contract Routes" in 1970, but are still known by their original name today. On view are a 1850s Concord-style stagecoach and a full-size semi truck cab-cutaway.

• On the Road: Motorizing the Mail: This section discusses the evolution of mail vehicles starting with the first tests in 1899 to the present. With the introduction of Parcel Post Service in 1913, these vehicles brought millions of packages into the mail stream for the first time. Despite numerous challenges over the years, motorized mail has undergone numerous improvements to dramatically increase efficiency in delivering the mail. In the early 1980s, after years of study and testing, another generation of postal trucks was introduced -- nicknamed Long Life Vehicles -- which quickly became familiar sights in American neighborhoods. On view are a 1931 Model A Ford Parcel Post truck and a contemporary Long Life Vehicle mail truck.

• Airmail Service in America: Airmail service was the base from which America's commercial aviation industry developed. This section of the exhibition examines this critical role of the postal service and features the airmail service established in 1918 between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., through the remarkable pioneering flights of pilots Torrey Webb, James Edgerton, H. Paul Culver, and George Boyle. On view are a 1911 Wiseman-Cooke biplane, a 1919 de Havilland DH-4B, and a 1936 Stinson Reliant SR-10.

Customers and Communities

07/30/1993 - Ongoing
Lower Level, East, Customers and Communities
By the turn of the 20th century, nearly 10,000 letter carriers worked in over 400 cities. The nation's population was expanding at top speed, and with it, the nation's mail volume and the need for personal mail delivery. This gallery focuses on the modern changes in mail service introduced at the turn of the century in the following sections:

• Serving the Cities: Crowded cities inspired postal officials to experiment with a variety of mail delivery systems, such as the impressive but ultimately impractical underground pneumatic tubes. Home delivery of mail began in the cities during the Civil War, when postal officials decided it was inhumane to require soldier's families to receive death notices at post office windows.

• Reaching Rural America: As rural Americans watched city residents receive free home delivery, they began to demand equal treatment. This was the start of Rural Free Delivery. Facets of Rural Free Delivery and its important and often heart warming role in the fabric of the nation is explored with photographs, mail vehicles, and a variety of rural mailboxes. A more contentious argument at the turn of the century centered around Parcel Post Service. Because Parcel Post would allow goods to be sent through the mail, individuals would have access to more merchandise, and no longer would rely on local shopkeepers. Parcel Post helped to usher in an era of consumerism by the early 20th century that foreshadowed the massive mechanization and automation of mail and the mail-order industry. Today, mail service is a vital conduit for big business.

Binding the Nation

07/30/1993 - Ongoing
Lower Level, North, Binding the Nation
This gallery provides an overview of events in America from colonial times through the 19th century, stressing the importance of written communication in the young nation. As early as 1673, regular mail was carried between New York and Boston following Indian trails. That route, once known as the King's Best Highway, is now U.S. Route 1.

Benjamin Franklin, a colonial postmaster for the British government, played a key role in establishing mail service in the colonies, as well as in forging a strong link between colonial publishers and the postal service. Many newspapers that relied heavily on information carried in the mail customarily adopted the word "Post" into their title. Newspapers were so important to the dissemination of information to the people that they were granted cheaper postage rates.

By 1800, mail was carried over more than 9,000 miles of postal roads. The challenge of developing mail service over long distances is the central theme of "The Expanding Nation," which features the famed Pony Express and the Southern Postal Administration of the Civil War. At one interactive video station, visitors can create their own postal route. Another interactive video challenges visitors to move mail bags from Philadelphia to New Orleans in the 1850s without losing any bags in wrecks and bad weather.

Visitors are also invited to walk through a replica of the first post road, peek inside a Colonial mailbag, and climb into a mud wagon replica.

Related video

Additions include:
Dec. 18, 1997:
• Manning the Post: A Woman's Job (case)
This one-case exhibition explores the work of Mary Katherine Goddard, colonial postmaster and printer. Goddard was appointed postmaster of Baltimore in 1775 and removed in 1789 by Postmaster General Samuel Osgood, who believed a woman was not up to the job; 200 of Baltimore's leading citizens unsuccessfully petitioned for her reinstatement. Included are a facsimile copy of the Declaration of Independence she printed and a petition demanding her reinstatement.

Amelia Earhart's Personal Collection

11/12/2007 - Ongoing
Lower Level, Southwest, Philatelic Gallery
Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, was an avid stamp and cover collector. On view are key pieces from her collection, including photographs and stamps commemorating her flights. She often flew signed pieces of mail that were then sold to philatelists to support her endeavors.

Victory Mail

03/06/2008 - 05/31/2011
Lower Level, Northwest, Art of Cards and Letters Gallery
This exhibition showcases the museum's collection of World War II V-mail correspondence. The V-mail system, named after the WWII "V for Victory" symbol, was developed to help reduce the shipping space needed for the massive increase in mail being sent between American armed forces overseas and their family and friends at home. By reducing letters to microfilm size for the trip, thousands of pieces of mail could be shipped taking up only a fraction of the space traditional letters used. Once transported, microfilmed mail was reproduced to a quarter of the original size for final delivery. More letters meant better morale and less shipping space ensured other vital war materials reached the battlefront.

Among the items on display are a rare strip of 16mm V-mail microfilm, which were usually destroyed after the contents were printed, and various letters that reveal the local color and humor of military life in the Pacific and European Theaters.

Alphabetilately: An Alphabet of Philately

09/26/2008 - 10/29/2010
Lower Level, Jeanette Cantrell Rudy Gallery (changing exhibits)
This exhibition presents an alphabet of philately through 26 topics, in which each letter stands for some aspect of stamp collecting or the sending of mail. From Advertising Covers to Zeppelins, each topic is introduced by a non-postage stamp image (called a Cinderella), designed by 26 designers in the San Francisco area. The 26 topics and their delightful definitions provide an ideal showcase for displaying both historical and modern items from the museum's collection.

Abraham Lincoln Certified Plate Proofs

11/15/2008 - Ongoing
Lower Level, Philatelic Gallery
Eleven certified plate proofs for postage stamps honoring Abraham Lincoln are on view in the Philatelic Gallery pullout frames. Certified plate proofs are the last printed proof of the plate before printing the stamps. These plate proofs are each unique, with the approval signatures and date. Issued from 1894 to 1959, the stamps feature a variety of Lincoln portraits.

Hands-on learning activities

National Zoological Park

Come meet the Zoo's more than 2,400 animals. Fascinating creatures, great and small, inhabit our beautiful park's urban oasis in the heart of Washington, DC.

Food:

Cafes/Grills
Mane Restaurant on Lion/Tiger Hill
Panda Cafe near the Fujifilm Giant Panda Habitat
Express Grill at Panda Plaza
Popstop across from the Small Mammal House (seasonal)

Snack Stands
Located throughout the park as are soda, water, and snack vending machines.

Bring Your Own Picnic
Visitors may bring their own food and beverages. Coolers are permitted but not grills or other cooking devices. There are picnic areas throughout the Zoo, available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Exhibits:

New at the Zoo: 2010

- Ongoing

-- 2010:
• twin Andean bear cubs born January 14 and 15, 2010, to mother Billie Jean; they are expected to make their public debut spring 2010 (TBA). The twins are the first Andean bear cubs born at the Zoo in 22 years.

Seals

- Ongoing
Valley Trail (also referred to as Beaver Valley)
Note: On view through November 30, 2009. Closed until approximately 2012 due to construction of the upcoming exhibition Elephant Trails. The California sea lions moved to the Pittsburgh Zoo October 6, 2009.

Beaver Valley

- Ongoing
Valley Trail (also referred to as Beaver Valley)
Note: On view January 1, 1980-November 30, 2009. Closed until approximately 2012 due to construction of the upcoming exhibition Elephant Trails.

However, beginning May 22, 2010, Andean bears -- including cubs Chaska (pronounced "Chas'-kuh") and Bernardo -- are on view Saturdays and Sundays only from 10 AM-2 PM.

Bald Eagle Refuge

- Ongoing
Valley Trail (also referred to as Beaver Valley)
Note: On view July 4, 2003-November 30, 2009. Closed until approximately 2012 due to construction of the upcoming exhibition Elephant Trails.

Voyage - A Journey Through Our Solar System (outdoors)

10/17/2001 - Ongoing
Outside, south side of Jefferson Dr. between NASM & the Castle
In this outdoor exhibition, our solar system is presented at one ten-billionth actual size through 13 units -- one each for the 9 planets, the Sun, asteroids and comets, and 2 introductory units -- that stretch 650 yards from the Air and Space Museum to the Smithsonian Castle. The model brings to life the great distances between the planets, illustrates their unique characteristics, and reveals the Earth's place in our solar system and the Sun's place among the stars. The exhibition was developed by the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, NASA, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Free educational guide: Available at information desks at the Castle and the Air and Space, Hirshhorn, and Natural History museums

Notes:
• Status of Pluto: Because the status of Pluto is unclear, it is not identified as a planet on the Pluto panel. Some scientists think it may be a supercomet or some other class of object.
• See related article in Smithsonian magazine: October 2001, p. 40

Elephant Trails: Phase I

- Ongoing

As part of the Zoo's campaign to save Asian elephants, this expanded and transformed home for the Zoo's Asian elephants will provide at least 4 acres of indoor and outdoor space and will feature a variety of habitats that will support the natural behavior of the multi-generational herd.

The indoor habitats will feature soft flooring and an Elephant Community Center, where the elephants can be active and socialize throughout the year. The building will accommodate a natural, matriarchal herd and individual bulls -- between 8 and 10 elephants and their young -- with suites for individual elephants.

The outdoor habitats will feature diverse elements, including shade structures, pools, sand piles, and mud wallows to stimulate natural elephant behavior, along with an Elephant Trek -- a walking path to provide the elephants with exercise and foraging opportunities.

Construction began in June 2007 and is expected to be completed in 2011.

See also the Zoo's Web site at http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Support/OurPlansOurNeeds/

Wetlands Exhibition

- Ongoing
Near Bird House
On view are 6 ponds -- 5 different "environments" and a "courtship" pond -- where local birds and plants common to wetlands are on view. Raised walkways meander among the ponds allowing visitors viewing access to the areas. Although no captive birds inhabit this area, it is a nice place to birdwatch. Colorful mallards and wood ducks often swim on the ponds and black-crowned night herons can often be seen stalking the shallows.

Outdoor Sculptures: The Gathering, Lions, and Uncle Beazley

- Ongoing
Outdoors
• The Gathering: (near Think Tank)
A group of 7 life-size chimpanzee sculptures by Maryland artist Brad Walker was installed in a garden June 18, 2002. Each sculpture depicts a chimpanzee fulfilling a different social role within the troup: matriarch, servant, observer, alpha, ally, explorer, and youth.

• Lion Sculptures: (Connecticut Ave. entrance)
The original two lion sculptures -- cast in concrete -- that graced the Taft Bridge, south of the Zoo on Connecticut Ave., were created in 1906 by Roland Perry. After 90 years of being exposed to the elements, they were recast in concrete and covered in bronze -- one-third scale of the original lions -- by artist Reinaldo Lopez-Carrizo and were unveiled Nov. 19, 2002.

• Uncle Beazley: (near Lemur Island)
Uncle Beazley, the 25-foot-long fiberglass replica of a Triceratops, returned to view in a "dinosaur garden" on May 23, 2007. He had resided at the Elephant House since June 18, 1994, but was off view for several years. Before coming to the Zoo, Uncle Beasley inhabited the Mall outside the Natural History Museum. This statue of Uncle Beazley was designed by Louis Paul Jonas for a television show based on the book The Enormous Egg; the show was filmed in part at the National Zoo.

How Do You Zoo?

06/27/2000 - Ongoing
Visitor Center: See Hours Note
This learning lab features the following 4 interactive areas for children ages 5-10:
• In the "Small Mammal House," they can don animal keeper uniforms and pretend to make morning rounds, keeping track of 6 different species of animals.
• In the "animal hospital," young veterinarians, with stethoscopes and syringes, can care for plush animals on an examining table.
• In the "keeper's office," there is research to be done.
• In the "commissary," plastic foods are on hand for daily feedings.

Note:
• Hours: Limited hours; call 202-633-1105 for schedule.

Heritage Gardens: African American and Native American

08/01/1992 - Ongoing
Lion/Tiger Circle
On view are living examples of plants used by Native Americans and African Americans for food and medicines.

Gibbon Ridge

05/14/1988 - Ongoing
Olmstead Walk, near Great Apes House
Gibbon Ridge, situated among tall trees near the Great Apes House, is home to 3 groups of white-cheeked gibbons -- famous for their wild acrobatics and resounding calls -- and a group of siamangs.

Cheetah Conservation Station

08/19/1992 - Ongoing
Olmsted Walk, past Visitor Center on the left
At the Cheetah Conservation Station, cheetahs can be seen engaged in natural behaviors in a grassland setting similar to their natural savanna habitat -- roaming through their habitat or sunning themselves on the gentle slopes -- giving visitors a chance to closely observe these highly endangered cats. The Cheetah Conservation Station is also home to Grevy zebra, maned wolves, Scimitar-horned oryx, and Tammar wallabies.

Think Tank

10/27/1995 - Ongoing
Olmsted Walk, near Reptile Discovery Center
This exhibition explores the biology and evolution of animal thinking, focusing on primates. It also demonstrates how animals use tools, send sophisticated messages, and employ social strategies. In conjunction with this exhibition is the O-Line, an orangutan transit system for orangutans to travel from the Great Ape House to Think Tank.

Small Mammal House

04/01/1983 - Ongoing
Olmsted Walk, near Great Ape House
Most species in the Zoo's Small Mammal House are no bigger than a breadbox. The exhibition features the golden lion tamarin, the three-banded armadillo, the prehensile-tailed porcupine, naked mole-rats, tree shrews, meerkats, black-tailed prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, and more.

Reptile Discovery Center

- Ongoing
Olmsted Walk
The Reptile Discovery Center is an interactive, educational exhibition designed for visitors to explore the biology of reptiles and amphibians. The Center features some 70 species from snakes to frogs to turtles to lizards to crocodiles to Komodo dragons.

Unlike most of the Zoo's other animals, most of the inhabitants of the Reptile Discovery Center won't be found outside during the wintertime. This is because ectothermic (previously referred to as "cold-blooded") creatures rely on the temperature of their surrounding environment to maintain their body temperature; they cannot withstand the cold, wintry weather that endothermic (previously referred to as "warm-blooded") animals can.

Prairie Dog Playland

11/19/2005 - Ongoing
Near Prairie Dogs and Lemur Island
This prairie-dog-themed playground, designed for children ages 2-6, reveals a prairie-dog's perspective on survival. Children can crawl through a series of tubes that resemble prairie dogs' underground tunnels, can pop up "above ground," and can look through scopes to scan for large cutouts of such predators as black-footed ferrets and hawks.

Pollinarium

04/19/1996 - Ongoing
In Invertebrate Exhibit
Living plants, butterflies, and bees are used to explore pollination -- the means of plant reproduction. The evolution, beauty, and mechanics of pollination are examined. The exhibition also includes a 7-foot tall, 3-panel, glass enclosed beehive.

Lemur Island

10/18/2001 - Ongoing
Lemur Island (formerly Monkey Island)
This open-air exhibition is home to both ring-tailed (Lemur catta) and red-fronted (Eulemur fulvus rufus) lemurs. These prosimians -- a suborder of primates -- are found only on Madagascar, an island off the southeastern coast of Africa. Today's prosimians retain much of the appearance of the earliest primates. Like many other animal species, wild lemur populations are rapidly declining due to extensive habitat loss.

Kids' Farm

06/12/2004 - Ongoing
Near Rock Creek entrance
This child-friendly exhibition reveals that most of the food we eat comes from a farm and allows visitors to lend a hand around the farm.

Highlights include:
• A Play Area, featuring an oversize, climb-on pizza that connects familiar pizza ingredients with plants grown on a farm. The pizza garden includes tomatoes, herbs, garlic, onions, green peppers, and wheat. Note: Open weather permitting.
• The Barn gives visitors a view into how animals are housed and cared for.
• Goat and Miniature Donkey Yards, where visitors are able to touch the animals through the fence. The area also includes a Caring Corral, where children are invited inside to help take care of the animals.
• The Cow Pasture, where visitors are able to touch the animals when they approach the fence.

Additions:
• Late fall 2007: Alpacas and Ossabaw Island Hogs
• September 2008: Male silver fox rabbits

Invertebrates

05/07/1987 - Ongoing
Olmsted Walk, Reptile House, Lower Level
Invertebrates -- creatures without backbones -- are the most abundant creatures on earth, crawling, flying, floating, or swimming in virtually all of Earth's habitats. About 99% of all known living species are invertebrates. The Zoo's Invertebrate Exhibit is home to such invertebrate species as sea stars; spiny lobsters; sea anemones; corals; insects; spiders, including tarantulas; mollusks; and a young new giant Pacific octopus named Octavius that went on view late January 2010.

• Blue Crab and the Chesapeake Bay
Opened October 17, 2003
This section features live crabs to demonstrate the biology of the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), their life cycles, and their environment in the Chesapeake Bay. The section explores how crabs take advantage of a diversity of habitats in the Bay during different stages of their life cycles, how crabs provide scientists with a window into the overall health of the Bay -- as pollution levels increase, crab populations decrease; and how our everyday actions affect the blue crab and the entire Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

Great Cats (lions and tigers)

10/01/1998 - Ongoing
Lion & Tiger Hill and surrounding area
See living, breathing, roaring Sumatran tigers and African lions and learn more about these endangered animals. Features also include:

• Tiger Tracks, an interpretive trail, allows children to compare their weight to those of various cats and to species of prey; play interactive tiger cub games; and examine life-size models of a tiger's skull, tongue, and paws.

• A machan -- an elevated, enclosed platform -- allows visitors to watch the lions and tigers patrol their Zoo territory.

• An area featuring a bronzed Tyrannosaurus rex skull from the Museum of the Rockies.

For information on the cheetahs, see separate listing: Cheetah Conservation Station.

See January 1999 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 29-33; January 2002, pp. 60-69

Great Ape House

04/15/1981 - Ongoing
Olmsted Walk
Today, this exhibition is home to seven western lowland gorillas and six orangutans, which may be seen outside in the yard or inside the Great Ape House. The orangutans have access to the Think Tank by using the aboveground O Line; for details, see Think Tank.

The exhibition was designed to encourage physical activity and normal social interaction within each group. Features include 8 spacious, glass-fronted indoor areas, 2-3 stories high, equipped with floor-to-ceiling climbing structures; large outdoor areas with dry moats confining animals without visual obstructions; and interpretive graphics.

Giant Panda Habitat, Fujifilm

10/17/2006 - Ongoing

Tian Tian and Mei Xiang can be seen in their habitat wrestling in the grass, sleeping in a tree, munching on stalks of bamboo, or lounging in a misty grotto.

Notes:
• Tai Shan -- the first surviving Giant panda cub born at the National Zoo on July 9, 2005, to Mei Xian and Tian Tian -- was relocated to Wolong's Bifengxia Panda Base in Ya'an, Sichuan, in the mountains of south central China, on February 4, 2010, to be part of the breeding program that will help sustain giant panda populations in the wild. As part of the 10-year loan agreement in 2000 between the Zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, any cubs born at the Zoo would be returned to China. The Chinese government granted two extensions for Tai Shan to remain at the Zoo: a two-year extension in April of 2007 and a second extension allowing him to stay to January 2010.

Elephant House

- Ongoing
Olmsted Walk
Note: The Elephant House, built in the 1930s, closed to the public September 14, 2009, to undergo renovation as part of the upcoming exhibition Elephant Trails (opening in phases beginning 2012; see separate listing for details).

In the meantime, the three Asian elephants -- Kandula (born in 2001), his mother Shanthi, and another female Ambika -- can be seen in their outdoor habitat 10 AM-4 PM on most days (weather permitting), but occasionally, they may be indoors, during which time they will be off view.

Bird House and the Outdoor Flight Exhibit

- Ongoing
Bird House
The National Zoo is home to hundreds of birds from all over the world. Since birds are an integral part of virtually every ecosystem, it's not surprising that birds are all over the Zoo, too, as residents and visitors.

• Outdoor Flight Exhibit: Open year round, the large flight cage, 90 feet high and 120 feet in diameter, allows birds to fly freely. It features numerous North and South American birds, such as cormorants, hooded mergansers, green-winged teals, cattle egret, little blue heron, Hamerkop, white-faced ibis, Mandarin duck, and wood ducks.

• Bird House: The widest variety of birds at the Zoo live indoors at the Bird House where a series of smaller exhibits encircle a large indoor jungle complete with free-flying tropical birds. Outside the Bird House are a number of other fascinating and large bird species, including a flock of flamingos.

Asia Trail

10/17/2006 - Ongoing

This exhibition features Asian animals already living at the Zoo -- sloth bears, fishing cats, Asian small-clawed otters, red pandas, and a Japanese giant salamander -- along with the clouded leopards (returning to the Zoo after several decades). Also featured are the beloved giant pandas (see separate listing).

The Trail incorporates enrichment activities that stimulate the animals' natural behaviors, including fabricated termite mounds where sloth bears can forage for insects, cut-away views of pools where fishing cats can hunt, nest boxes where red pandas can raise their young, and a glass-fronted pool where visitors can observe Asian small-clawed otters underwater. The new exhibition also highlights the Zoo's research and conservation work and features the following:
• Decision stations: Here visitors can explore the complex conservation issues facing endangered species through touch-screen, interactive kiosks.
• Curiosity stations: Here visitors can learn about the native habitats of the species that live along the trail through hands-on exhibits.
• Researchers at Work stations: Here visitors can learn about the Zoo's efforts to preserve these animals and their habitats in the wild through videos and graphics.

See September 2006 Smithsonian, pp. 34, 36

Amazonia

11/18/1992 - Ongoing
Amazonia Building
Animals and plants of the New World are included in this rain forest habitat featuring a re-created microcosm of the world's largest rain forest and the Amazon River. Giant Amazon fish are a special feature.

• Amazonia Science Gallery
(Added December 16, 1996; renovated 2009)
This section showcases biodiversity and the work of Smithsonian scientists. It features a nutrition laboratory, Science On a Sphere, Amphibian Alert! and wildlife toxicology exhibits:

-- Science On a Sphere (SOS) uses computers and video projectors to display planetary data onto a six-foot diameter sphere, analogous to a giant animated globe. It provides information on global climate change, weather patterns, animal migration, and many other topics.

-- Amphibian Alert! highlights the efforts of Smithsonian scientists to understand and conserve amphibians. The exhibit features 18 species of frogs, and information on threats to the survival of amphibian species around the world due to disease (chytridiomycosis), habitat loss, and other factors.

Animals on View

- Ongoing

For a complete listing of animals on view at the Zoo, see the website: nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AnimalIndex/

Renwick Gallery

The Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is dedicated to exhibiting American crafts from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

Exhibits:

A Revolution in Wood: The Bresler Collection

09/24/2010 - 01/30/2011
North Special Exhibitions Gallery, 1st Floor
This exhibition features 66 objects from the 1980s and 1990s from the Charles and Fleur Bresler Collection to highlight contemporary wood turning's growing sophistication. The Bresler collection -- which was recently donated to the museum -- has a distinct aesthetic that emphasizes sculptural qualities and decorative motifs integrated into the whole form, with exquisite and finely detailed craftsmanship.

The collection includes works by some of the best-known wood artists in the United States, including David Ellsworth, Michelle Holzapfel, Mark and Melvin Lindquist, Edward Moulthrop, and Mark Sfirri. A number of the artworks are on public display for the first time.

5-minute video featuring interviews with Fleur Bresler; artists David Ellsworth and Mark Sfirri; and Kenneth R. Trapp, former curator-in-charge at the Renwick Gallery (runs continuously)

Catalogue: $45 (cloth)

The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946

03/05/2010 - 01/30/2011
South and West Special Exhibitions Galleries, 1st Floor
More than 120 arts-and-crafts objects made by Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps during World War II, along with photographs, are used to explore the internment experience. While incarcerated, the internees tried to gaman, a Japanese word that means to bear the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience. Housed in tar-paper covered barracks furnished with nothing more than metal cots, the internees used scraps and found materials to create furniture, toys and games, musical instruments, pendants and pins, purses, and ornamental displays. These objects became essential both for simple creature comforts and emotional survival. Many are on loan from former internees or their families.

Two 20-minute documentaries: Voices Long Silent (2010) and Art of Gaman: The Story Behind the Objects (2010) run continuously in sequence

Related book: $35

Sales Exhibitions

- Ongoing
1st Floor, Museum Store
Sales of fine crafts and exhibition-related products.

Octagon Room

- Ongoing
2nd Floor, South
The Octagon Room is furnished with paintings from SAAM's collection, including impressionism and the Gilded Age period.

Renwick Craft Invitational 2011

03/25/2011 - 07/31/2011
1st Floor, Special Exhibitions Gallery
This exhibition will feature works by the following four extraordinary artists, who create works of superior craftsmanship that address the classic craft notion of function without sacrificing a contemporary aesthetic:

• Cliff Lee (b. 1951), a former neurosurgeon who works in Stevens, Pennsylvania, creates elegant porcelain vessels with the exactitude of a doctor, often using his knowledge of chemistry to re-create medieval Chinese glazes long thought lost to history.
• Matthias Pliessnig (b. 1978), a furniture maker in Philadelphia, uses boat-building techniques in new ways to create graceful forms with curved wood strips that may have up to 5,000 points of contact without the aid of hardware.
• Judith Schaechter (b. 1961), a glass artist based in Philadelphia, brings a wealth of knowledge about traditional stained-glass practice to her moody windows.
• Ubaldo Vitali (b. 1944), a fourth-generation silversmith and master conservator of historic silver working in Maplewood, New Jersey, uses classical techniques he learned in Rome to create luminous works for popes, kings, and presidents.

Grand Salon Installation: Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

06/06/2009 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, Grand Salon
On view are 70 paintings from the 1840s to the 1930s -- landscapes, portraits, and allegorical works -- by 51 American artists, including Edward Mitchell Bannister, Romaine Brooks, Elliott Daingerfield, Daniel Garber, William Morris Hunt, George Inness, Homer Dodge Martin, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Abbott Handerson Thayer, John Henry Twachtman, and Irving R. Wiles. The room is installed salon style, with paintings hung one-atop-another and side by side.

Visitor Guide featuring short biographies of the artists: $16.95

Permanent Collection

- Ongoing
Craft Galleries, 2nd Floor
The permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, features contemporary American crafts in glass, ceramics, metal, wood, and fiber. Highlights include:

• Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery (2009) by Karen LaMonte (b. 1967) (Octagon Room)
• Portal Gates (1974) by Albert Paley (b. 1944)
• Game Fish (1988) by Larry Fuente (b. 1947)
• Bureau of Bureaucracy by Kim Schmahmann (a cabinet sculpture described by the artist as a "contemporary cabinet of curiosities")
• Ghost Clock by Wendell Castle
• Bancketje (Banquet) by Beth Lipman
• The Renwick 30th Anniversary Plate by Irma Starr

S. Dillon Ripley Center, International Gallery

Entered from a copper domed kiosk on Jefferson Drive between the "Castle" and the Freer Gallery of Art, the S. Dillon Ripley Center houses the International Gallery, The Smithsonian Associates and the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service.

Exhibits:

The Healing Power of Art: Works of art by Haitian children after the earthquake

06/17/2010 - 01/09/2011
Ripley Center, Concourse
See listing under African Art Museum.

Free booklet

Posy Holders

- Ongoing
Sublevel 3, Concourse, in alcoves between elevator and escalator
Two large cases contain approximately 80 one-of-a-kind posy holders made of precious metals and semi-precious stones, donated by Frances Jones Poetker.

See April 2003 Smithsonian magazine, p. 42

Audio and video components
Native plants in the planters

Organized by the Smithsonian Latino Center, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and the Smithsonian Affiliate Museo del Canal Interoceanico de Panama.

This is the 8th juried exhibition for emerging artists with disabilities organized by VSA arts.

Graphic Eloquence: Limited-Edition Prints from "The Smithsonian Associates Art Collectors Program"

- Ongoing
Sublevel 3, Concourse, near escalators
On view are limited-edition works on paper created by American artists -- including Sean Scully, Janet Fish, Wolf Kahn, and Elizabeth Catlett -- for the Art Collectors Program, which began in the early 1970's. The works are commissioned annually by the Art Collectors Program and many now hang in the permanent collections of national museums.

These and other prints, which are signed and numbered by the artists, are available for purchase. The sale of these works support the educational programs produced by The Smithsonian Associates.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Donald W. Reynolds Center is home to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery

Food:

Courtyard Cafe
Featuring soups, sandwiches, salads, antipasti, desserts, ice cream, coffee, beer, wine, and soft drinks.

Hours
Daily, 11:30 AM-4 PM: See menu above
Daily, 4 PM-6:30 PM: Limited selection of menu above

Portico Cafe (seasonal and weather permitting)
Features pastries, sandwiches, specialty coffees and beverages. Wine, beer and cocktails are available in late afternoon and evening hours.
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Exhibits:

John Gossage: The Pond

08/27/2010 - 01/17/2011
Graphic Arts Galleries, 2nd Floor, South
John Gossage (b. 1946) photographed a small, unnamed pond between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, between 1981 and 1985. The title was intended to recall Henry David Thoreau's Walden, but Gossage advocated a more all-embracing view of the landscape, exploring the less idealized spaces that border America's cities and suburbs. Although many of the images in The Pond appear unruly or uncared for, Gossage found moments of grace and elegance in even the most mundane of places.

The complete portfolio of The Pond was acquired by the museum in 2007. This exhibition marks the first time the complete series of 53 gelatin silver prints has been on public display.

The Pond: re-issued edition, co-published by the museum, includes an essay by photo historian Gerry Badger and an introduction by Jurovics: $65, hardcover

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the 'Running Fence' (new title)

04/02/2010 - 09/26/2010
3rd Floor, North Galleries
On view are nearly 50 preparatory drawings and collages, along with photographs, film, and components, that document the creation and installation of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's epic project the Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76, a white fabric and steel-pole fence, 24 1/2 miles long and 18 feet high, that ran across the properties of 59 ranchers in Sonoma and Marin Counties north of San Francisco. The project attracted far wider public involvement than any previous work of art, including 18 public hearings, three sessions in the Superior Court of California, and the first environmental impact report ever done for a work of art. Paid for entirely by the artists, the Running Fence existed for only two weeks and survives today as a memory and through the artwork and documentation of the artists.

Films The 'Running Fence' Revisited (2010, 45 min), Running Fence with commentary (2004, 58 min), and Running Fence (1978, 58 min) (3 films run continuously back to back)

See related article in Smithsonian magazine: June 2010, p. 25; Dec. 2008, p. 33

Related publication: $50 (cloth)

Renovating a Landmark: From Patent Office to Reynolds Center.

11/17/2007 - Ongoing
Historic Fabric Room, 1st Floor, S. of F St. Lobby, near lockers
This small exhibition commemorates the opening of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, the final phase of a major renovation of the National Historic Landmark building that houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. It highlights aspects of the renovation with photographs, architectural artifacts from the building, and objects discovered during the excavation of the courtyard. Also included are historic images of the building, a 7-foot segment of one of the 19th-century cast iron fountains from the courtyard, and an architect's model of the building.

Related publication: Temple of Invention: History of a National Landmark by Charles Robertson, who is also the guest curator of the exhibition: $19.95 (paper)

Outdoor Sculpture: Vaquero by Luis Jimenez Jr.

- Ongoing
Outside at G St. entrance
Vaquero (1987): The colorful fiberglass sculpture of a Mexican cowboy on a bucking blue horse by New Mexico artist Luis Jimenez Jr. (1940-2006).

Outdoor Sculptures

08/26/2008 - Ongoing
Outside on F & 9th Sts., NW
Outside on F and 9th Sts., NW

• Modern Head (2008): This 31-foot-tall sculpture by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) is made of stainless steel painted blue and weighs 13,000 pounds. The sculpture is part of a series Lichtenstein began in the late 1960s that explored the idea of creating images of human figures that look like machines; this concept pervaded the artist's work throughout his career. Lichtenstein created the first Modern Head in 1974 out of wood that was painted blue. In 1989, he produced an edition of four in brushed steel. In 1990, the artist painted one a vibrant blue making it a unique work.

Installed in 1996 in Battery Park City, one block from the World Trade Center, the sculpture survived the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack with only surface scratches and was temporarily used by the FBI as a message board during the investigation. It has had several homes before coming to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The museum acquired the sculpture in 2008.

Outside at G St. entrance

• Vaquero (1987): The colorful fiberglass sculpture of a Mexican cowboy on a bucking blue horse by New Mexico artist Luis Jimenez Jr. (1940-2006).

Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

07/02/2010 - 01/02/2011
Osher Galleries, 1st Floor, West
Two of America's best-known modern filmmakers -- George Lucas and Steven Spielberg -- recognized a kindred spirit in the artist Norman Rockwell and formed in-depth collections of his work. Lucas, Spielberg, and Rockwell have perpetuated American ideals about love of country, personal honor, and the value of family through their work. With humor and pathos, they have transformed ordinary people and the quotidian incidents of everyday experience into stories that show us our better selves and the values that have sustained Americans through good times and bad. All three share an ability to communicate visually with mass audiences using popular media of their time. Telling Stories reveals for the first time the connections between Rockwell's iconic images of American life and the movies.

This exhibition showcases 57 major Rockwell paintings and drawings from these private collections that are rarely seen by the public.

Notes:
• Monday through Friday: Enter from the Kogod Courtyard or from the exhibition With Liberty: Folk Art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
• Saturday and Sunday: Enter from the Kogod Courtyard only.

See related articles in Smithsonian magazine: August 2010, p. 22; December 2009, pp. 8-10

Related publication: $65 (cloth), $35.95 (paper)

Video: Excerpts from interviews in which Lucas and Spielberg talk about Rockwell and the works in their collections (runs continuously)

Catalogue: $19.95

This retrospective, which features 88 works from the 1960s to the present, is the first full-scale look at Wiley's long career and explores important themes and ideas expressed in his work. His work ranges from traditional drawing, watercolor, acrylic painting, sculpture, and printmaking to performances, constructions of assorted materials, and, more recently, printed pins, tapestries, and a pinball machine. Many artworks in the exhibition are on public display for the first time, and the installation includes several of Wiley's avant-garde films of the 1970s, which are rarely screened.

Catalogue: $65 (cloth); $39.95 (paper)

See December 2009 Smithsonian magazine, p. 26

Thomas Moran Landscapes

05/08/2009 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, North Lobby
On view are three large landscape paintings by Thomas Moran, two on long-term loan from the U.S. Department of the Interior -- The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872) and The Chasm of the Colorado (1873-1874) -- and the museum's The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1893-1901), along with a smaller Moran painting.

With Liberty: Folk Art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
1st Floor, West
These galleries serve as a reminder that not all artists are formally trained, and that the making of art is as much an act of passion as of intellect. Artists represented range from Mose Tolliver and Howard Finster to Felipe Archuleta and Thorton Dial, Sr. To provide the installation a particular point of view, the museum asked artist William Christenberry to curate -- choose the objects and provide the wall labels and quotes that express his deep regard for folk art.

Highlights include:
• James Hampton's The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly (1950-64), a visionary work made from salvaged materials covered in gold and silver foil.
• Selected objects from the Rosenak Collection of American Folk Art

Related Book America's Art: $65 (cloth), $45 (paper)

Sculptures by Paul Manship

07/15/2007 - Ongoing
1st Floor, North Corridors, near G St. entrance
From the museum's collection of nearly 500 works by Paul Manship (1885-1966) are 25 graceful sculptures -- including such mythological figures such as Atalanta and Europa, as well as a collection of gilded animal figures. As a young artist studying in Rome, Manship fell in love with both Roman and Greek sculpture and was captivated by animals and mythological figures. He also studied Egyptian, Asian, and Assyrian art. An exponent of Art Deco in the United States, he developed a style that was both representational and highly stylized.

Notes:
• Additional works are on view in the Luce Foundation Center, 3rd floor.
• From time to time, the sculptures in this exhibit may rotate.

Modern and Contemporary Art

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
3rd Floor, East, in the Lincoln Gallery
Located in the Lincoln Gallery with soaring arches, this exhibition features modern and contemporary art.

Highlights include:
• Newly acquired room-size acquisitions, including David Hockney's Snails Space with Vari-Lites, Painting as Performance, Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and Edward and Nancy Kienholz's Sollie 17
• Large-scale works by Alfred Jensen, Sean Scully, Edward Kienholz, and James Rosenquist
• Duane Hanson's Woman Eating

Additions include:
• November 3, 2007:
For SAAM (2007) by Jenny Holzer: Commissioned by the museum, this new contemporary site-specific light sculpture is a 28-foot-tall, floor-to-ceiling cylindrical column of LEDs (light-emitting diodes) with text -- varying in height, font, and intensity -- that is programmed to swirl and travel around the body of the piece. The text is from four of the artist's series -- Truisms, selections from Living, selections from Survival, and Arno. This sculpture is the only work by the artist on public view in the city. Located near Nam Paik's Electronic Superhighway.

Related Book America's Art: $65 (cloth), $45 (paper)

Lunder Conservation Center

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
3rd Floor Mezzanine & 4th Floor, West
The Lunder Conservation Center -- shared with the National Portrait Gallery -- is the first facility that provides a unique opportunity for the public to view through glass walls conservators at work in several labs examining, treating, and preserving art.

Luce Foundation Center for American Art

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
3rd & 4th Floors and 3rd Floor Mezzanine, West
The Luce Foundation Center for American Art is the first visible art storage and study center in Washington that showcases more than 3,300 artworks from the museum's permanent collection: paintings densely hung on screens; sculptures, contemporary crafts, and art objects arranged on shelves; and portrait miniatures, bronze medals, and contemporary jewelry in drawers that slide open with the touch of a button. The space allows the museum to display five times the number of works on public view.

Highlights include:
• Selected objects from the Rosenak Collection of American Folk Art

David Beck's MVSEVM

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, South Center
Commissioned by the museum, David Beck created MVSEVM, an exquisitely crafted world in miniature; the work reflects the neoclassical architecture of the building, from the 1840s when it was the U.S. Patent Office to the present day.

Art Since 1945

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
3rd Floor, North
On view is modern and contemporary art, including works from Color Field, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art; a room-size installation Megatron Matrix by Nam June Paik; and 20th-century paintings by such artists as Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Helen Frankenthaler.

Related Book America's Art: $65 (cloth), $45 (paper)

American Experience

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
1st Floor, Southwest (near Main Lobby)
These introductory galleries feature paintings by Edward Hopper, 19th- and 20th-century landscapes from across the United States that convey a sense of place and the defining role of land in the American imagination, and 56 photographs from Lee Friedlander's series "The American Monument" (1963-2001) -- a new acquisition -- that offer his sometimes ironic, sometimes elegiac record of outdoor sculptures across the country.

American Art through 1940

07/01/2006 - Ongoing
2nd Floor, East, South, and North
This exhibition links artworks to major moments in America's past in nine thematic sections in 31 galleries. The introductory area features Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's model for the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of America as a place welcoming to all immigrants whose ingenuity and creativity plays a key role throughout America's art.

• "The American Colonies" and "The New Republic": The arts of New Spain and New England show how the cultures of colonial Britain, Spain, France, as well as American Indians and African Americans influenced the other while continuing to compete for land well into the 19th century. From independence through the Federal period, American art presented the nation as it wanted to be viewed and appreciated at home and abroad. Highlights include John Singleton Copley's Mrs. George Watson and colonial and federal furniture from the collection of Mrs. George M. Kaufman.

• "Western Art": The nation's westward expansion is explored through majestic landscapes of the western territories and portraits of American Indians. Highlights include Albert Bierstadt's "Great Picture" Among the Sierra Nevada, California and three rows of George Catlin's "Indian Gallery" portraits, all displayed as they would have been when they were first presented to the public.

• "Antebellum Art": Many 19th-century American artists traveled through Europe to pay their respects to the old masters and Antiquity. While there, they saw thousands of years of art that made their young country seem raw and primitive by comparison; many felt America needed a culture to match its political and economic power. This gallery features sculptures by Hiram Powers and others that represent the classical styles of art and architecture these 19th-century artists brought home with them -- styles that would dominate American public life for many decades. The museum has the world's largest collection of American sculpture.

• "Civil War": Prints by Winslow Homer, graphic early photographs, wood engravings, paintings, and sculptures illustrate how the Civil War tore apart the fabric of the nation.

• "Impressionism": American artists in the 1880's were attracted to the light and color of painting outdoors and many studied abroad to absorb the new palette and compositions that were modernizing painting in France. On view are works by Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, William Merritt Chase, and Mary Cassatt, who were influenced by this movement.

• "Gilded Age": The final quarter of the 19th century was dubbed the "Gilded Age" by author Mark Twain. On view to represent the period are signature works by John Singer Sargent, Abbott Handerson Thayer, and Henry Ossawa Tanner. Also on view are rooms devoted to the works of Albert Pinkham Ryder and Thomas Wilmer Dewing. Highlights include a gilded Steinway and Sons piano decorated by Dewing and a stained glass window by John La Farge.

• "Modernism": On view are early 20th-century American paintings and sculptures to show the contrast between abstraction and realism. Highlights include a suite of Ashcan School paintings, works from the Stieglitz Circle and the Harlem Renaissance, paintings from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, Everett Shinn's The White Ballet, and Thomas Hart Benton's mural Achelous and Hercules.

• "Southwestern Art": Artists working in eastern cities around 1900 saw the Southwest almost as a foreign country, where the age-old Spanish Catholic culture seemed like an antidote to the pressure of "progress." Painters from New York and Chicago, attracted by the clear light, ancient rhythms, and rich artistic traditions of the Pueblo communities, settled and developed artists' colonies around Santa Fe and Taos. Highlights include works from the Dallas Nine and the Taos Society.

Related Book America's Art: $65 (cloth), $45 (paper)

Celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Program.

Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle

The Castle, the Smithsonian's original home, is a Medieval Revival building designed by James Renwick Jr. and completed in 1855. Its nine towers, battlements and chimneys make it an easy landmark to spot on the National Mall.

Food:

Castle Cafe and Coffee Bar
Featuring an Espresso/Cappuccino bar, Argentinean Gelato, Panini, Antipasti, Organic salads, Specialty Sandwiches, Soups and Pastries.
Discount for Smithsonian Members
Hours: 8:30a.m.-5p.m.

Exhibits:

Editors' Picks: The Best of Smithsonian Magazine's 7th Annual Photo Contest

07/01/2010 - 02/28/2011
Great Hall
For its 7th annual photo contest, Smithsonian magazine received over 45,000 entries from the United States and around the world in the following five categories: Altered Images, Americana, The Natural World, People, and Travel. A panel of judges selected 50 finalists, 30 of which are displayed in the Castle.

Winning photos were announced in the June 2010 issue of Smithsonian magazine (pp. 66-71) and on Smithsonian.com on July 1, 2010.

Notes:
- Smithsonian magazine editors selected winners for each category in addition to a grand prize winner.
- Between March 1 and March 31, readers voted online to select a readers' choice winner.

Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection

06/18/2010 - 10/17/2010
Schermer Hall
This exhibition features pins from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's collection to explore the use of jewelry as a tool of diplomacy and to capture her wit and the expressive nature of her pins.

During her service as ambassador to the United Nations, and then as secretary of state, Albright came to understand how powerful a symbol an item of jewelry could be, and chose pins to reflect her diplomatic mission, reinforce her negotiating position, or express her pride of country and office. The pins on view span more that a century of jewelry design and range from dime-store pins to designer creations to family heirlooms. She wore these pins at meetings with world leaders and ordinary citizens alike, in settings both formal and informal.

Highlights include:
• the antique eagle purchased to celebrate her appointment as Secretary of State
• the zebra pin she wore when she met Nelson Mandela
• the Valentine Day's heart forged by her five-year-old daughter
• a dazzling array of flags, flowers, birds, bugs, fanciful designs, and even a man made out of vegetables.

Related publication: $40 (cloth)

See related article in Smithsonian magazine: June 2010, p. 28.

No photography permitted.

Note: The exhibition is open to the public during regular hours except during special events.

On view in these cases are works by four scientific illustrators who worked in the Smithsonian Institution Building between 1852 and 1898: William Stimpson (1832-1872), John H. Richard (1807-1881), Robert Ridgway (1850-1929), and his brother John L. Ridgway (1859-1947). These illustrations offer a glimpse of their lifetime devotion to the study of science and nature. Also on view are several plaster casts of fish painted by John H. Richard.

Smithson's Crypt

- Ongoing
First Floor, North Entrance (Jefferson Drive)
The final resting place of the Institution's benefactor, James Smithson (1765-1829), is a small chapel-like room located at the north entrance to the Castle. Exhibit cases contain a few of Smithson's personal effects as well as the Smithsonian's official Mace and Badge of Office. A panel exhibit explains how Smithson's remains came to the United States in 1904 and the Smithsonian's plans to build a memorial to him.

The Smithsonian Institution: America's Treasure Chest

05/08/2005 - Ongoing
The Commons (West Wing)
In display cases framing the walls of this historic room are selected objects representing all of the museums that offer a tantalizing sample of the breadth and depth of the Smithsonian's vast collections.

Note: The exhibition is open to the public during regular hours except during special events.

Featured Areas: Children's Room, The Commons, Schermer Hall

- Ongoing
First Floor
• Children's Room: (First Floor, South Entrance, Independence Avenue)
The Children's Room -- with the theme "Knowledge Begins in Wonder" -- was installed in the south tower of the Castle in 1901 and featured natural history exhibitions for children. The original decorative scheme by designer Grace Lincoln Temple was restored in the mid-1980s.

• The Commons: (First Floor, West Wing)
The Commons, in the 19th-century Gothic Revival architectural style, features a soaring, groin-vaulted ceiling, elaborate corbels, a ribbed-vaulted apse, and a rose window on the south wall. Encircling the room are 28 walnut exhibit cases built in 1871 and refurbished in July 2004 with selected objects representing the Smithsonian's collections (for details, see permanent exhibition The Smithsonian Institution: America's Treasure Chest). The room served as a dining facility for many years, closing in June 2004.

• Schermer Hall: (First Floor, West Wing)
Schermer Hall, named for Smithsonian donors Lloyd G. and Betty A. Schermer, is in the Romanesque Revival style with clerestory windows, rounded arches, and a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Furnishings from the Castle Collection include a pair of Rococo Revival gilded mirrors that belonged to Simon Cameron, Secretary of War (1860-1862) under President Lincoln; a pair of Renaissance Revival armchairs (c. 1860) that belonged to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War (1862-1867) under Presidents Lincoln and Grant; and Georgian Revival tables (c. 1910) in mahogany and verdi marble with classically carved motifs, including anthemion and acanthus leaves and guilloche (running dog) borders. Also in this room is a small, 2-panel display on the history of the west wing; for details, see permanent exhibition The West Wing: A Chronology.

Garden: Enid A. Haupt Garden

05/21/1987 - Ongoing
Outside, south of the Castle (The Quadrangle)
A 4.2-acre rooftop park, named for its donor, features an embroidered parterre in a geometric design of plants and flowers rotated seasonally. Other features include an Asian-influenced garden adjacent to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, a Moorish-influenced garden adjacent to the National Museum of African Art, and garden furnishings from the Smithsonian Gardens' Garden Furniture Collection.

The landscape design of the Haupt Garden was a collaborative effort of architect Jean Paul Carlhian; Lester Collins, landscape architect from Millbrook, New York; Sasaki Associates Inc. of Watertown, Massachusetts; and James Buckler, founding director of the Smithsonian's Office of Horticulture.

See November 2002 Smithsonian magazine, p. 20

Garden: Folger Rose Garden, including the Keith Fountain (seasonal)

10/07/1998 - Ongoing
Outside, Jefferson Drive between Castle and Arts & Industries
The Folger Rose Garden features a bed of roses in a rainbow of colors, along with selected annuals, perennials, and woody plants chosen for year-round interest. It was donated by the Folger family in honor of their mother, Kathrine Dulin Folger.

The GUR-KARMA-RANA Keith fountain, donated by the Keith family, is the centerpiece of the garden, and was produced by the J.W. Fiske Company in New York in the mid-1800s. It features 3 tiers with water cascading over the sides and a granite basin with a seating ledge. The tiers, from top to bottom, are 15", 24", and 36" in diameter. A 1" pipe through the stem provides water. The name of the fountain is derived from the first letters of the names of Keith family members.

Before the creation of the Haupt Garden, the fountain stood in the Quadrangle. A replica of the fountain today stands in the courtyard of the Blair House.

Exhibit Panels: The West Wing: A Chronology

- Ongoing
Schermer Hall, West Wing
This 2-panel exhibit reveals the history of the west wing of the Castle -- from its first use as the Institution's library to its use as The Commons dining room (through June 20, 2004) -- through images and text. The text is adapted from The Castle, An Illustrated History of the Smithsonian Institution Building by Cynthia R. Field, Richard E. Stamm, and Heather P. Ewing.

Smithsonian Information Center

- Ongoing

Highlights include:

• 2 information desks, serving the public and Smithsonian Associate members, which are staffed by volunteers from 8:30 AM-4 PM daily.
• 1 orientation theater (northeast wall) featuring an 10-minute video overview of the Institution (runs continuously, beginning at approximately 9 AM).
• 2 interactive "touch-screen" programs on the Smithsonian Institution in 6 languages.
• 1 scale model of Washington's monumental core.
• Smithson's Gift showcase (provides information on the history of the Institution).
• A tactile map of the Washington's monumental core with Braille labels.