2025
THE ANCIENT WORLD: Unlocking the Middle East
July 15, 2024 - September 1, 2025
Over the past six years, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, in partnership with the Richard Nixon Foundation, has been observing historically significant milestones of the Nixon Administration as part of its 50th anniversary. This year we are acknowledging the conclusion of the Yom Kippur War and President Nixon’s subsequent trip to the Middle East in 1974. To commemorate this, we will be opening a temporary exhibit, The Ancient World: Unlocking the Middle East.
In this special exhibit, visitors will be immersed in the history of the region up to 1979. They will visit a street market in Jerusalem, walk through the courtyard of a Persian palace, and enter the tomb inside an Egyptian pyramid. Studying the ancient Middle Eastern societies of Israel, Persia, and Egypt can help to unlock the complex relationships between those nation-states in the early 20th century. Moving from the ancient to the modern, museum visitors may reflect on the beginning of Western interest in and the exploration of the region.
The many regional conflicts of the 20th century will be explored. Visitors will see the original hotline equipment linking Washington and Moscow, which President Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev used during the tense days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In the conclusion of the exhibit, museum visitors will exit through Camp David and learn about the work done during the Camp David Accords and the Arab-Israeli peace process in 1979.
2024
Celebrating 100 Years of the American Foreign Service Association and the United State Foreign Service
May 24 to September 24, 2024
In seven banners hanging along the colonnade adjacent to the Malek Orientation Theater, the display tells the story of the origin, development, and contributions of the U.S. Foreign Service – the career diplomats who advise the president on international affairs and advance our nation’s interests serving in 165 foreign countries. The exhibit commemorates the centennial of the Foreign Service’s founding in 1924. The display was developed in cooperation with the American Foreign Service Association -- the professional association of career U.S. diplomats – which also celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors
A collection of portraits by President George W. Bush, will be on exhibit from March 14 to May 19, 2024.
2023
CAPTURED: Shot Down in Vietnam at The Nixon Library
May 23, 2023 through March 31, 2024
See more than 75 unique artifacts from around the country, on display together for the first time. Launch from an aircraft carrier ready room into the skies. Get up close to a recreated, rat-infested prison cell. And relive the national celebration that was their homecoming, including the largest dinner in White House history.
2022
COLD WAR: Soviets, Spies, and Secrets
July 4, 2022 through March 31, 2023
An all-new interactive special exhibit. Artifacts featured in the exhibit and compiled together for the first time include a decommissioned nuclear bomb, scientific testing mannequins from the 1950s used at a nuclear test site, real tools used by KGB and CIA agents while deployed undercover, and iconic relics from the Soviet Union. These rare artifacts are on loan from the CIA Museum, International Spy Museum, National Atomic Testing Museum, Wende Museum, and other institutions across the country.
The exhibit also explores the ongoing imprint of the Cold War on popular culture with recognized items from the James Bond film series.
2021
A Commitment to Hope: Richard Nixon and the National Cancer Act
Rose Hills Foundation Special Exhibition Gallery
November 12, 2021 - May 22, 2022
A new special exhibit at the Nixon Library tracing Richard Nixon’s lifelong commitment to improving health care and the health of all Americans. Using documents, photographs, and artifacts never before exhibited, visitors will see how the National Cancer Act transformed the fight to conquer cancer, sparking lifesaving advances in prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer.
2020
The Presidents Club: From Adams & Jefferson to Nixon & Trump
2019
Apollo 11: One Giant Leap for Mankind
All Aboard, America! Trains at the Nixon Library
Amending America: The Bill of Rights and Constitutional Amendments
2018
VIET STORIES: Recollections & Regenerations
Vote Like Your Whole World Depended on It: The Story of the 1968 Election
Free Speech and Civic Engagement in an American Democracy
Richard Nixon 1968 Presidential Campaign - 50th Anniversary
2017
Picturing Nam: U.S. Military Photography of the Vietnam War
Amending America: The Bill of Rights
2016
Temporary Exhibitions from November 2015 to October 2016
2015
Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage
Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection
Selections from the Collection
First Lady Pat Nixon: A Birthday Tribute
2014
Nixon Family Holiday Traditions at the White House 1969-1974
2012
On the Campaign Trail: Presidential Campaigns from 1789 to Present
A Few Good Women: Advancing the Cause of Women in Government, 1969-74
2011
2010
Exposed: Glimpse into the Future
2009
A Holiday Festival of Trains – SCLTC and TCA
Called Upon By The Voice Of My Country: Inaugurations As History, Ritual And Celebration
2008
Exposed: The world as I see it
Pat Nixon: A Birthday Tribute to a First Lady of Legend
2007
Pat Nixon: A Birthday Tribute to a First Lady of Legend
More than Words: Illustrated Letters from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art