Current Exhibitions:

Abraham Lincoln Certified Plate Proofs
November 15, 2008-Summer 2012 (TBA)
National Postal Museum

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.
 

 

“Civil War,” The Price of Freedom: Americans at War

Permanent, Armed Forces History Hall
National Museum of American History
This exhibition surveys the history of America's military from the Colonial Era to the present, and includes a Civil War section. See the chairs that Civil War generals Lee and Grant used during the surrender ceremony at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. 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.

 

American Origins, 1600-1900

Permanent
National Portrait Gallery
Three of the galleries are devoted to the Civil War, examining this conflict in depth, and includes a group of modern photographic prints produced from Mathew Brady's original negatives. Highlights from the museum’s daguerreotype collection—the earliest practical form of photography—are also on view. The exhibit continues in 17 galleries and alcoves, and chronologically exams the nation’s history 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.

 

“Civil War”

Permanent
Smithsonian American Art Museum
This installation of Civil War prints, paintings and sculptures includes works by artists Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

 

Mail Call

Opens November 8, 2011
National Postal Museum
This exhibition, which includes letters dating to the Civil War, will address the emotional importance of mail to troops and their families during wartime and the logistics of delivering mail to troops at war.

 

The Confederate Sketches of Adalbert Volck

March 30, 2012-Jan. 21, 2013
National Portrait Gallery
Having come to the United States in 1848 in the wave of immigration from Germany after its failed revolution, Adalbert J. Volck settled in Baltimore. Unusual for the politically liberal German émigrés, Volck sided with the Confederacy. Volck, a dentist by trade, served the southern cause in several ways, including smuggling medical supplies to Virginia across the Potomac. However, Volck’s most significant contribution to the Confederate cause was his production of pictorial propaganda that vilified President Abraham Lincoln, northern abolitionists and Union soldiers. While his major publication, Sketches from the Civil War in North America, had a small circulation, the etchings reveal the Confederate mindset and contemporary southern opinion.

 

Mathew Brady’s Photographs of Union Generals

March 30, 2012- May 2015
National Portrait Gallery
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 National Portrait Gallery’s Frederick Hill Meserve Collection, this installation will include portraits of many of the North’s military leaders, from George McClellan and Ambrose Burnside to William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses Grant.

 

Upcoming Exhibitions:

“The Civil War and American Art”

11/16/2012 – 04/28/2013
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Some of the finest artwork produced during the Civil War and its aftermath will be used to explore the impact of this period in history on the visual arts in America. On view are works by such leading figures as Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, Hiram Powers, and John Rogers, along with photographs by Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan. The exhibition focuses on how artists addressed the metaphorical war—dealing allegorically or elliptically with the issues of internal warfare, the future of the union, abolition and race relations, and the post-war search for a new American identity. These artists created some of the most compelling landscapes and genre paintings of the mid-19th century, often containing layers of meaning beyond their war-related allusions.

 

William H. Gross Stamp Gallery
Early 2013-New Permanent
National Postal Museum

The new William H. Gross Gallery will house the three rarities from Gross and other great items from the National Stamp Collection. In addition, there will be space for educational exhibits, temporary exhibitions and public programs. This new gallery will include an exhibit on Civil War stamps and mail.

 

The African American Experience during the Civil War

Feb. 1, 2013-March 2, 2014
National Portrait Gallery
Drawing principally from images in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, this exhibition will explore the roles that individual African Americans played during the Civil War and will focus attention on the impact of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Among the featured stories will be those of Frederick Douglass, Martin Delaney, Sojourner Truth and Gordon, who escaped from enslavement on a Louisiana plantation to join a black regiment and fight for the Union.

 

Washington During the Civil War

March 1, 2013- Jan. 26, 2014
National Portrait Gallery
This exhibition will use photographic reproductions to show Civil War activities around the Patent Office Building—now home to the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum—as well as other recognizable locations in and around the District of Columbia. A display of the forts that surrounded and protected the District, as well as large-scale views and maps of the city will also be shown.

 

Grant and Lee

March 14, 2014- April 19, 2015
National Portrait Gallery
The Civil War rivalry between generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee is one of the most memorable in American military history. Lee was a polished and seemingly invincible Confederate commander until he encountered Grant, a rough-hewn upstart, in the Virginia campaigns of 1864 and 1865. Ultimately, the Union would prevail, in part with the adoption of a total war philosophy of destroying both armies and resources. This exhibition considers the personal lives and professional rivalries of Grant and Lee through paintings, photographs, documents and associative objects.

 

Alexander Gardner

Oct. 10, 2014-March 1, 2015
National Portrait Gallery
Feb. 5, 2015, marks the 150th anniversary of Alexander Gardner’s “cracked-plate” portrait of President Abraham Lincoln. Arguably the most iconic likeness of the 16th president today, it was created by a man whose life and photographic career remain relatively undocumented and underappreciated. This oversight is notable, as Gardner (1821–1882) was perhaps the most progressive photographer of the Civil War era. He was influential not only in advancing photographic portraiture beyond traditional compositional conventions, but also in realizing photography’s power as a documentary tool.  In his mind, photographs were more than static likenesses but were active images capable of conveying narrative and recording history. The author of the first American photographic book, a leading contributor of photographic views to the illustrated press and a dedicated abolitionist, Gardner was a pioneer in his field.

The Smithsonian Institution Presents: The Civil War 1861-1865

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Smithsonian Institution introduces a series of events and exhibitions.

Get Ready. Plan Your Visit »

Advertisement