Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

Happy Holidays from the SITES team!

Insects can sometimes be pests, but they also help us in many ways? Insects pollinate crops and flowers, disperse seeds, and decompose dead materials to recycle nutrients back into the environment.

Our "Habitat" traveling exhibition, created by Smithsonian Gardens explores diverse natural habitats and ways that we all can help to protect them! You can see and experience the exhibition now at Grand Traverse Conservation District and Hoard Historical Museum!


Photograph by James Gagliardi, Smithsonian Gardens

It’s ! These large-scale, high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface were taken between 2009 and 2015 by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter! They were featured in our “A New Moon Rises” traveling exhibition which toured from 2018-2021!

“The Bias Inside Us” puts implicit bias under a microscope to examine the science behind it, how it affects all of our lives in hidden ways, and how you can ! See it at the Science Museum of Minnesota
starting Saturday, December 17!

To create his iconic fire, James Baldwin crossed an ocean. His new vantage point allowed him to see and write about the pain that had made him who he was with a genius that would make him famous. From his debut novel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” to “Giovanni’s Room,” to the essays that brought him fame and eventually secured his place in a pantheon of great writers, Baldwin investigated, critiqued, deconstructed, and laid bare the disturbing realities of his home country.

Learn more about his incredible body of work in our "Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth." traveling exhibition now on view Levine Museum of the New South and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture.

On May 13, 1968, Ralph Abernathy, the Poor People’s Campaign chief organizer declared the National Mall a “City of Hope” as he hammered the first nail of construction. It was the beginning of what would be called Resurrection City, the site of a six-week, live-in protest community. Participants in the movement from across the country came together to demand equal rights, protections, and opportunities for the nation’s poor.

The two young men pictured here were among the demonstrators that helped to build the encampment and protest community on the National Mall.

Learn more about Resurrection City in “Solidarity Now: 1968 Poor People’s Campaign” on view now at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

The weekend is here! We’re open all weekend at 401 S. Tryon Street. Come and visit and experience the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service .

Weekend Hours: Fri 11 am - 5 pm
Sat 10 am - 5 pm
Sun 12 noon - 5 pm

Free admission to the Men of Change exhibition at Harvey B. Gantt Center and Levine Museum is made possible by the generous support from

⚾️Love baseball? Check out our free educational resource that explores how Latinx American communities across the United States have celebrated their communities, made a living, and challenged prejudice through baseball! s.si.edu/3uUBBQM

In her life as communicator, organizer, lobbyist, contract negotiator, teacher, and mother, Dolores Huerta’s unparalleled leadership skills helped dramatically improve the lives of farm workers. Explore her life and the legacy of her work in our “Dolores Huerta: Revolution in the Fields / Revolución en los Campos” traveling exhibition on view now at Santa Clara County Library District - SCCLD!

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the United States entered a war in Europe and the Pacific, the nation was overcome by shock, anger, and fear—a fear exaggerated by long-standing prejudice against Asians. In response, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order sent 75,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry and 45,000 Japanese nationals to incarceration centers.

The Japanese American community has led the nation to confront the injustice done to them during World War II. The 1988 Civil Liberties Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan, provided an apology and $20,000 to living Japanese Americans incarcerated during the War. Learn more in our “Righting A Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II” exhibition at the New Mexico History Museum through January 1, 2023.

When Victor Hugo Green created “The Negro Motorist Green Book” in 1936 it was more than a travel guide. It was a shield, empowering Black people to explore their world with more dignity than fear, more elegance than embarrassment. Take a deep dive into the Green Book in our traveling exhibition “The Negro Motorist Green Book” on view now at the Irving Archives and Museum!

Not able to make it? We’ve got you covered. Explore the Green Book in our online exhibition here: https://negromotoristgreenbook.si.edu/

More than 400,000 people at NASA devoted themselves to working through trials, tragedies and triumphs of 20 missions from 1961 to 1969 before . Our “Destination Moon: The Apollo 11” poster exhibition explores this epic 953,054-mile voyage to the Moon and back! Request your free copy here: s.si.edu/3Qs64Pz

Billie Holiday was an African American jazz vocalist who lived in an era in which society conspired to limit her agency and power. What she had was her intellect, her courage and her art—her wondrous voice—to challenge these norms and convey her messages.

Holiday is seen here walking with Bernie Weissman, owner and manager of Sugar Hill on Broad Street Newark, NJ in 1957.

The photo is part of our “Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic” exhibition on view now at the West Baton Rouge Museum.

The exhibition is a vivid, intimate, and compelling photographic portrait of Billie Holiday, the consummate jazz and blues singer and one of 20th–century music’s most iconic figures, in April 1957 at a significant moment in her life and just two years before her death at the age of 44.

Using biocube samples—the life within a cubic foot of soil or water over one day—you can observe enough variation to explore the complexity of entire ecosystems! Don’t miss our “Life in One Cubic Foot” traveling exhibition opening at the International Museum of Art & Science
on December 3!

Do you have any special Thanksgiving food traditions?

Traditions around food are often at the very center of how we celebrate . In this segment, listen to a story about one grandmother’s recipe for candied yams that’s been passed down from generation to generation. bit.ly/32xCC73

Happy ! During the tour of our “Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission” exhibition from 2017-2020, visitors got a close up and personal look at historic Mission objects like the Command Module “Columbia” and Buzz Aldrin’s helmet and gloves!

After becoming a physician in his native Brooklyn, Dr. Rob Gore saw that a healing was needed—one that went beyond the practicalities of medicine and tapped into the power of community. So, he founded the Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI). The nonprofit offers alternatives to the number of at-risk youths who Gore found himself treating in the ER after they’d become victims of the violence that pervaded their neighborhoods.

Through KAVI, Dr. Gore offers group mentoring, teacher training, therapeutic response to victims, leadership camps, conflict de-escalation training, and more. Learn more about Dr. Gore’s life-changing and life-giving work in "Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets" on view now at our Affiliate the National Civil Rights Museum!

Marks, Mississippi, became a symbol of the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968. Years earlier, Dr. King and Civil Rights Activist Ralph Abernathy visited a school in Marks where children ran barefoot on the playground because they had no shoes. For lunch, children shared sliced apples. Seeing the realities of poverty’s impact on children drove Dr. King’s determination to fight poverty as a national cause and crusade.

In 1968, the Poor People’s Campaign launched the Freedom Train, the movement’s first caravan of protesters. The Southern Caravan from Marks, Mississippi, like this one, included mules and wagons to symbolize the injustices of tenant farming, sharecropping, and the plantation economy.

Visit The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
to explore this chapter of our nation’s past in “Solidarity Now! 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.”

Photo Courtesy: Diana Davies Photograph Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.

These soldiers formed the 369th Infantry Regiment during World War I. Known as the “Harlem Hellfighters, some were awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action in France in 1919.

Explore “the war to end all wars” and its lasting impact and far-reaching influence on American life in our free poster exhibition “World War I: Lessons & Legacies” s.si.edu/3AaVAOH

Sparked by the assassination of one man, World War I eventually included the forces of the world’s major industrial powers (over 18 countries) and ended with millions dead.

Beyond the countries involved and people affected, World War I gave rise to significant and enduring changes in America. Wartime technologies and medical advances resulted in new industries and novel ways to fight disease and treat disability. The roles that women and minorities filled in the war led to the right to vote for women and a raised consciousness of civil rights issues throughout society.

From the Great Migration to the 1918 flu pandemic and from the unionization movement to women’s suffrage, World War I led to pivotal changes in America’s culture, technology, economy, and role in the world. It redefined how we saw ourselves as Americans and its legacy continues today.

Join us for a Scholar's Talk about "The Negro Motorist " with Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney on Saturday, November 12 at 2 PM. This event is FREE!

Dr. Dulaney is President of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the nation's oldest African American historical association and the founders of Black History Month. For the past two years, he has also served as Deputy Director and Chief Operations Officer for the Dallas African American Museum. He is also an Associate Professor of History Emeritus, former Interim Director of the Center for African American Studies, and the former Chair of the Department of History at the University of Texas, Arlington.

Dr. Dulaney has published and edited four books and is currently completing a history of African Americans in Dallas for Texas A&M University Press.

In 1776, many colonists made a great leap of faith: they united around the ideals that “all men are created equal” and entitled to “unalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Make sure to stop by the Virginia Museum of History & Culture to see our “American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith”traveling exhibition. Explore the evolution of our democracy, what it means to be a citizen, and the critical importance of active participation in our quest to form a “more perfect union.”

Happy ! What would you take if stuck on a deserted isle? NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration equipped each of the Apollo spacecrafts with two rucksacks filled with emergency equipment. This one has water containers, a radio beacon, a machete, flashlights and more.

The image comes from our “Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission” exhibition that traveled around the country from 2017-2020!

Esso Standard Oil – now ExxonMobil –was a leader in offering opportunity to Black Americans during the Jim Crow era. They hired Black Americans at every level of the organization. Esso Stations were were also the only major retail distributor of the “The Negro Motorist Green Book.”

Make sure to visit the Irving Archives and Museum to view our traveling exhibition “The Negro Motorist Green Book.” You’ll be able to explore and learn more about this life-saving guide which listed information on hotels, restaurants, service stations, and other facilities where Black travelers would be welcomed during Jim Crow.

“We must evacuate our homes and churches and be taken to strange places and we will not know what will happen to us...ours is a strange exodus.”
—The Reverend Lester Suzuki.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the United States entered a war in Europe and the Pacific, the nation was overcome by shock, anger, and fear—a fear exaggerated by long-standing prejudice against Asians. In response, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order sent 75,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry and 45,000 Japanese nationals to incarceration centers.

Our “Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II” traveling exhibition traces the story of this incarceration and the people who survived it.

You can see it now at the New Mexico History Museum.

This jersey belonged to Margaret “Marge” Villa Cyran in 1939 when she played for the Garvey Stars of East Los Angeles when she was 13 years-old! During World War II, women briefly had a league of their own. Chewing-gum mogul and Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley started the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), when many male athletes were serving in the military. At least 11 Latinas played in the AAGPBL (1943–54), including Marge, who is Mexican American. Able to pass as white in an era of Jim Crow segregation, these fair-skinned Latinas joined the select group of women who played professional baseball. When the team traveled to Havana, Villa Cryan conversed with Cubans in Spanish and became known for her charisma and diplomacy.

Later in her career, as a rookie for the Kenosha Comets in 1946, Villa got a record 9 RBIs and 11 total bases in one game!

Learn more about the presence of Latinas in baseball in our “¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas” traveling exhibition now on view at Park City Museum in Park City, UT.


Image: National Museum of American History

This 2018 belt by Oglala Lakota artists Kevin and Valerie Pourier celebrates the activism of contemporary Native American women.

It's titled "Winyan Wánakikśin" (Women Defenders of Others) and now in Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Each individual portrait panel took about two weeks to complete.

Read about the women featured this Native American Heritage Month: s.si.edu/2DaoXTy

Native American women played a central role in the woman suffrage movement for voting rights in the 19th and 20th centuries and in civil rights movements beyond.

A Lakota Sioux, Zitkála-Šá (1876–1938) fought tirelessly for Native American rights. She helped found both the Society of the American Indians in 1907 and the National Council of American Indians in 1926.

Join us all day and all month as we uplift stories that reflect the diverse history, living traditions, art, culture and experiences of Native Americans.

A little throwback fun from the public affairs team at SITES! Happy Halloween everyone!

What’s YOUR Halloween costume this year? Share it with us in the comment section!