Galleries & Collections

Changing Exhibition Gallery

Above, top down: "No Gas in the Tank ,"; "Washroom No Towels." Photos: © Alfred Wertheimer. All rights reserved.
 
 

Pictured in text

"Going Home" Elvis on the Southern Railroad between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee, July 4, 1956. Photo:

© Alfred Wertheimer. All rights reserved.
 

Note

The Museum Store offers a
large variety of books and merchandise related to exhibitions on display in the Museum galleries. The Museum Store is open Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
 

Quickfact

Be the first to see new MSV exhibitions and become a Member! The opportunity to preview exhibitions before they open to the public is one of the many membership benefits available to you.  For details about MSV membership and the next special Members' Preview, call 540-662-1473 ext. 213

The newest exhibition at the MSV is now open!

In 1956, Alfred Wertheimer (1929- ) photographed a young and still relatively unknown Elvis Presley. Wertheimer’s images, taken before record-setting singles, broadcast specials, and hyped Hollywood films, reveal a rock ‘n’ roll legend on the verge of superstardom. Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer, a new Smithsonian traveling exhibition, presents 40 of these striking images. The photographs capture unguarded moments in Elvis's life during 1956, the year the singer catapulted from anonymity to superstardom. From backstage to onstage, from piano benches to Harleys, from on-the-road to screaming fans, these photographs radiate a richness and depth that make the star's road to fame palpable. With cinematic luminosity, the Wertheimer photographs document a remarkable time when a twenty-one-year-old Elvis Presley could sit alone and unrecognized at a drugstore lunch counter. On view in the Museum's Changing Exhibition Gallery until October 10, 2010, Elvis at 21 was developed collaboratively by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and Govinda Gallery, and is sponsored nationally by History™. 92.5 WINC FM is a sponsor of the exhibition's display at the MSV.


Next in the Changing Exhibition Gallery:

October 29, 2010 through January 23, 2011

American Scenery:Different Views in Hudson River School Painting

This fall and winter, the MSV will celebrate what is considered by many to be the first truly American school of painting-the Hudson River School-with the special exhibition American Scenery: Different Views in Hudson River School Painting. On view from October 29, 2010, through January 23, 2011, this exhibition is organized and toured by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and features landscape paintings grouped by pairs or arranged in a series to illustrate how different generations of Hudson River School artists interpreted the majestic American landscape in the 1800s. Details about the exhibition and special related programs will be announced mid-summer.