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At the Smithsonian / Exhibitions

Christylez Bacon at the Opening Ceremony of the 2017 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Christylez Bacon on Finding His Voice through Music

The Grammy-nominated artist takes inspiration from weaving together seemingly disparate musical forms

Highly social, narwhals travel in pods, often broken off by sex, and communicate via complex vocalizations that seem to be specific to their herds.

Does the Narwhal’s Majestic Tusk Have a Point?

A Connecticut dentist, turned curator of a new exhibition, has long worked to solve the secrets of the whale’s characteristic horn

Dream Of Motherhood by Pitseolak Ashoona (Inuit), 1969

Three Generations of Inuit Women Defy Exploitation by Visualizing Resilience and Love

A grandmother, a mother and a daughter, all took up pen and ink to tell their stories

The Mars Rover Concept Vehicle was created as a traveling exhibit to inspire future space explorers.

A Vehicle Like This Will One Day Go to Mars

For now, the prototype rover—part tank, part Batmobile—is destined for Washington, D.C.

The anti-Chinese cap pistol carries the phrase “The Chinese Must Go” and shows a presumably white man kicking a Chinese man.

Artifacts Show the Sometimes-Violent Nature of American Democracy

From a KKK hood to an anti-Chinese pistol, a new exhibition shows America’s fraught history of deciding who to include in democracy

One of the Boys by Stacy L. Pearsall, 2007

Six Artists Record the Vestiges of War in the Faces of Combatants

A look at a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, “The Face of Battle: Americans at War, 9/11 to Now”

Shearith Torah

Why Religious Freedom and Diversity Flourished in Early America

Jam-packed exhibition features artifacts as diverse as Jefferson’s Bible, a steeple bell cast by Paul Revere and a storied Torah

Les choses de Paul Poiret (Paul Poiret's Things), 1911

Esperanza Spalding: Jazz Musician, Grammy Award Winner and Now Museum Curator

The title of her latest album “D + Evolution” is also the theme of a new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt

“Soccer is the one thing that’s very familiar to them," says Luma Mufleh, founder of Fugees Family. “It reminds them of home.”

How Soccer Is Changing the Lives of Child Refugees

Arrivals from war-torn countries find refuge at a Georgia academy founded by an immigrant

At the top of the Great Historical Clock, amid decorative flourishes,George Washington reviews his troops.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Towering 19th-Century Mechanical Clock Was the Smartwatch of Its Era

With hundreds of moving parts, the Great Historical Clock of America has been revived

On July 8, the Hirshhorn becomes a festival of sound with opportunities to listen to the solar system or use body temperature to compose melodies.

The Hirshhorn Transforms Into a One-Day Soundscape

For one day, the museum will add an interactive soundscape to the works of visual art on display

Horatio Greenough’s 12-ton marble statue of George Washington heralds the newly reopened west wing gallery.

Renovated Museum Wing Delves Into Untold Chapters of American History

“The Nation We Build Together” questions American ideals through exhibits on democracy, religion, diversity and more

Lining up at the Big Top for the 2017 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Step Right Up to the Big Top Circus Tent at the 50th Annual Folklife Festival

The day the circus rolled into Washington, D.C., and other tales from the Smithsonian’s hot summer party on the National Mall

Triple-Face Portrait by Sylvia Plath, c. 1950-1951

The Whimsical, Chameleon-Like Figure Behind the Myth of Sylvia Plath

Today, visions of a life marked by mental illness endure, but the author had a light side—and a knack for savvy image control

Marlene Dietrich by Paul Cwojdzinski on the SS Europa, 1933, Cherbourg, France, 1933

The Pioneering Androgyny of Classic Hollywood Star Marlene Dietrich

The film icon embraced bisexuality, glamorous mystique and provocation

Petitioning with your feet display

New Exhibition Asks “What Kind of Nation Do We Want to Be?”

The American History Museum opens a trio of timely new shows on democracy, religion and immigration

Abraham Lincoln by Mathew B. Brady, Feb. 27, 1860

How One Mathew Brady Photograph May Have Helped Elect Abraham Lincoln

Before chronicling the Civil War, the nation’s first photojournalist took these portraits

Nicolas Party at work on sunrise, sunset, 2017 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Muralist Nicolas Party Samples Great Artists of the Past Like a Visual DJ

The Hirshhorn’s installation, inspired by Barack Obama’s “sun will rise” promise of continuity, highlights fantasy landscapes, beauty of nature

In 2001, Smithsonian scientists Doug Owsley and Kari Bruwelheide traveled to the Grove in Glenview, Illinois, Robert Kennicott's boyhood home, to open the naturalist's casket and determine the cause of his death.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Two Smithsonian Scientists Retrace the Mysterious Circumstances of an 1866 Death and Change History

Did the 19th-century naturalist Robert Kennicott die of his own hand?

Piri Thomas by Máximo Colón, 1972

Why Piri Thomas’ Coming of Age Memoir Still Resonates Today

“Down These Mean Streets” was an instant classic, a text of painful truths

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