Exhibitions

2012 Nature's Best Photography
Windland Smith Rice International Awards

Location: First Floor, Special Exhibits Gallery
Opens June 7, 2013

Celebrate nature through the art of photography that brings wildlife up close and personal! More than 20,000 images from photographers around the globe were judged in the annual competition to select these stunning portraits of animals, plants, ocean life, and landscapes. The collection of 48 award-winning, large-format prints combines art with science and technology to take you on a photographic journey from the wild to the walls of the Smithsonian.

Genome: Unlocking Life's Code

Location: Second Floor, Special Exhibits Gallery
Opens June 14, 2013

Inside every living thing on Earth—including you—is the complete set of instructions needed for an organism to grow and function.  The instructions are written in the twisting, ladder-shaped molecule known as DNA packed into the nucleus of almost all your cells. Scientists have identified thousands of genes that contribute to disease and begun to unlock the secrets of cancer, opening the way to more personalized healthcare. They’ve traced our ancestors’ migrations across the world and begun to sequence and compare all the species on our planet.

Portraits of Planet Ocean: The Photography of Brian Skerry

Location: Sant Ocean Hall, Focus Gallery
Opens Summer, 2013

Portraits of Planet Ocean Award-winning photojournalist Brian Skerry takes us on an underwater journey to explore the mystery and beauty of marine life and environments. His work has been featured in magazines such as Smithsonian, National Geographic, Audubon, People, and Sports Illustrated. Twenty captivating photographs celebrate the vitality and diversity of our resilient, though imperiled, ocean. Visitors are invited to submit their own ocean images. Select photos will be selected regularly for displayed in a section of the exhibit.

Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt

Location: Second Floor
Exhibit: November 17, 2011 - Indefinite

This exhibit focuses on Egyptian burial ritual, its place with ancient Egyptian cosmology, and the insights that mummies, burial ritual, and cosmology provide about life in ancient Egypt. Understand how burial practices and associated religious beliefs serve as windows into world cultures. We invite our visitors to explore the ways in which mummies, tombs, and Egyptian mythology open new windows into the lives of ancient Egyptians as they navigated through the world of the living to achieve eternal life after death.

The Evolving Universe

Location: Second Floor
October 21, 2011 – July 7, 2013

Take a mind-bending journey with us 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. Full color photographs capture the awe-inspiring beauty of the cosmos as seen through high-powered terrestrial and orbiting telescopes. This exhibition is a collaborative effort with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

The Hope Diamond

The Hope Diamond, is on display in The Harry Winston Gallery. To learn more, visit the Smithsonian Channel's website for the documentary, “Mystery of the Hope Diamond”.

The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins

Location: First Floor
Exhibit: Permanent

Based on decades of cutting-edge research by Smithsonian scientists, the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins will tell the epic story of human evolution and how humans evolved over six million years in response to a changing world. Following the process of scientific discovery, visitors will explore the evidence for human evolution, come face-to-face with unforgettable representations of early humans, and arrive at a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.

The Sant Ocean Hall

Location: First Floor
Exhibit: Permanent

A one-of-a-kind interpretive exhibit, extraordinary in scale, the Sant Ocean Hall presents the global ocean from a cross-disciplinary perspective, highlighting the biological, geological, and anthropological expertise and unparalleled scientific collections of the Museum, as well as ongoing research in marine science. The ocean is intrinsically connected to other global systems and to our daily lives. Artist rendering of the Sant Ocean Hall

Dig It! The Secrets of Soil

A new virtual exhibit that journeys into the skin of the earth and explores the amazing world of soil. This web site is a virtual exploration of the Dig It! traveling exhibition now on display at the National Museum of Natural History. Completely familiar yet largely unknown, soils help sustain virtually every form of life on Earth. Dig It! transports visitors to the world of fungi, bacteria, worms, and countless other organisms. The online exhibit includes educational activities and teacher resources.