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:

Neighborhood Palette and Citified

Now - August 5, 2012
Main Gallery

On view are the last two installations in the exhibition series Call and Response: Creativity and Community, highlighting creative expressions through such varied media as video, film, performance, dance, and roller-blading:

• Neighborhood Palette: Learn about the history of east-of-the-river public art by the Albus Cavus public design collective.
• Citified: Revel in the creativity in everyday life. This installation organized by the museum includes an exploration of the art of tattooing with CoCo and Vonnie Bayron of Nu Flava Ink Tattoo shop.

Call and Response: Creativity and Community is a multipart exhibition that explores artists and their visions as they draw upon the cultural expression found in schools, churches, community organizations, and other venues in the public sphere.

Separate and Unequaled: Black Baseball in the District of Columbia

Indefinitely
Program Room

Please Note: This room and museum galleries temporarily closed from May 7 through July 29, 2012, for renovation and will reopen July 30, 2012. Programming will be held at other venues in the Washington, D.C., area.

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.

Archives of American Art

The Archives of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are located in the heart of downtown Washington, DC.

The Archives of American Art’s primary exhibition space, the gallery is located two blocks away from our D.C. Research Center. It can be found on the first floor of the Donald W. Reynolds Center in D.C.’s Penn Quarter neighborhood, which is also home to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

The Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery enables the Archives to present interactive and informative exhibitions from among the more than 16 million items documenting the history of visual arts in America.

Exhibits:

Memories Arrested in Space

Now - June 4, 2012
Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, Reynolds Center, 1st Floor

This exhibition celebrates the centennial of the birth of Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and his enduring legacy through family photographs, letters, writings, and scrapbooks from the personal papers of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.

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:

The Arts of China

Indefinitely
Sublevel 1

A variety of materials, techniques, and motifs, which span almost six thousand years, are explored in this exhibition of objects highlighting the Sackler Gallery's permanent holdings of Chinese art. Much of the exhibition is dedicated to a comprehensive group of ancient jades and bronzes from the Stone Age to the dawn of China's imperial period. Also on display are works from much later periods -- paintings, calligraphy, and decorative objects that represent the refined tastes of imperial and aristocratic patrons. Early Chinese Buddhist art installation includes wall murals painted for the cave chapels at Kizil, a site in central Asia that participated in the east-west exchanges of the Silk Road .

Art of Darkness: Japanese Mezzotints from the Hitch Collection

Now - July 8, 2012
Sublevel 1

With approximately 20 prints and related copperplates from the collection of Ken and Kiyo Hitch, this exhibition samples the visions of Hamaguchi Yozo (1909–2000) and Hamanishi Katsunori (born 1949). The works highlight the visceral production process and show remarkably innovative uses of the traditional European technique of mezzotint in the hands of Japanese artists.

Ken and Kiyo Hitch, preeminent collectors of modern and contemporary Japanese graphic art, have chosen the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery as the future home for their extensive collection of 20th- and 21st-century Japanese prints. Art of Darkness is the first in a series of exhibitions to celebrate this extraordinary gesture.

Perspectives: Ai Weiwei

Now - April 7, 2013
Pavilion, Street Level

As part of the Perspectives series of contemporary Asian art, this exhibition features works by the prolific and provocative artist Ai Weiwei (b. 1957, China). From  large-scale installations, performances, and architectural design to photography and video, he deftly melds traditional materials and craftsmanship, local histories, and current events to creative incisive commentaries on the individual in today's society. Artworks include the installation Fragments (2005) in which Weiwei effectively subjects fragments from works that began hundreds of years ago to a simultaneously destructive and creative process, highlighting the bewildering reality that we live in the midst of a world undergoing rapid spatial and social transformation. Perspectives: Ai Weiwei is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Ai Weiwei: According to What? (October 4, 2012-February 24, 2013) and Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (April 19, 2012-February 24, 2013) at the Hirshhorn Museum.

Pronunciation key: Ai Weiwei = Eye Wayway

Goryeo Buddhist Paintings: A Closer Look

Now - May 28, 2012
Sublevel 1, Verver Galleries

Numbering fewer than 150 worldwide, Buddhist paintings created during the late Goryeo dynasty in Korea illustrate hope for peace and good fortune in this world and for salvation in the afterlife. Three rare icons from the Freer and Sackler collections that have never been displayed together are on view. Rendered in rich mineral pigments augmented with gold, the silk surfaces of these complex paintings have darkened with age. Photographic details of the three works taken by Buddhist painting specialist Chung Woothak show the masterly brushwork and superimposed patterns that are difficult to distinguish in the now-darkened originals. The photographs also reveal the materials and techniques that typify this special type of Buddhist icon. These14th-century images epitomize a golden age in Korean Buddhist art.

Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran

Indefinitely
Sublevel 1, Galleries connecting Freer & Sackler Galleries

In celebration of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's 25th anniversary, a selection from the Freer and Sackler's extraordinary collection of luxury metalwork from ancient Iran -- an area extending from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea to present-day Afghanistan -- is on view. This display explores the artistic and technical characteristics of these objects. Featured are works ranging in shape from deep bowls and footed plates to elaborate drinking vessels ending in animal forms, known in Greek as rython, that are largely associated with court ceremonies and rituals. Others, decorated with such royal imagery as hunting or enthronement scenes, were probably intended as gifts to foreign and local dignitaries. Depictions of kings and their royal attributes and pastimes helped define the power and identity of ancient Iranian royalty, whose rule continued well after the arrival of Islam in the 7th century.

Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Now - June 17, 2012
Sublevel 1

Designed by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) in his 70s, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji was a landmark in Japanese print publishing, with innovative compositions, techniques, and coloration. It established landscape as a new subject for Japanese prints. The exhibition features all 46 images in this series, as well as explores the spiritual meaning and emotional resonance of Mount Fuji in Hokusai's late career.

Masters of Mercy: Buddha's Amazing Disciples

Now - July 8, 2012
Sublevel 1

Reflecting a popular theme in Edo art, Kano Kazunobu's (1816-63) paintings depict the lives and deeds of the Buddhist legendary 500 disciples. On view is a selection from his series of 100 paintings created between 1854 and 1863 for the Zojoji Temple in Edo. Little known and never before displayed outside of Japan, Kazunobu's series shows Buddha's disciples at work in the world, engaging in a range of activities from miraculous acts of compassion to everyday chores.

Reinventing the Wheel: Japanese Ceramics 1930-2000

Indefinitely
Sublevel 3

The Sackler collection represents significant trends in Japanese ceramics since the 1930s, when traditional workshop masters took on new roles as studio potters alongside artists in other media. Potters at regional kilns revived ancient firing and glazing technology for use in expressive new vessel forms. In postwar Kyoto, ceramic artists departed from conventional ideas of function to create sculptural forms. Today's potters sample at will from these trends, blending meticulous skill with daring reinterpretations of shapes and materials.This installation of highlights works by legendary Living National Treasures to young virtuosos of the present day.

Ancient Iranian Ceramics

Through 2012 (TBA)
Sublevel 1

Some 3,000 years ago, in the area south of the Caspian Sea in what is now modern Iran, craftsmen developed a distinctive type of pottery. Featuring some of the outstanding treasures in the museum's collection of ancient Iranian ceramics, this small installation celebrates the talents of these ancient Iranian potters and showcases the high quality of their crafted works.

Sculpture of South Asia and the Himalayas

Indefinitely
Sublevel 1

On view are Hindu stone, bronze, brass, and terra-cotta sculptures from South India, dating from the 10th century through the 18th century. Highlights range from a majestic stone image of Shiva Dakshinamurti (Lord of the South) to a fierce gilded bronze of Palden Lhamo, the deity who protects Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. Also on view is the beloved elephant-headed deity Ganesh, who is the god of new beginnings and the remover of obstacles.

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:

Graphic Design--Now In Production

May 26, 2012 - September 3, 2012
Governors Island, Building 110

The rise of user-generated content, new methods of publishing and systems of distribution, and the wide dissemination of creative software have opened up new opportunities for design. Featuring works produced since 2000, Graphic Design explores the worlds of design-driven magazines, newspapers, books, and posters; the expansion of branding programs for corporations, subcultures, and nations; the entrepreneurial spirit of designer-produced goods; the renaissance in digital typeface design; the storytelling potential of film and television titling sequences; and the transformation of raw data into compelling information narratives.

Note: Click here for directions and ferry schedule to Governors Island

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:

Hokusai: Paintings and Drawings

Now - June 24, 2012
Galleries 6 and 7

Freer Gallery of Art founder Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919) first discovered the great Japanese artist Hokusai (1760–1849) through his woodblock prints. Beginning in 1898, Freer turned to collecting Hokusai’s paintings, and by 1907 he had gathered a collection that remains unrivaled in its holdings of original Hokusai paintings and drawings. A selection from this collection, along with a few important subsequent acquisitions of Hokusai’s work, is on view. This installation features such highlights as Boy Viewing Mount Fuji and three masterworks of Hokusai’s last years -- Thunder God, Fisherman, and Woodcutter. 

Two other exhibitions on Hokusai are Hokusai: Japanese Screens (January 28-July 29, 2012) at the Freer Gallery and Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (March 24–June 17, 2012) at the Sackler Gallery. 

Hokusai: Japanese Screens

Now - July 29, 2012
Gallery 5

Freer Gallery of Art founder Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919) first discovered the great Japanese artist Hokusai (1760–1849) through his woodblock prints. Beginning in 1898, Freer turned to collecting Hokusai’s paintings, and by 1907 he had gathered a collection that remains unrivaled in its holdings of original Hokusai paintings and drawings. A selection from this collection, along with a few important subsequent acquisitions of Hokusai’s work, is on view. This installation features a magnificent pair of six-panel folding screens of Mount Fuji.

Two other exhibitions on Hokusai are Hokusai: Paintings and Drawings (February 18-June 24, 2012) at the Freer Gallery and Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (March 24–June 17, 2012) at the Sackler Gallery. 

Winged Spirits: Birds in Chinese Painting

Now - August 5, 2012
Gallery 13 & East Corridor

In Chinese culture, many birds are endowed with strong symbolic associations, both on their own and especially in combination with certain auspicious flowers. In the 10th century, birds and flowers emerged as major themes in traditional Chinese painting. At first such images were based on the close observation of nature and employed fine detail and color; later they derived from the painting tradition itself and often were rendered in only ink. While the primary interest of many artists was to capture the essence or spirit of their subjects, most birds in the paintings can be scientifically identified. More than 35 species of birds are depicted in flight, on the ground or in water, or perched on tree branches.

Chinese Ceramics: 10th-13th Century

Indefinitely
Gallery 15

Potters in both north and south China perfected the skills needed to control and modulate ceramic glazes—in shades of white, green, blue, brown, and black—during the Song dynasty (960–1279). In some modes, the glaze complemented carved or incised decoration; in others, its purity of color became a focal point on its own. Two dozen Chinese ceramics from the Freer collection highlight these glazes and the skills of Song dynasty artisans.

Cranes and Clouds: The Korean Art of Ceramic Inlay

Indefinitely
Gallery 14

The Korean Gallery features an exhibition embodying the evolution of the distinctive Korean ceramic decoration know as sanggam. Originally, sanggam involved inlaying white and black pigments into stamped or carved motifs to create images of cranes, clouds, ducks, lotuses, and willows that appear to float within a limpid green glaze. This technique appeared in Korea by the mid-12th century; it would adorn tableware and ritual vessels used by the court and nobility for two centuries. Once porcelain replaced celadon as the elite ceramic, however, the appearance of inlaid decoration changed radically. White pigment, applied in dense patterns to cover everyday bowls and dishes, approximated the snowy appearance of porcelain.

Silk Road Luxuries from China

Indefinitely
Gallery 16

A vast network of caravan trails has long linked the oasis settlements spread across the Central Asian desert. For nearly two millennia these trade routes, now collectively known as the Silk Road, facilitated the spread of Buddhism and provided a course for the long-distance exchange of luxury goods between merchants and traders in China and the West. The impact of foreign imports on the arts of China is particularly apparent in objects dating from the 6th century through 8th century, when Chinese artisans explored new materials (e.g., silver and gold), techniques, forms, and decorative patterns. Exceptional examples of objects and tableware -- most made in the vicinity of the Tang capital at Chang'an (modern Xi'an) -- are featured. In addition, on view are portions of an elaborate stone burial couch that was apparently made for the tomb of one of the traders from Sogdiana (modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan).

Sweet Silent Thought: Whistler's Interiors

Summer 2012 (TBA)
Ground Floor

Reading, music, reverie, and studio practice were recurring themes in James McNeill Whistler's work throughout his career. Using Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room as a central image, this small-scale exhibition examines these themes as depicted within aesthetic spaces. Also featured are the artist's works on paper from the late 1850s through the early 1890s, highlighting Whistler’s creative development from Realism to Aestheticism.

Seasons: Tea

Now - June 24, 2012
Gallery 6A

To highlight its permanent collection, the museum presents Seasons, a series of rotating exhibitions that underscores the importance of the seasons in Chinese and Japanese art and culture.

In this exhibition, a dozen examples show how tea utensils embody changes in weather. Rough stoneware conveys warmth, for example, while porcelain is cool to the touch.

Note: August 8 - September 2, 2011: The exhibition is closed for object rotation.

The Peacock Room Comes to America

Spring 2013 (TBA)
Peacock Room, Gallery 12

For the first time, the Freer Gallery's renowned Peacock Room has been restored to its appearance in 1908, when museum founder Charles Lang Freer used it to organize and display more than 250 ceramics from all over Asia. The first special exhibition in this room since its conservation in 1993, The Peacock Room Comes to America highlights Freer's belief in "points of contact" between American and Asian art and underscores the relationship among the museum's diverse collections. Note:  Starting August 18, 2011, the shutters in the Peacock Room will open from 12 noon until 5:30 PM on the 3rd Thursday of every month through spring 2013.

Originally designed by architect Thomas Jeckyll, the Peacock Room was once the dining room for British shipping magnate Frederick Leyland, who wanted a place to showcase his blue-and-white Chinese porcelain collection in his London home. When American artist James McNeill Whistler redecorated the room in 1876 as a "harmony in blue and gold," he too was inspired by the delicate patterns and vivid colors of the pots. Their slick surfaces did not appeal to Freer, however, who favored complex surface texture and subtly toned glazes. When Freer purchased the Peacock Room in 1904 and moved it from London to Detroit, he filled the shelves with pots he had collected from countries as diverse as Egypt, Iran, Japan, China, and Korea. Freer's ceramics are absorbing individually and as part of the full installation, which he thoughtfully designed to form a harmonized whole. After Freer's death (1854-1919), the Peacock Room was installed in the Freer Gallery of Art and is on permanent display.

Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes

Indefinitely
Galleries 18 & 19

More than 100 of the Freer's jades and bronzes -- among the greatest treasures of Chinese art outside China -- return to public view after almost a decade. Featured are 80 astounding objects illustrating the remarkable jade production of the Liangzhu culture (ca. 3300-2250 BCE) and its influence on other Chinese Neolithic and Bronze Age civilizations. Also highlighted are powerful animal motifs and forms featured on some 40 ritual vessels, as well as fittings from the late Shang dynasty (ca. 1300-1050 BCE) to the early Western Zhou dynasty (ca. 1050-900 BCE).

Arts of the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas

Indefinitely
Galleries 1 & 2

This long-term rotating exhibition showcases the extraordinary range of South Asian and Himalayan art, including sublimely beautiful Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, and Islamic objects, as well as masterpieces of Mughal and Rajput paintings and lavishly decorated court arts and daggers made for the Mughal emperors. Divided into several sections, the Buddhist art charts the emergence of the Buddha image in India and its transmission throughout Asia. It includes Budhhist images from Nepal, Tibet, Southeast Asia, and China. Also on view are several Rajput paintings on the theme of love, which demonstrate the bold colors and rhythmic compositions of the Hindu court. Late 19th- to early 20th-century examples of exquisitely crafted gold jewelry complete the exhibition.

The Religious Art of Japan

Indefinitely
Gallery 8

Works from the Freer's collection of Japanese religious art are exhibited in several thematic rotations. Buddhist iconography was first introduced to Japan from the Asian mainland in the 6th century. The complex belief systems and sacred cosmologies of diverse Buddhist sects have since continued to find expression in 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. A group of masks used in temple dance rituals and a selection of paintings created by monk artists for Zen Buddhist temples are also on display.

Entrance Sculptures

Permanent

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

Permanent
Outdoors near Jefferson Drive entrance

Twisted Form (Traveler's Guardian Spirit), 1981, an Agi stone and Peruvian granite sculpture by Shiro Hayami.

Arts of the Islamic World

Indefinitely
Galleries 3 & 4

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 century to the 17th century. 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.

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:

Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads

Now - February 24, 2013
Outdoors on the Plaza

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s monumental outdoor installation showcases twelve 10-foot-tall bronze animal heads representing the signs of the Chinese zodiac. Placed around the perimeter of the fountain in the museum’s central plaza, these sculptures are re-envisioned and enlarged versions of the original 18th-century heads that were designed during the Qing dynasty for the fountain-clock of the Yuanming Yuan (Garden of Perfect Brightness), an imperial retreat outside Beijing, which were pillaged in 1860 by invading Europeans. This installation complements Perspectives: Ai Weiwei (May 12, 2012-April 7, 2013) at the Sackler Gallery of Art and Ai Weiwei: According to What? (October 4, 2012-February 24, 2013) at the Hirshhorn Museum. 

Related catalogue: $20 paper; $49.95 cloth

Doug Aitken: Song 1

Now - May 20, 2012
Museum's exterior facade in the evenings from sunset to midnight (rain or shine)

Internationally renowned artist Doug Aitken (American, b. 1968) transforms the Hirshhorn's iconic circular building into "liquid architecture" using approximately 11 high-definition projectors. This site-specific installation seamlessly blends imagery to envelop the entire facade of the Gordon Bunshaft-designed structure with a 360-degree panorama that makes the museum recede into cinematic space. Exploding film conventions, the work cannot be seen from any single perspective or at any single moment in time. Structured around the song "I Only Have Eyes for You," the 35-minute video loops continously.

Note: The usual viewing areas for this exhibition will be ticketed areas for an evening event on Friday, May 11. Visitors will still be able to view this exhibition from afar.

Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space

Now - August 12, 2012
Level 2

The focus of this exhibition is to explain the international light-and-space art movement of the mid- and late 20th century. The exhibition consists of large-scale installations by five artists from South America who created landmark works in the 1950s and 1960s:

• Lucio Fontana (1899 Argentina - 1968 Italy): Neon Structure for the IX Triennale of Milan
• Julio Le Parc (1928 Argentina - active France): Light in Movement
• Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923 Venezuela - active France): Chromosaturation
• Jesús Rafael Soto (1923 Venezuela - 2005 France): Blue Penetrable BBL
• Hélio Oiticica (Brazilian, 1937-1980), collaborated with Neville D'Almedia (Brazilian): Cosmococa No. 1: Trashiscapes

By developing large-scale, multimedia constructions of light and color, these Latin Americans engaged viewers more actively in a physical process of exploring the possibilities of visual and spatial perceptions. Although Fontana, Le Parc, Cruz-Diez, Soto, and Oiticica exerted considerable influence on their contemporaries and on subsequent generations, their works have often been overlooked in publications and exhibitions. Suprasensorial underscores their innovative contributions and acknowledges their seminal role in the ongoing, global light-and-space tradition. The five installations -- which have heretofore been known only to a small number of people -- create enveloping optical effects that overwhelm and transform sensory experience.

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:

Fly Marines! The Centennial of Marine Corps Aviation: 1912-2012

Now - January 6, 2013
Gallery 211 (Flight in the Arts), 2nd Floor, East Wing

Artworks and artifacts are on view to tell the story of the United States Marine Corps aviation over the past 100 years. Artworks include oils, watercolors, drawings, and poster art from such artists as Paul Arlt, Colonel H. Avery Chenoweth, Keith McConnell, R.G. Smith, and contemporary combat artists. Artifacts may include patches, uniforms, and other small objects. 

AirCraft: The Jet as Art

Now - November 25, 2012
Gallery 104, 1st Floor, West End

This collection of 33 photographic archival-pigment prints by photographer, graphic designer, and architect Jeffery Milstein reveal the power and elegance of aircraft in flight and transform aviation technology into fine art. Standing at the end of a runway, Milstein captures images of aircraft just moments before they land, photographing them from below as they streak past at speeds up to 175 miles per hour. He then distills the subject from the background to focus attention on design, color, and symmetry. Milstein’s supersized prints seem to pull viewers into the air, as though they are along for the ride.

U.S.S. Starship Enterprise Model

Indefinitely
Museum Store, Lower Level

This model of the starship Enterprise was used in the filming of the Star Trek TV show, which ran from 1966 to 1969. It is mostly made of poplar wood and vacu-formed plastic. Sheet metal tubes were used for the two engine housings or nacelles.

Space Race

Permanent
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.
• Fifty Years of Human Spaceflight examines how the Soviet Union and the United States raced to launch the first humans into space in 1961, during the Cold War. 
• Models of the Space Shuttle

How Things Fly

Permanent
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.

Voyage - A Journey Through Our Solar System

Permanent
Outdoors, south side of Jefferson Dr. between Air & Space Museum and 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 & 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 & Space, Hirshhorn, and Natural History museums

Moving Beyond Earth

Permanent
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 realistic, full-scale mockup of the space shuttle crew compartment (middeck), where astronauts lived and worked during shuttle missions (added March 2012)
• 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
  

America by Air

Permanent
Gallery 102, 1st Floor, West Wing

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 online activities.

Booklet: $5.95

Sea-Air Operations

Permanent
Gallery 203, 2nd Floor, West Wing

The focus of this gallery is overwater flight, including aircraft 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

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

Permanent
Gallery 206, 2nd Floor, West Wing

This gallery features the emergence of air power in World War I and reexamines the reality and  the romantic image of this war.

Highlights include:

• Voisin VIII: 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
• Pfalz D.XII: built to replace the outdated Albatros D.Va
• 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

Related books

Milestones of Flight

Permanent
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
• 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
• Viking Lander: an unmanned proof test capsule used in ground tests before and during the Viking flights to Mars in 1976
• 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
• Breitling Orbiter 3 Balloon Gondola: 1st balloon to fly around the world nonstop in 1999
• SpaceShipOne: 1st privately built and operated vehicle to reach space

Pioneers of Flight, Barron Hilton

Permanent
Gallery 208, 2nd Floor, Center

This renovated exhibition highlights the growth of aviation and rocketry during the 1920s and 30s and features famous "firsts" and record setters. It has been updated with new research and includes a broader selection of artifacts. The individuals featured were pioneering men and women who pushed the existing technological limits of flight and broke both physical and psychological barriers to flight. The exhibition features sections on "Military Aviation," "Civilian Aviation," "Black Wings," and "Rocket Pioneers." To engage children, the gallery features hands-on activities, as well as toys, books, and childhood memorabilia of the era in an area entitled "Don's Air Service."

Highlights include:

• Anne Lindbergh's telegraph key
• Jimmy Doolittle's "blind flight" instruments
• Tuskegee Airman Chauncey Spencer's flight suit
• the "Hoopskirt" rocket test stand
• Lindbergh memorabilia
• gifts received by the crew of the Douglas World Cruiser
• kiosk featuring archival film clips

Aircraft on view include:

• Wright EX Vin Fiz biplane: flown by Cal Rogers as the first pilot to make a transcontinental flight in fewer than 30 days, 1911
• Fokker T-2: first nonstop U.S. transcontinental flight, 1923
• Douglas World Cruiser Chicago: first around-the-world flight, 1924
• Lockheed 5B Vega: flown by Amelia Earhart in the first solo flight across the Atlantic by a woman, 1932
• Lockheed 8 Sirius: flown by the Lindberghs on airline-route mapping flights, 1930s (see Nov. 2006 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 42-43)
• Curtiss R3C-2 Racer
• The gondola from the Bud Light Spirit of Freedom, the first balloon to carry one person -- Steve Fossett -- nonstop around the world  
• 1/4-scale model of the Montgolfier balloon: 1st manned aerial vehicle, 1783

Related books are available for sale in the Museum Store.

Outdoor Sculptures: Air and Space Museum

Permanent
Near Jefferson Drive and Independence Avenue entrances

• Ad Astra sculpture by Richard Lippold, is located near the museum's entrance at Jefferson Drive.

• Continuum -- cast bronze sculpture (1976) by Charles O. Perry, is located at the museum's entrance at 6th and Independence Avenue.

• Delta Solar sculpture by Alejandro Otero, is located on the west side of the museum near 7th Street; it was a gift from the Venezuelan government.

Welcome Center

Permanent
Gallery 108, 1st Floor

The 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 featuring the following objects:
  - 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.

World War II Aviation

Permanent
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

Lunar Exploration Vehicles

Permanent
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.

Exploring the Planets

Permanent
Gallery 207, 2nd Floor, West Wing

This exhibition 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
• Mars Exploration Rover

Early Flight, The Samuel P. Langley Gallery of

Permanent
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
• Lilienthal glider: glider that inspired Wilbur and Orville Wright, 1894
• 1912 Curtiss Pusher
• 1914 Bleriot XI monoplane
• Ecker Flying Boat: 

Theater with video presentation

Jet Aviation

Permanent
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
• Lockheed XP-80 Shooting Star Lulu Belle: world's 1st operational carrier jet fighter
• McDonnell FH-1 Phantom

Also on view is a 25' by 70' mural of 27 jet aircraft by Keith Ferris. Theater with numerous brief film clips

Theater with numerous brief film clips 

Related books

Apollo to the Moon

Permanent
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
• Space suits worn by Apollo astronauts on the moon
• 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

The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age

Indefinitely
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 1903 Wright Flyer, displayed on the ground for the first time since the Smithsonian acquired it 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

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

Explore the Universe

Permanent
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)

The Golden Age of Flight

Permanent
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. The opening of this exhibition 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

Looking at Earth

Permanent
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

Voyager: Around the World without a Pit Stop

Permanent
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 December 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.

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:

James S. McDonnell Space Hangar

Permanent
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 four main themes: rocketry and missiles, human spaceflight, applications satellites, and space science. Highlights include:

• Space Shuttle Discovery, NASA's longest-serving orbiter, which flew 39 missions from 1984 through 2011 and spent 365 days in space
• 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
• 63-foot floor-to-ceiling Mercury-Redstone missile
• a flight-qualified spare of the Mariner 10 spacecraft, a backup for the unmanned space-mission craft launched in 1973 that picked up and relayed information about Venus and Mercury
• 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

Boeing Aviation Hangar

Permanent
Main Level

More than 160 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:

• Spirit of Tuskegee, a PT-13 Stearman biplane used to train Tuskegee Airmen during World War II,  went on view October 26, 2011; it is on loan from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
• Pathfinder Plus, a high-altitude, solar-powered, unmanned experimental aircraft, went on view early March 2007. 
• 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
• 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
• Arado AR 234 B-2 Blitz (Lightning), the world's first operational jet bomber and reconnaissance aircraft
• Artifacts of varying sizes (e.g., uniforms, equipment, aircraft models, etc.) on view in a number of glass-fronted cases
• Transformer toys and props from the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was filmed in part at the museum.

Japanese American Pioneers of the Jet Age

Indefinitely
Boeing Aviation Hangar

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.

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:

African Cosmos: Stellar Arts

June 20, 2012 - December 9, 2012
Sublevel 2

This first major exhibition of some 90 objects explores how the celestial bodies of the sun, moon, and stars and such celestial phenomena as rainbows and eclipses serve as sources of inspiration in the creation of African art, both traditional and contemporary. Far from abstract, African ideas about the universe are intensely personal and place human beings in relationships with the earth, sky, and celestial bodies.

Lalla Essaydi: Revisions

Now - February 24, 2013
Sublevel 1

Lalla Essaydi’s elegant, creative work belies it subversive, challenging nature. Approximately 30 works of diverse media are drawn from each of her photographic series, including the richly hued Silence of Thought and the more widely known Converging Territories and Les Femmes de Maroc. The is the first solo exhibition to bring together works of diverse media by Essaydi, which also includes a selection of new works, as well as rarely exhibited paintings and installations.

African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting

Indefinitely
Sublevel 1

Like a colorful mosaic made from a thousand pieces of brilliant glass, African Mosaic features 112 objects that represent 10 years of building a permanent collection and reflect the diversity and outstanding quality of Africa's arts. On view are a variety of objects from gold jewelry and wooden figures to a coffin in the shape of a cell phone.

The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection Highlights

TBA
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

Pavilion Sculptures

Indefinitely
Pavilion

Serving as a welcome center, the pavilion features several contemporary and traditional objects, which are often on a large scale and rotated on a regular basis,  to show a cross section of  African art.

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:

Pause and Play: A Pop-Up Gallery

Now - September 3, 2012
1st Floor, West Wing

See popular culture and math-related objects from the collections and enjoy hands-on activities. On view are entertainment artifacts from the 1950s and early 1960s, including a Superman costume; a Howdy Doody marionette; the Lone Ranger’s mask and silver bullet; puppets from Captain Kangaroo; and characters from Sam and Friends, the precursor to the Muppets, including the first Kermit the Frog. Music items on view include one of Patsy Cline’s costumes; fan magazines featuring Elvis, the Beatles, and Alvin and the Chipmunks; and 45-RPM records highlighting Little Richard, the Beach Boys, the Everly Brothers, and Brenda Lee.

A case at the gallery entrance features objects used to teach children arithmetic from the late 1890s to today. Objects include flash cards, early calculators, and other math games and toys.

Visitors can also draw their own comics on a “graffiti” wall, watch 1950s- and 1960s-era commercials, and play with toys from the same era, including Mr. Potato Head and Etch-A-Sketch.

American Stories

TBA
2nd Floor, East Wing

A chronological look at the people, inventions, issues, and events that shape the American story, this bilingual (English and Spanish) exhibition showcases more than 100 historic and cultural touchstones of American history from the museum’s vast holdings, supplemented by a few loans. A changing exhibition space features new acquisitions. Highlights include:

• a fragment of Plymouth rock 
• Benjamin Franklin's walking stick 
• Abraham Lincoln’s gold pocket watch
• a sunstone capital from the Mormon temple at Nauvoo, Illinois
• Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz 
• Bob Dylan's jacket 
• Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves
• Archie Bunker's chair
• Kermit the Frog

Download the related app for iPhone and Android devices.

New Acquisition: The BMI Archives Confederate Music Collection

Now - July 13, 2012
1st Floor, West Wing (outside the Archives Center)

On view are selections from a recently acquired collection of music published in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Sheet music lyrics and imagery are documentary sources that provide insight into the mindset, values, and beliefs of their creators and consumers. Many of the songs and sentiments involved were common on both sides of the conflict—a tragic reminder of the nature of civil war.

1939

TBA
3rd Floor, West Wing, near National Treasures of Popular Culture

This small exhibition reveals how Americans used entertainment to distract themselves during a turbulent year when the country was recovering from the Great Depression and World War II loomed -- 1939. Heroes, both real and imaginary, were made through radio and such films as The Wizard of Oz, and the New York World's Fair allowed visitors to experience a more hopeful "World of Tomorrow." Featured objects, including Joe Louis's boxing (sparring) gloves, and images from Life magazine demonstrate how entertainment and the arts were used to escape the despair and hopelessness of the era. 

Free flyer

Note: Dorothy's ruby slippers are on view in the new exhibition American Stories. The Scarecrow hat Ray Bolger wore in the film was installed in 1939 on Feb. 24, 2012.

Snowboarding

TBA
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

Snowboarding first appeared in the 1960s through the efforts of a few American surfing, skateboarding, and skiing enthusiasts. This History Highlight case examines the history of snowboarding and features the Snurfer, one of the earliest snowboard prototypes; a Backhill snowboard made by Burton; and objects from recent Olympians Shaun White and Hannah Teter.

You Must Remember This

Summer 2012 (TBA)
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

Coinciding with the grand opening of the museum's new Warner Bros. Theater, this display case features 20 feet of Hollywood memorabilia, including costumes worn by Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Clint Eastwood, along with Harry Potter’s robe. Also on view are such historical objects from Warner Bros. Studio as Jack Warner’s silver telephone and Bugs Bunny animation drawings.

(photo: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone © 2001 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R.)

Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty

TBA
African American History and Culture Gallery, 2nd Floor, East Wing (American History Museum)

This exhibition explores slavery and enslaved people in America through the lens of Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence and called slavery an—abominable crime,” yet he was a lifelong slaveholder. In an age inspired by the Declaration of Independence, slavery was pervasive—28% of the American population was enslaved in 1790. The exhibition provides a glimpse into the lives of six slave families—the Hemings, the Gillettes, the Herns, the Fossetts, the Grangers and the Hubbard brothers—living at Monticello and reveals how the paradox of slavery in Jefferson’s world is relevant for generations beyond Jefferson’s lifetime.

Museum objects, works of art, documents, and artifacts found through archaeological excavations at Monticello provide a look at enslaved people as individuals—with names, deep family and marital connections, values, achievements, religious faith, a thirst for literacy and education, and tenacity in the pursuit of freedom. The family stories are brought to the present via Monticello’s Getting Word oral history project, which interviewed 170 descendants of those who lived in slavery on Jefferson’s plantation.

Highlights include the following objects:

• The portable desk used by Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence
• Ceramic tableware and wine bottles from Shadwell, the tobacco plantation of Jefferson’s parents, one of four farms (Monticello, Tufton, and Lego were the others) that were part of Jefferson’s agricultural enterprise
• The headstone of Priscilla Hemmings (Sally’s sister-in-law and nursemaid to Jefferson’s grandchildren, ca. 1776–1830)
• Bill of sale for a “negro girl slave named Clary,” for 50 pounds
• Cast-iron cooking pot and kitchen utensils from Mulberry Row (the road encircling the Monticello house). Jefferson provided each family with weekly rations of cornmeal, pork or pickled beef and four salted fish, which had to be supplemented with the food that the enslaved families grew Personal items from slaves such as toothbrushes made with bone handles, combs, metal buttons and shoe and clothing buckles and jewelry

This exhibition is organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and presented in partnership with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello.

(image: Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1805)

The First Ladies

Indefinitely
Rose Gallery, 3rd Floor, Center, enter from American Presidency

Learn how first ladies have shaped the role of first lady as the role of women in society evolved. On view are more than two dozen gowns, including those worn by Michelle Obama, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, and Jacqueline Kennedy. Four cases provide in-depth looks at Dolley Madison, Mary Lincoln, Edith Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson and their contributions to their husband’s presidential administrations.

Jefferson's Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

Now - July 15, 2012
Albert Small Documents Gallery, 2nd Floor, East Wing

In 1820, Thomas Jefferson assembled a private text using excerpts from the Four Gospels of the New Testament in Greek, Latin, French, and English. His aim was to tell a chronological version of Jesus’ life, distilling his moral teachings and excluding those aspects which appeared to him “contrary to reason.” On view is Jefferson’s "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," which was recently conserved, together with two English editions of the New Testament that Jefferson used to clip passages and a copy of the 1904 U.S. Government Printing Office edition of the book. Visitors can explore each page of the bible at a special web kiosk and view short videos about the bible’s history and conservation.

Related book: The Jefferson Bible, Smithsonian Edition: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth by Thomas Jefferson, $35

AIDS Quilt Panel

February 2012 (TBA)
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

On view is a panel from the Names Project Foundation's AIDS Memorial Quilt honoring Roger Lyon. Lyon died of complications from AIDS in 1984, shortly after testifying before Congress to appeal for funding to combat the growing epidemic.

Toys from the Attic

Late January 2012 (TBA)
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

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.

Pictures for Everyone

TBA
2nd Floor, West Wing

Nineteenth-century Americans were keen observers of the world around them, and they eagerly sought to acquire all types of pictures. The introduction of photography and improvements in graphic production made printed images much more available for use in family albums, illustrated magazines and newspapers, and as posters for advertising. This exhibition features images (most are reproductions due to light restrictions) that explore how 19th-century audiences received and shared visual information that crossed many barriers, including those of race, class, and language. The display also features related items, including a sheet music printing plate, an illustrated newspaper, and a Kodak camera.

Jazz Treasures

TBA
Artifact Walls near Mall Entrance

To celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month in April, this case features Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet, Herbie Hancock's keyboard, Mongo Santamaría's conga drum, and Tony Bennet's oil painting of Ella Fitzgerald.

Two Key Smithsonian Figures: Leonard Carmichael and Frank Taylor

TBA
Artifact Walls near the Mall Entrance

Images and objects in this case reveal the role of two Smithsonian leaders who championed the creation of the National Museum of American History (originally known as the Museum of History and Technology): Leonard Carmichael (1898–1973), Smithsonian Secretary between 1953 and 1964, and Frank Taylor (1903–2007),  the Museum of History and Technology’s founding director from 1958 to 1968.

Fifty Years of Lasers

TBA
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

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.

Celluloid: The First Plastic

TBA
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

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.

The Mexican Revolution! American Legacy

TBA
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

Images, photographs, a timeline, and objects in this case reveal the role of the U.S. in the Mexican Revolution; the war's impact on the American political, social, and cultural landscape; and how the war precipitated a large migration of Mexicans to the United States.

COBOL

TBA
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

COBOL, or Common Business Orientated Language, was one of the first computer-programming languages to run successfully on different brands of computers; it was devised 50 years ago by a committee of programmers to combat the problem of each manufacturer using a different computer language. This display case features parts of two of the first computers -- built by different manufacturers -- to run COBOL, the actual printout from the first successful test of the language, and related documents.

Sweet & Sour

TBA
Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

This display case traces the evolution of Chinese food in the U.S. and provides a glimpse into the long history of Chinese immigration. If features images of the first Chinese laborers sharing ethnic meals while working in the mines and modern-day tourists dining at Chinese restaurants in Washington, D.C. 

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

mid-2012 (TBA; tentative)
2nd Floor, West Wing

This permanent exhibition explores the excitement and dynamism of American life during the 19th century through the experiences of three 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.

Invention Case: Jerome Lemelson: Toying with Invention

early 2012 (TBA; tentative)
3rd Floor, West Wing

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.

Note: This changing exhibition case complements the Lemelson Hall of Invention on the first floor. 

Artifact Walls: Constitution Ave. Entrance Corridor

Permanent
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, which are occasionally  rotated, are organized around the following themes, along with special themed cases:

• Arts
• Popular Culture
• Business, Work, and the Economy
• Home and Family
• Community
• Land and Natural Resources
• Peopling America
• Politics and Reform (temporarily off view through summer 2012)
• Science (temporarily off view through summer 2012) 
• Medicine
• Technology
• America's Role in the World

The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden

Permanent
Views into the Collection Gallery, 3rd Floor, Center Corridor

This exhibition of more than 900 objects related to the 43 men who have held the nation's highest office explores 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 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. To mark the centennial of Ronald Reagan's birth, two small cases featuring objects related to his campaign and inauguration were added on February 6, 2011.

Videos, including an introductory video welcoming visitors to the exhibition
Interactive Stations
Catalogue: $50 (cloth); $24.95 (paper)
Satellite Museum Store (new location west of exhibition entrance)

Note: The lap desk Thomas Jefferson used to draft the Declaration of Independence has been temporarily removed to be installed in Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty.

Invention Case: Hot Spot of Invention

early 2012 (TBA; tentative)
1st Floor, West Wing

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  labs at MIT helped transform Cambridge, Massachusetts, into a dynamic place of invention during this period in history.

Note: This Invention Case features rotating displays complementing the Lemelson Hall of Invention exhibit nearby on the first floor and its case on the third floor.

America on the Move

Permanent
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:

• Electrifying Cars (October 27, 2011-January 2012) explores the history of the electric car from the early 20th century to the present and showcases two cars—a 1904 Columbia electric runabout, the best-selling car in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, and a 1913 Ford Model T touring car, a gasoline car equipped with an early type of electric starter and electric headlights.
• "Jupiter," a steam-powered locomotive built in 1876 for the Santa Cruz Railroad
• 260-ton "1401" locomotive, which pulled President Franklin Roosevelt's funeral train on part of its journey to Washington, D.C.
• 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
• 1942 Harley-Davidson motorcycle
• 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) 

Musical Instruments Gallery

Permanent
3rd Floor, West Wing, North Gallery

The Musical Instruments Gallery 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.

Landmark Objects

Permanent
Main Corridors of each wing

Six large, iconic artifacts in the main corridor of each wing highlight the key themes of the exhibitions in that wing:

• The John Bull Locomotive identifies the transportation and technology wing of the museum (1st Floor, East Wing Corridor).
On view is the steam locomotive John Bull and a section of the first iron railroad bridge in America.The 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.

• The Vassar Telescope identifies thescience and innovation wing of the museum (1st Floor, West Wing Corridor).
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.

• The Greensboro Lunch Counter  identifies the American ideals wing of the museum (2nd Floor, East Wing Corridor).
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. See February 2010 Smithsonian magazine, pp. 28-29.

• The George Washington Sculpture identifies the American lives wing of the museum (2nd Floor, West Wing Corridor).
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.

• Civil War Draft Wheel (installed July 14, 2011) identifies the American wars and politics wing of the museum (3rd Floor, East Wing Corridor). This Civil War draft wheel demonstrates the beginning of conscription (military draft) in the United States; it functioned as part of a procedure to select men for military service. The names of men eligible for the draft were written on slips of paper and dropped into holes inside the wheel. An official pulled out names to fill the ranks of the Union army. (Replaces Clara Barton's Red Cross ambulance.)

• Disneyland's Dumbo the Flying Elephant identifies the entertainment, sports, and music wing of the museum (3rd Floor, West Wing Corridor).
On view is one of the elephants from the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride from the original Disneyland theme park in Los Angeles, California.

Taking America to Lunch

Permanent
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.

Outdoor Sculptures: Gwenfritz and Infinity

Permanent
Near Madison Dr. entrance (Mall entrance) and on 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).

Artifact Walls: Mall Entrance Corridor

Permanent
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

The Price of Freedom: Americans at War

Permanent
Armed Forces History Hall, 3rd Floor, East Wing

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)

Satellite Museum Store

Within These Walls...

Permanent
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 five 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.

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

Electricity: Lighting a Revolution

Permanent
Electricity Hall, 1st Floor, East Wing

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

Stories on Money

Indefinitely
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.

On the Water: Stories from Maritime America

Permanent
American Maritime Enterprise, 1st Floor, East Wing

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

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

Permanent
2nd Floor, Center

The nation's flag, which underwent an 8-year conservation period from 1998 to 2006, is today 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

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

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:

Titanoboa: Monster Snake

Now - January 6, 2013
Special Exhibit Gallery, 2nd Floor, Northeast Wing (Hall 23)

From deep underground in a Colombian coal mine, in a layer dating to 65 million years ago, scientists have uncovered remains of the largest snake in the world, Titanoboa cerrejonensis. Measuring 48 feet long and weighing in at 2,500 pounds, this massive predator could crush and devour a crocodile! Fossil plants and animals found at the site reveal the earliest known rain forest, teeming with life and dating to the Paleocene, the lost world that followed the demise of the dinosaurs. Featuring a full-scale model of Titanoboa and clips from a Smithsonian Channel documentary, the exhibition delves into the discovery, reconstruction, and implications of this enormous reptile.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Florida Museum of Natural History, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln; it is circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).

Nature's Best 2011 Photography Awards: Windland Smith Rice International Awards

Now - January 6, 2013
Special Exhibit Gallery, 2nd Floor, Northeast Wing (Hall 23)

On view are winners in various categories from the 2011 Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards, including the Grand Prize, Conservation Photographer of the Year, Youth Photographer of the Year, and selected Highly Honored images. The annual awards honor the best amateur and professional nature photographers from around the world.

X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out

Now - August 5, 2012
The Sant Ocean Hall Focus Gallery, 1st Floor, North Center

Striking x-radiographs of the museum's world-leading collection of fish specimens are used to explore how scientists understand evolutionary development by studying fish skeletons, fin spines, teeth, and other physical structures. Created using the latest digital x-ray technology, the images reveal delicate and exquisite details and tell these sea creatures’ unforgettable story. The exhibition is based on the work being done by the museum's scientists.

The Beautiful Time: Photography by Sammy Baloji

Now - January 6, 2013
African Voices Focus Gallery, 1st Floor, Northeast Wing

Congolese photographer and videographer Sammy Baloji explores the “beautiful time” when the labor of hardworking Congolese built a flourishing copper mining industry in what is now the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Following independence in the 1960s, this industry suffered greatly under mismanagement by corrupt governments. Baloji’s collages and photographs bring together images from the past and the present day to interrogate the meaning of memory.

The Evolving Universe

Now - July 7, 2013
Special Exhibits Gallery, 2nd Floor, Northwest Wing

Through full-color images from high-powered terrestrial and orbiting telescopes, take a mind-bending journey from present-day Earth to the far reaches of space and the distant past — back to the beginning of the universe. Explore how stars and galaxies — even the universe itself — change from birth to maturity to death, much like living things on Earth. Presented in collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine

October 2012 (TBA)
Geology, Gems, and Minerals, 2nd Floor, East Wing

During the autumn of 2010, the world watched as rescuers in Chile ferried 33 miners to safety after nearly two months trapped in a collapsed mine. One of the capsules used for testing the rescue shaft, new video footage, mementos from the miners, and rock samples from the mine re-create the scene of this dramatic event and reveal the complex rescue effort and the miners’ story.

More Than Meets the Eye

February 2012 (TBA)
Special Exhibit Gallery, 1st Floor, West Wing (near Mammals)

You can learn quite a bit about the world by simply observing your surroundings carefully. But scientists at the National Museum of Natural History rely on special tools, skills, and technologies to examine the world’s diversity of life and culture up close and in much greater detail. This photography exhibition features over 80 images to demonstrate how museum scientists use their super-powered vision to observe, document, and analyze the natural world and global cultures.

Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt

Indefinitely
2nd Floor, West Wing, near entrance to Written in Bone

Learn about Egyptian burial ritual; its place with ancient Egyptian cosmology; and the insights that mummies, burial rites, and cosmology provide about life in ancient Egypt. The exhibition focuses on Smithsonian science and what museum experts have learned about burial practices, health, disease, and demographics from studying mummies.

The following cases are on view:

• In the Mummy's Tomb is a re-creation of a tomb with a mummy and its coffin (ca. 150 BC to AD 50 ) and a variety of grave goods from various periods (ca. 3500 BC to AD 50). Such grave goods were intended to provide the deceased with the spiritual and physical support needed for smooth passage to eternity.
• Making a Mummy reveals the step-by-step process of mummification. Scientific studies indicate that the 2,200-year-old mummy on view ate little meat and that his lungs contain soot, which he probably inhaled while tending fires.
• What’s in a Face displays 6 mummy masks dating from ca. 1388 BC to AD 200 to trace the changing style of coffin decoration and to bring visitors face-to-face with the living people behind the mummies.
• Mummy Science reveals insights into burial practices, health, disease, and demography that can be gained from the study of mummies.
• Animal Mummies explains the link between animal mummification and the Egyptian belief system and features the museum’s two Apis bull mummies and mummies of cats, ibises, hawks, crocodiles, dogs, and a baboon.
• Tentkhonsu’s Coffin showcases the richly decorated inner coffin of Tentkhonsu, a member of a group of noble women who participated in temple services and festivals.
• Preparing for Eternal Life explores how living Egyptians tried to assure they and their families would have eternal life after death.
• The Gods and Eternal Life explores the roles of two prominent gods, Osiris and Re, in helping the dead achieve eternal life and in keeping the natural order of the world of the living.
• Insects in Ancient Egypt reveals that insects were an important part of preparing for the afterlife and became symbolic of the transition.

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

Permanent
2nd Floor, East Wing

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. On January 13, 2012, the Hope Diamond was returned 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 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. 

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.

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

Birds of the District of Columbia

Permanent
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.

Dinosaurs: Reptiles -- Masters of Land

Permanent
1st Floor, East Wing

All of the old favorites are on view in the exhibition hall:

• Diplodocus longus: The gigantic 90-foot-long Diplodocus longus is the centerpiece of the hall and was found in Utah in 1923.
• Tyrannosaurus  rex (T. rex): The "King of the Tyrant Lizards" is 40 feet long and still fearsome after 65 million years. This full-size cast is on loan indefinitely from Voyage Expanded Learning, Inc. The original specimen was 65% complete and was discovered in South Dakota.
• Triceratops: The museum's 65-million-year-old Triceratops is named "Hatcher" in honor of John Bell Hatcher, who discovered the original fossil in Wyoming in 1891. It is positioned in a face-off with its rival T. rex and placed with related species to reveal the evolution and diversity of the ceratopsian dinosaur group.

Other attractions include Quetzalcoatlus, a huge toothless pterosaur with a 40-foot wingspan, posed in flight; a nest of dinosaur eggs; and the meat-eatingAllosaurus  challenging the vegetable-eating Stegosaurus.

Local Discoveries: Case: Dinosaurs in Our Backyard (opened April 28, 2010): 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.

Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution

Permanent
2nd Floor, Southwest Wing, near Insect Zoo

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 hatch from pupae raised on farms in Africa, Asia, and North and South America.

Related books

Notes:

• To maintain an environment conducive for butterflies, the temperature inside the Pavilion is 80-85 degrees with high humidity.
• For operating hours, visit the Web
• For ticketing information, visit the Web
• Photography permitted
• Wheelchairs permitted in Pavilion, but no strollers allowed.

Insect Zoo, O. Orkin

Permanent
2nd Floor, West Wing

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

The Sant Ocean Hall

Permanent
1st Floor, North Center

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 1,000-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.
• Scarlet Knight: (added Dec. 9, 2010) The first robot to cross the Atlantic Ocean, this autonomous underwater glider traveled from New Jersey to Spain, collecting and transmitting data that will help scientists better understand how climate change is affecting the ocean.
• 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.

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

African Voices

Permanent
African Cultures Hall, 1st Floor, Northeast Wing

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 exhibitions (see separate listings). 

Freedom Theater (two 15-minute videos run continuously)

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

Permanent
1st Floor, Northwest Wing (Halls 11 & 12)

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

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

Related mobile app for iPhone and Android: MEanderthal

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.

Welcome to the National Museum of Natural History

Permanent
Ground Floor, Constitution Ave. Lobby

The museum welcomes visitors with display of the following objects from its collection:

• Easter Island Head: Also called a Moai, this ancestor sculpture is from Easter Island in the South Pacific (located on the southeast wall). 
• Totem Poles, Northwest Coast: The three Northwest Coast totem poles are from the Haida and Tsimshian tribes of British Columbia. The display includes an ongoing video about these tribes (located near the east stairwell of the lobby).
• Yap Money: This large stone disk or coin was used as money on the Yap islands in Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean (located on the ground floor near the entrance to the main Museum Store).

Outdoor Sculptures, including Sculptures from Nature

Permanent
Near Constitution Ave. and Madison Dr. entrances

Near Constitution Avenue entrance:
• Colossal Head: This replica of Olmec Colossal Head No.4 from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan in Veracruz, Mexico, was sculpted by Ignacio Perez Solano of Veracruz (installed Oct. 19, 2001).

Near Madison Drive entrance: 
• Sculpture 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).
• Sculptures from Nature: 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).
• Triceratops Head: This bronze statue is a replica of the head of the Triceratops on view in Dinosaurs Hall (installed July 19, 2001).

Early Life: Earliest Traces of Life

Indefinitely
1st Floor, East Wing, near Dinosaurs Hall

An overview of the origin and early evolution of life is presented. 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

Ice Age: Ice Age Mammals and the Emergence of Man

Permanent
1st Floor, East Wing

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.

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

Now - January 6, 2013
2nd Floor, Northwest

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

Korea Gallery

Permanent
2nd Floor, Center, North Corridor

To celebrate the country's distinctive art, culture, and 2,600-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

Mammals, Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of

Permanent
1st Floor, West Wing

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.

Related book: $75 (cloth)

Satellite Museum Store

Fossils Galore: A Grand Opening

Permanent
1st Floor, East Wing, Entrance to Dinosaurs Hall

Soft-bodied and hard-shelled animals, tall sponges, and algae offer a rare glimpse into the earliest explosion of animal life more than 500 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, fourth 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.

African Elephant

Permanent
Kenneth E. Behring Family Rotunda, 1st Floor & Balcony, 2nd Floor

The museum's 8-ton, 14-foot-tall African elephant is in a setting that re-creates the Angolan bush. The diorama also introduces 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.

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)

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:

Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics

TBA
Sealaska Gallery, 2nd Level

Get ready for the 2012 Olympics by learning about Native American athletes who have provided some of the most dramatic moments in Olympic history. Special attention is given to the 1912 Games in Stockholm, Sweden, whose centenary we celebrate, and in which Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox) won both the pentathlon and the decathlon (a feat not since accomplished); Duke Kahanamoku (Native Hawaiian) won the 100-meter freestyle; Andrew Sockalexis (Penobscot) placed fourth in the marathon; and Lewis Tewanima (Hopi) won the silver medal and set an American record for the 10,000 meters that stood for more than 50 years, until another American Indian, Billy Mills (Oglala Lakota), won gold in Tokyo in 1964.

Indoor Sculptures: Tsimshian Totem Pole and Sacred Rain Arrow

Indefinitely
1st Level, Potomac Atrium, and 3rd Level, near Our Lives

• Sacred Rain Arrow (1988, 94" x 58"): Allan Houser's (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache) 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. Third Level, near entrance to Our Lives.
• Tsimshian Totem Pole (2012): David Boxley’s (Tsimshian) 22-foot-tall cedar totem pole depicts the legend of Eagle and Young Chief: A young boy frees an eagle from a fishing net. Years later, after the boy has become chief, the eagle returns the favor by providing fish when the chief’s village faces starvation. First Level, Potomac Atrium (installed January 14, 2012; Permanent)

A Song for the Horse Nation

Now - January 7, 2013
W. Richard West Jr. Contemporary Arts/3M Gallery, 3rd Level

This exhibition presents the epic story of the horse's influence on American Indian tribes from the 1600s to the present. It features 112 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 are a Hunkpapa Lakota winter count by Long Soldier (c. 1902) that depicts the horse's first appearance in the community; a 16-foot-tall, hand-painted, 19th-century Sioux tipi depicting battle and horse-raiding scenes; a life-size mannequin of a horse in fully beaded regalia; and Geronimo's and Chief Joseph's rifles.

Based on the museum's publication A Song for the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Cultures, edited by George P. Horse Capture and Emil Her Many Horses (2006): $14.95

Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of Chesapeake

Permanent
2nd level

Through photographs, maps, ceremonial and everyday objects, and interactives, this small display provides an overview of the history of the Native peoples of the Chesapeake Bay region (what is now Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) from the 1600s to the present day. The Native people of this region include the Nanticoke, Powhatan, and Piscataway tribes.

Outdoor Sculptures

Indefinitely
Near entrances

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

Free brochure

Orientation Exhibition Cases

Indefinitely
Potomac Atrium, 1st Level, South Wall

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

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:

IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas

Now - August 31, 2012
Photo Corridor Gallery

Twenty banners with compelling text and powerful graphics reveal the cultural integration and diffusion of African American and American Indian people, especially those of blended heritage. This exhibition also sheds light on the dynamics of race, community, culture, and creativity and addresses the human desire to belong. Organized by the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. Related publication $19.95 (paper)

Time Exposures: Picturing a History of Isleta Pueblo in the 19th Century

Now - June 10, 2012
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House

With more than 80 images and objects that detail life on the Isleta Pueblo Reservation, this exhibition reveals the rapid changes forced on the Native American people of the American Southwest after the arrival of the railroads in 1881. The railroad companies forcibly took land in the center of Isleta Pueblo in the Rio Grande Valley and the rail lines they built brought scores of tourists and other visitors. Included are images by photographers Edward Curtis, A.C. Vroman, Karl Moon, John Hillers, Charles Lummis, Carlos Vierra, Sumner Matteson, Albert Sweeney, Josef Imhof, and Ben Wittick.

The exhibition is divided into the following three sections:

• The first section details the cycle of the Isleta traditional year as it was observed in the mid-19th century.
• The second section describes the arrival of the Americans and how this disrupted the Isleta way of living.
• The third section examines the photos themselves as products of an outside culture and questions their portrayal of the Isleta people and their ways.

Organized by the people of Isleta Pueblo.

Small Spirits: Dolls from the National Museum of the American Indian

Now - July 19, 2012
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House

On view are more than 90 dolls from Native cultures throughout the Western Hemisphere, most from the 19th century through the present day, that reflect different communities and traditions of Native people.

Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian

Now - October 25, 2020
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House

This new permanent exhibition of some 700 works of Native art from throughout North, Central, and South America demonstrates the breadth of the museum's renowned collection and highlight the historic importance of many of these iconic objects.

Chosen to illustrate the geographic and chronological scope of the museum's collection, Infinity of Nations opens with a display of headdresses. Signifying the sovereignty of Native nations, these works include a magnificent Kayapo krok-krok-ti, a macaw-and-heron-feather ceremonial headdress.

Focal-point objects, representing each region, include an Apsaalooke (Crow) robe illustrated with warriors' exploits; a detailed Mayan limestone bas relief depicting a ball player; an elaborately beaded Inuit tuilli, or woman's inner parka, made for the mother of a newborn baby; a Mapuche kultrung, or hand drum, depicting the cosmos; a carved and painted chief's headdress, depicting a killer whale with a raven emerging from its back, created and worn by Willie Seaweed (Kwakwaka'wakw); an anthropomorphic Shipibo joni chomo, or water vessel from Peru; a Chumash basket decorated with a Spanish-coin motif; an ancient mortar from Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, N.M.; a gourd carved with a detailed picture of the Battle of Arica by Mariano Flores Kananga (Quechua); and an early Anishinaabe man's outfit complete with headdress, leggings, shirt, sash, and jewelry. The exhibition concludes with works by Native artists including Allan Houser (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache) and Rick Bartow (Mad River Wiyot).

• Related book: Infinity of Nations
• Related Blog
• Mobile app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad

National Portrait Gallery

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:

Ambrotypes from the National Portrait Gallery

May 25, 2012 - June 2, 2013
1st Floor, East Wing

In the mid-1850s American photographers, ranging from the celebrated Mathew Brady to the little-known itinerant L.W.F. Mark, embraced a new photographic medium known as the ambrotype. Taking its name from the Greek word ambrotos (meaning immortal or imperishable), an ambrotype was created when an underexposed collodion negative on glass was made to appear as a positive image by placing it against a dark backing. Drawn exclusively from the museum's collection, this exhibition includes ambrotypes of abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Anna Dickinson, as well as West Point classmates George Armstrong Custer and John Pelham, who later served as generals for opposing sides of the Civil War.

A Will of Their Own: Judith Sargent Murray and Women of Achievement in the Early Republic

Now - September 2, 2013
1st Floor, alcove

Judith Murray (c. 1769) by John Singleton Copley and seven additional portraits of prominent American women from the late 18th century are on view to showcase both the important achievements of women during this period and the early efforts to gain gender equality in America. Judith Murray is on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art (TFAA),

In Vibrant Color: Vintage Celebrity Portraits from the Harry Warnecke Studio

Now - September 9, 2012

Well before color reproductions and color snapshots became commonplace, pioneering photographer Harry Warnecke (1903–1984) and his associates at the New York Daily News created brilliant, eye-popping color portraits for the newspaper’s Sunday News magazine. Employing a special one-shot camera of his own design, Warnecke began producing color images for the Daily News in the 1930s by utilizing the technically demanding tricolor carbro process—the first practical method for color photography. Over the next three decades, Warnecke and his team photographed hundreds of people, from popular film stars and athletes to military leaders and government officials. Drawing from the museum’s collection of large-format, tricolor carbro photographs by the Warnecke Studio, this exhibition features 24 celebrity portraits from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, including Lucille Ball, Jackie Robinson, Babe Didrikson, Gene Autry, Ethel Waters, Generals Eisenhower and Patton, and comedians W. C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy.

Mathew Brady�s Photographs of Union Generals

Now - May 31, 2015
1st Floor, North

Although Mathew Brady may be best known for his photographic documentation of the Civil War, his New York and Washington galleries also did a brisk business throughout the conflict by producing studio portraits of the ever-changing roster of Union army generals. Featuring modern albumen prints made from the original Brady negatives in the museum's Frederick Hill Meserve Collection, this installation includes portraits of many of the North’s military leaders, from George McClellan and Ambrose Burnside to William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses Grant.

The Confederate Sketches of Adalbert Volck

Now - January 21, 2013
1st Floor, East

Having come to the United States in 1848 after Germany's failed revolution, Adalbert J. Volck settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Unusual for the politically liberal German émigrés, Volck sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. A dentist by trade, his sympathies were with the southern cause. He produced pictorial propaganda that vilified President Abraham Lincoln, abolitionists, and Union soldiers in his publication Sketches from the Civil War in North America. On view are many of his original etchings and lithographs, as well as a copper plate used to print one of the images in the publication.

Portrait of Alice Waters

TBA
1st Floor, North (near Recent Acquisitions)

A photographic portrait of chef Alice Waters, founder of the restaurant Chez Panisse and the Edible Schoolyard and champion of the Slow Food Movement, is on view. The portrait was commissioned by the museum from Dave Woody, winner of the 2009 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

Juliette Gordon Low and the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts

May 2013
2nd Floor, South Rotunda

The iconic painting of Juliet Gordon Low, a patent award, a membership pin, and photographs of Low when she commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Girl Scouts are on view. Low founded the American Girl Guides on March 12, 1912; renamed Girl Scouts of the USA in 1913, the organization celebrates its centennial in 2012. Eighteen girls registered in the first American Girl Guide troop; now, one 100 years later, there are 3.3 million members, making the Girl Scouts the largest educational organization for girls in the world.

Recent Acquisitions

Now - November 4, 2012
1st Floor, North

On view are approximately 40 new works of art acquired by the museum from 2007 to 2011, including caricatures of Beverly Sills and Earl “Fatha” Hines by Al Hirschfeld, photographs of former first ladies Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush by Diana Walker, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by Chuck Close, and poet Sadakichi Hartmann by Zaida Ben-Yusuf, as well as a pewter sculpture of choreographer Martha Clarke by Philip Grausman.

Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter

Now - October 14, 2012
1st Floor, South

Through the work of seven artists from across the country, this exhibition offers provocative artistic responses to the Asian experience in America and the meaning of being Asian American. The artists' visual stories offer representations against and beyond the stereotypes that have long obscured the complexity of being Asian in America. Their approaches to identity and portraiture elicit mixed feelings of ambivalence, individuality, nostalgia, pride, and pain. The disparate threads of race, ethnicity, gender, diaspora, hybridity, and transnationalism are laid bare in these rich and exciting portraits of encounter. Presented in collaboration with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.

The following artists are represented:

• CYJO (Cindy Hwang), New York
• Hye Yeon Nam, Atlanta and New York
• Shizu Saldamando, Los Angeles
• Roger Shimomura, Lawrence, Kansas
• Satomi Shirai, New York
• Tam Tran, Memphis, Tennessee
• Zhang Chun Hong, Lawrence, Kansas

Bravo! and Champions

Permanent Exhibit
3rd Floor, South, Mezzanines

Two exhibitions feature particular themes in American life:

• 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.

One Life: Ronald Reagan

Now - May 28, 2012
1st Floor, East

The One Life gallery within the museum is devoted to the exploration of the life of one individual.

The Portrait Gallery observes the centennial of the 40th president’s birthday with a one-room exhibition chronicling Ronald Reagan’s early years in Illinois through his acting and political career, to his presidency from 1981-1989. Andy Warhol's 1985 portrait of Reagan, mixing personality, politics, and public image, is featured.

The Struggle for Justice

Permanent
2nd Floor, West

This 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, Martin Luther King Jr., and Andrew Young; 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 César Chávez; gay and lesbian rights leaders; Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver; and Japanese American activist Fred T. Korematsu.

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.

Renovating a Landmark: From Patent Office to Reynolds Center

Permanent
Historic Fabric Room, 1st Floor, 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)

Note: This National Historic Landmark building was formerly the Patent Office Building.

Jo Davidson: Biographer in Bronze

Permanent
2nd Floor, North

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.

Twentieth-Century Americans

Permanent
3rd Floor, South

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 -- Jane Addams, Douglas MacArthur, Robert F. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Michael Jackson, among others -- tell the story of America's 20th century.

American Origins, 1600-1900

Permanent
1st Floor, West

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.

America's Presidents

Permanent
2nd Floor, South

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.

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:

Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic

Now - January 6, 2014
Lower Level

As the largest, fastest, and most glamorous ships of their eras, the Hindenburg and the Titanic share many similarities. The human tragedy associated with each stunned the world . . . a shock that affects people to this day. Both offered travelers elegant accommodations, and both provided postal services. In each era, the public trusted modern technology to provide safety and speed. And as anniversaries of the disasters are marked in 2012—75 years since Hindenburg burned and 100 since Titanic sank—many questions remain unanswered. Featured are more than 50 objects, including a rare piece of mail sent from the Titanic, keys from the Titanic post office, and burned mail and the salvaged postmark device from the wreckage of the Hindenburg.

Systems at Work

Permanent
Lower Level

You drop a letter in a mailbox and then what happens? You receive mail at home or the office! But how does it get there? Find out in this exhibition that re-creates the paths of letters, magazines, parcels, and other mail as they travelled from sender to recipient over the last 200 years.

Mail Call

Permanent
Lower Level

Soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen anxiously awaiting mail delivery is a familiar scene from movies, newsreels, and documentary photographs. Mail call is the moment when the frontline and home front connect. This exhibition tells the history of military mail from the American Revolution to 2010: How does this mail reach its destination? What roles does it play? Why does it influence morale? The exhibition explores the great lengths taken to set up and operate postal services under extraordinary circumstances. It also features letters that reveal the expressions, emotions, and events of the time. On the battlefront and at home, mail provides a vital communication link between military service personnel, their communities, and their loved ones.

Amelia Earhart's Personal Collection

Permanent
Philatelic Gallery, Lower Level, Southwest

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.

Moving the Mail

Permanent
Lower Level

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.

Alphabetilately: An Alphabet of Philately

Spring 2012 (TBA)
Jeanette Cantrell Rudy Gallery, Lower Level

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.

Binding the Nation

Permanent
Lower Level

This gallery provides an overview of mail service 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: http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/museum/1a_BindingTheNation_video.html

Postal Inspectors: The Silent Service

Indefinitely
Binding the Nation, Lower Level, North

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

Pony Express: Romance vs. Reality

Permanent
Binding the Nation, Lower Level

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.

Philatelic Gallery

Permanent
U.S. & International Stamp Galleries, Lower Level

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

Customers and Communities

Permanent
Lower Level

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 beginning of the 20th 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.

Abraham Lincoln Certified Plate Proofs

Summer 2012 (TBA)
Philatelic Gallery, Lower Level

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.

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:

Invertebrates

Permanent
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. This exhibition is home to such invertebrate species as sea stars; spiny lobsters; sea anemones; corals; insects; spiders, including tarantulas; mollusks; and giant Pacific octopuses named Octavius and Pandora.

• Blue Crab and the Chesapeake Bay
This section higlights the biology and ecology  of the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), focusing on its life cycles and its environment in the Chesapeake Bay. Topics discussed include how blue crabs take advantage of a diversity of habitats in the Bay during different stages of their life cycles, how crab populations reflect the overall health of the Bay -- crab populations decrease as pollution levels increase; and how our everyday actions affect the blue crab and the entire Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

Jessie Cohen: An Eye for Animals

Now - December 31, 2012
Jessie Cohen Photography Gallery (Visitor Center, Connecticut Ave. entrance)

This exhibition features the photography of long-time Zoo photographer Jessie Cohen and inaugurates the Jessie Cohen Photography Gallery in the Zoo's Visitor Center. Her stunning animal portraits have graced the pages of the Washington Post, numerous books, and other publications, as well as exhibitions throughout the Zoo.

Think Tank

Permanent
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. Beginning April 15, 2011, play tug-of-war with an orang utan or watch the orangs turn a shower on themselves...or on visitors!

Also beginning April 15, 2011, learn about rats up close at a new exhibition inside Think Tank. Watch them run mazes and learn about their amazing biology and behavior.

Amazonia

Permanent
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. This living tropical forest features more than 350 species of plants, including 50-foot-tall trees, tropical vines, and epiphytes. It is also home to dozens of species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects typical of the Amazon Basin. Giant Amazon fish are a special feature.

• Amazonia Science Gallery
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.

New Animals at the Zoo

Permanent

Visit some of the newest members of the Zoo family:

• Two Guam rail chicks hatched March 3 and 4, 2012. Guam rails are extremely rare, and the chicks bring the total population of the small, flightless birds to 162.
• A male kiwi chick hatched March 7, 2012. The National Zoo was the first zoo to hatch a kiwi outside of New Zealand in 1975.
• A rhea chick hatched March 8, 2012. Male rheas build the nest, incubate the eggs, and raise the chicks after they hatch. The bird originally comes from South America and can grow to be over five feet tall.
• A wattled crane chick hatched March 16, 2012. In stark contrast to their white-plumaged parents, wattled crane chicks sport yellow downy feathers and very small wattles—flaps of skin that prominently hang beneath the beak of adult birds.
• A black howler monkey was born on March 22, 2012, at the Small Mammal House. It is the first surviving howler monkey in the Zoo’s history of exhibiting the animal.
• Sunbittern chicks hatched March 28, 2012. A long-billed bird, the sunbittern has a thin neck and patterned feathers. When threatened, it spreads its wings to display numerous eyespots. With its tail lifted as well, its feathers form a semicircle.

Giant Panda Habitat, David M. Rubenstein Family

Permanent

Giant pandas 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.

Features included in the 2006 renovation/expansion:

• An expanded outdoor area, 4 yards, and 4 dens.
• Conservation Plaza provides information on ongoing efforts to save the pandas and their habitats; it features a large-scale topographic map and interactive touch-screen kiosks.
• Experience Zone includes some of the features of the panda yard, including cooling rocks, a panda grotto, and foggers to mimic the environment in their native habitat.
• Research Center (in the indoor exhibit area) provides information on panda research at the zoo and the panda's life cycle and biology.

Notes:

• A new Giant Panda Cooperative Research and Breeding Agreement was signed in January 2011, extending the Zoo’s giant panda program for five more years.
• The pandas may be resting indoors during warm-weather months.

Kids' Farm

Permanent
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.

Great Cats: Lions and Tigers

Permanent
Lion & Tiger Hill and surrounding area

See living, breathing, roaring Sumatran tigers and African lions and learn more about these endangered animals. Here, great cats lounge in the shade under towering scarlet and red oaks and Himalayan pines, hide in the scattered bamboo thickets, rest in the shelter of dens built into the terraced hills, and patrol their territorial boundaries along the edges of the ponds. 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.

Explore new graphics and interactives installed summer 2011:

• Graphics interpret aspects of lions’ and tigers’ behavior at the Zoo and in the wild.
• Cat Scan allows visitors to see inside the great cats to learn more about their biology.
• Main Street shows how actions visitors take in their daily lives help conserve these endangered animals.

Outdoor Sculptures: The Gathering, Lions, and Uncle Beazley

Permanent
Near entrance and within the Zoo

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

• The Taft Bridge Lion Sculptures: 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: Uncle Beazley, the 25-foot-long fiberglass replica of a Triceratops, returned to view in a "dinosaur garden" near Lemur Islandon 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.

Asia Trail

Permanent

This exhibition features Asian animals already living at the Zoo -- sloth bears, fishing cats, Asian small-clawed otters, a Japanese giant salamander, and red pandas -- 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 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.

Lemur Island

Permanent
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 in the Indian Ocean 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.

Elephant Trails: Phase I

Permanent

As part of the Zoo's campaign to save Asian elephants, this expanded and transformed home for the Zoo's Asian elephants features a variety of habitats that support the natural behavior of the multi-generational herd.

Phase I includes the following new features:

• Two new outdoor yards, with almost two acres of varied terrain, shade structures, heaters, and a pool
• The Elephant Trek, a quarter-mile walking path to provide the elephants with exercise and foraging opportunities
• The Homer and Martha Gudelsky Elephant Outpost, an open courtyard featuring interactive exhibits that bring to life the challenges facing Asian elephants in the wild, a range map, three life-size "willow" elephant sculptures, and vistas for viewing the elephants in their outdoor habitats
• A new Elephant Barn with soft flooring, which replaces the old Elephant House as the primary living space for the Zoo's elephants Kandula (born in 2001), his mother Shanthi, and another female Ambika

Phase II is anticipated to open in 2013 (tentative) and will feature the Elephant Community Center (previously the Elephant House), a space where visitors can observe the elephants socialize throughout the year and learn how the Zoo's keepers, vets, scientists, and other animal care staff provide world-class care. When completed, the entire habitat will provide at least 4 acres of indoor and outdoor space and will have the capacity to accommodate a natural, matriarchal herd and individual bulls -- between 8 and 10 elephants and their young -- with suites for individual elephants. 

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:

Octagon Room

Permanent
2nd Floor, South

The Octagon Room is furnished with paintings from SAAM's collection, including impressionism and the Gilded Age period.

Grand Salon Installation: Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Permanent
Grand Salon, 2nd Floor

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

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:

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

Permanent
Concourse, Sublevel 3, 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 (TSA).

Posy Holders

Indefinitely
Concourse, Sublevel 3, 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

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:

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond

Now - September 3, 2012
1st Floor, West

Drawn from the museums' permament collection are 100 artworks -- paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs -- by 43 black artists who explored the African American experience from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil Rights era and beyond, decades that saw tremendous change in African American life. Included are paintings by Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, and Lois Mailou Jones, and photographs by Roy deCarava, Gordon Parks, Roland Freeman, and Marilyn Nance, More than half the artworks are on view at the museum for the first time, and 10 works are recent acquisitions.

Catalogue:$60 (cloth), $40 (paper)

The Art of Video Games

Now - September 30, 2012
Special Exhibition Galleries, 3rd Floor, North

Video games use images, actions, and player participation to tell stories and engage their audiences. In the same way as film, animation, and performance, they can be considered a compelling and influential form of narrative art. In this exhibition, the museum is the first to comprehensively examine the evolution of video games as an artistic medium. From the Atari VSC to the Playstation 3, this exhibition shows the development of visual effects and aesthetics since the 1970s, the emergence of games as a means for storytelling, the influence of world events and popular culture on game development, and the impact games can have on society. It includes multimedia presentations of video game footage, video interviews with developers and artists, large prints of in-game screen shots, historic video game consoles, and a selection of working video game systems for visitors to play. The public was asked to assist with the selection of materials for the show by choosing the 80 games that they feel best represent particular moments in the overall timeline. Voting for games to be included ended April 17, 2011; the winning games were announced May 5, 2011.

With Liberty: Folk Art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Permanent
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 (off view late January through June 2012).
• Selected objects from the Rosenak Collection of American Folk Art

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

Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage

Now - May 20, 2012
2nd Floor, South

Unlike Annie Leibovitz’s staged and carefully lit portraits made on assignment for magazines and advertising clients, the photographs on view were taken simply because Leibovitz was moved by the subject. They speak in a commonplace language to her curiosity about the world she inherited, spanning landscapes both dramatic and quiet, interiors of living rooms and bedrooms, and objects that are talismans of past lives. Although there are no people in them, the pictures are in a certain sense portraits of figures that have shaped Leibovitz’s distinctly American view of her cultural inheritance. Visiting the homes of such iconic figures as Thomas Jefferson, Emily Dickinson, and Elvis Presley, as well as such places as Niagara Falls, Walden Pond, the Gettysburg battlefield, and the Yosemite Valley, she let her instincts and intuitions guide her to related subjects—hence, the title Pilgrimage. The pictures show Leibovitz at the height of her powers, unfettered by the demands of her career and pondering how photographs, including her own, shape a narrative of history that informs the present.

Related publication Pilgrimage: $50

Inventing a Better Mousetrap: Patent Models from the Rothschild Collection

Now - November 3, 2013
Allan J. and Reda R. Riley Gallery, 2nd Floor, South

Thirty-two models illustrate the variety of 19th-century patented inventions submitted by inventors from across the United States. All of the models on view were originally displayed in large cases in the grand galleries on the third floor of the building, which originally housed the Patent Office. Nineteenth-century American patent law required the submission and public display of a model with each patent application; these scale models in miniature illustrate not only the imaginative fervor of the era but also the amazing craftsmanship required to fabricate these often intricate works of art.

The models are grouped by category, including domestic life, leisure, agriculture, and machinery; they are complemented by drawings, illustrations, a rare early patent signed by George Washington, and a full-scale model of a "better" mousetrap -- with questions about its advantages over more conventional mousetraps. The installation also includes a case of "mystery models," each accompanied by a clue, which allows visitors to guess their purpose.

Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image

Indefinitely
3rd Floor, North

In this rotating permanent gallery dedicated to the media arts, the museum takes stock of the cutting-edge tools and materials used by video artists during the past 50 years. This installation features key artworks from the history of video art and works by a new generation of artists on the cutting edge of new media art practices. 

The following works are on view:

• Peter Campus, Three Transitions (1973) and Barn at North Fork (2010)
• David Haxton, Painting Room Lights (1980)
• Joan Jonas, Vertical Roll (1972)
• Bruce Nauman, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968)
• Steina and Woody Vasulka, Reminiscence from Selected Works, I 
• Ernie Gehr, Surveillance (2010)
• Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, Swamp (1971)

American Art through 1940

Permanent
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 Frontier 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 (east wing).
•  "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)

Outdoor Sculptures: Modern Head and Vaquero

Indefinitely
Near entrances

• 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. It is on view outside at F & 9th Sts., NW.

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

Thomas Moran Landscapes

Permanent
2nd Floor, North

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.

Sculptures by Paul Manship

Indefinitely
1st Floor, North

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.

Lunder Conservation Center

Permanent
3rd Floor Mezzanine and 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 five different labs and studios examining, treating, and preserving art: Frames Studio, Paintings Studio, Paintings Lab, Paper Lab, and Objects Lab.

American Experience

Permanent
1st Floor, South

These introductory galleries feature 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, paintings by Edward Hopper, and 56  photographs from Lee Friedlander's series "The American Monument" (1963-2001) of  outdoor sculptures across the country.

David Beck's MVSEVM

Permanent
2nd Floor, South

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.

Related book: $16.95 (cloth)

Modern and Contemporary Art

Permanent
Lincoln Gallery, 3rd Floor, East

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)

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:

Smithsonian Exhibit on the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Now - May 20, 2012
Schermer Hall

Construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture begins in 2012 and will be completed in 2015. See porcelain and glass shards from the 18th and 19th centures found on the site, a model of the building, and artistic renderings of the interior spaces in several cases.

Bradley and Hubbard: Masters of Metal Work

mid-May 2012 (TBA)
Schermer Hall

On view in these cases are selected decorative metal objects from the Smithsonian Institution Castle Collection that trace the history of the Bradley and Hubbard Manufacturing Company of Meriden, Connecticut -- from its start in 1852, to its purchase by the Charles Parker Company in 1940, to its gradual decline as a result of metal production being diverted to World War II efforts. Bradley and Hubbard originally was known for producing clocks, particularly through the 1850s and 1860s, and later branched out to produce such decorative metal objects as fireplace tools, lamps and candlesticks, desk accessories, and smoking gear.

Smithsonian Information Center

Permanent
Great Hall

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).
• 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.

Smithson's Crypt

Permanent
1st 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 explains how Smithson's remains came to the United States in 1904 and the Smithsonian's plans to build a memorial to him. 

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

Permanent
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 panel display on the history of the west wing; for details, see the permanent display The West Wing: A Chronology.

• Great Hall: See Smithsonian Information Center.
• Smithson's Crypt: See separate listing.