Smithsonian Museums

Our Smithsonian museums are justly famous. Collectively known as the "Smithsonian Institution," these 19 museums, nine research centers, and the National Zoological Park comprise the world's largest museum complex. Twenty-four million people visit the Smithsonians annually. The Smithsonian's collection of nearly 137 million objects spans the entire world and all of its history, its peoples and animals (past and present), and our attempts to probe into the future.

So vast is the collection that Smithsonian museums display only about 1% or 2% of the collection's holdings at any given time. Artifacts range from a 3.5-billion-year-old fossil to inaugural gowns worn by the first ladies. Thousands of scientific expeditions sponsored by the Smithsonian have pushed into remote frontiers in the deserts, mountains, polar regions, and jungles.

Individually, each museum is a powerhouse in its own field: The National Museum of Natural History is the most visited natural history museum in the world (seven million people visited in 2007, according to the latest figures available) and the most visited of the Smithsonians. The National Air and Space Museum maintains the world's largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the nation's first collection of American art and one of the largest in the world. And so on.

Washington lays claim to 17 Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo. (The other two museums, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian's George Gustav Heye Center, are in New York City.) Of these, 10 are on the Mall. The institution is planning to open at least one more Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, adjacent to the Washington Monument, bounded by Constitution Avenue NW, Madison Drive NW, and 14th and 15th streets NW; completion of the museum is a long way off.

The Smithson Behind the Smithsonian -- You must be wondering by now: How did the Smithsonian Institution come to be? It's rather an unlikely story. It's all because of the largesse of a wealthy English scientist named James Smithson (1765-1829), the illegitimate son of the duke of Northumberland. Smithson willed his vast fortune to the United States, to found "at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Smithson never explained why he left this handsome bequest to the United States, a country he had never visited. Speculation is that he felt the new nation, lacking established cultural institutions, most needed his funds.

Smithson died in Genoa, Italy, in 1829. Congress accepted his gift in 1836; 2 years later, half a million dollars' worth of gold sovereigns (a considerable sum in the 19th c.) arrived at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. For the next 8 years, Congress debated the best possible use for these funds. Finally, in 1846, James Polk signed an act into law establishing the Smithsonian Institution and authorizing a board to receive "all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens . . . for research and museum purposes." In 1855, the first Smithsonian building opened on the Mall, not as a museum, but as the home of the Smithsonian Institution. The red sandstone structure suffered a fire and several reconstructions over the years, to serve today as the Smithsonian Information Center, known by all as "the Castle."

Private donations have swelled Smithson's original legacy many times over. Although the Smithsonian acquires approximately 70% of its yearly budget from congressional allocations, the institution depends quite heavily on these moneys from private donors, especially since many of the museums are undergoing or in need of renovation. In a sign of the times, and due to the need of the Smithsonian for larger contributions, the institution has imposed an admission fee for the first time ever (for one museum's exhibit only): $6 to enter the Butterfly Pavilion at the National Museum of Natural History. General admission to the rest of the museum, and to all other Smithsonian museums, remains free.

To find out information about any of the Smithsonian museums, call tel. 202/633-1000 or TTY 633-5285. The information specialists who answer are very professional and always helpful. The Smithsonian museums also share a website, www.si.edu, which helps get you to their individual home pages.

Museum Exhibits Scheduled for 2009

The following listings, though hardly comprehensive, should give you an idea about 2009's upcoming or current shows at major Washington museums. Because schedules sometimes change, it's always a good idea to call ahead.

Anacostia Community Museum -- "Jubilee: African American Celebrations" (Dec 7, 2008-Oct 4, 2009). Images, traditional songs, and folklore tell the story of African-American holidays across the country.

Freer Gallery -- "Guests of the Hills: Travelers in Chinese Landscape Paintings," (Aug 23, 2008-Feb 22, 2009). An exhibit of paintings spanning 700 years, mid-11th to mid-18th centuries, depicting figures of recluses, recreational travelers, mountain sages, and retired gentlemen within landscapes.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden -- "Louise Bourgeois," (Feb 26-May 17). The first major survey since 1995 of this important international avant-garde artist includes sculptures, drawings, and paintings that use a wide array of images and materials.

National Gallery of Art -- "Looking In: Robert Frank's 'The Americans'" (Jan 18-Apr 26). Eighty-three photographs chronicle Frank's travels across the United States in 1955 and 1956.

National Museum of Natural History -- "Dig It! The Secrets of Soil" (Jul 19, 2008-Jan 3, 2010). Through dioramas, cultural artifacts, and interactive displays, the exhibit demonstrates the vital role that soil plays in human, agricultural, and environmental viability.

National Museum of the American Indian -- "Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian," (Nov 1, 2008-Aug 16, 2009). One hundred and thirty-five paintings and other works celebrate Scholder's contribution to American Indian culture and art history, focusing on his 1960s-to-1970s period.

National Museum of Women in the Arts -- "Beyond Tradition: The Pueblo Pottery of Tammy Garcia," (Aug 22, 2008-Feb 3, 2009). A select group of Garcia's most important pots are on display.

National Portrait Gallery -- "Women of Our Time, Twentieth Century Photographs," (Oct 10, 2008-Feb 1, 2009). Portraits of women who have challenged America, from Georgia O'Keeffe to Gloria Steinem. This is just one exhibit of many that the gallery has on the 2009 calendar.

Sackler Gallery -- "Taking Shape, Ceramics in Southeast Asia" (through 2010). On exhibit are 200 diverse and visually striking ceramic vessels from Southeast Asia, from the prehistoric period to the present.

Smithsonian American Art Museum -- "Graphic Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum," (Feb 27-Aug 30). Presents exceptional watercolors, pastels, and drawings dating from the 1860s to the 1990s of American masters from Winslow Homer to Wayne Thiebaud.