Current Exhibitions
Special Exhibitions
NEW: Arts of War: Artistry in Weapons across Cultures
Through October 2017
From maces, clubs, daggers, and spears, to shields, helmets, and entire suits of armor, this exhibition offers more than 150 striking examples of weapons that are also extraordinary works of art.
See a preview of the exhibit online by clicking here.
The Legacy of Penobscot Canoes: A View from the River
Through April 30, 2016
Explore the enduring importance of rivers and canoes in Penobscot tribal life and on relationships between the tribe and non-Indians. This new installation will feature a rarely seen full-size bark canoe purchased from Penobscot Indian Francis Sebattis in 1912, as well as stone tools collected by Henry David Thoreau, who described the Penobscot and their canoes in The Maine Woods.
Translating Encounters: Travel and Transformation in the Early Seventeenth Century
Through June 30, 2015
Wonder, confusion, and curiosity: just a few of the responses by Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans in the age of exploration, as each struggled to comprehend the other. Inspired by collections of the Peabody Museum, Houghton Library, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, this exhibit broadly explores global mobility, encounter, and exchange in colonial encounters among peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Wiyohpiyata: Lakota Images of the Contested West
Through June 30, 2016
Co-curators Castle McLaughlin and Lakota artist Butch Thunder Hawk use ambient sound, motion, scent, and historic and contemporary Plains art to animate nineteenth century Lakota drawings from a warrior’s ledger collected at the Little Bighorn battlefield. This exhibit presents Lakota perspectives on westward expansion while exploring culturally-shaped relationships between words, objects, and images. Related Publication: Lakota War Book from the Little Bighorn: The Pictographic “Autobiography of Half Moon”
Digging Veritas: The Archaeology and History of the Indian College and Student Life at Colonial Harvard
Through December 31, 2015
Using archaeological finds from Harvard Yard, historic maps, and more, the Digging Veritas exhibition reveals how students lived at colonial Harvard, and the role of the Indian College in Harvard’s early years.
Ongoing Exhibitions
Encounters with the Americas
Encounters explores the native cultures of Latin America before and after 1492, when the first voyage of Christopher Columbus initiated dramatic worldwide changes.
Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos
The Peabody's exhibition of a Day of the Dead altar or ofrenda is located in the Encounters with the Americas gallery. It represents the original Aztec origins of the holiday and the Catholic symbols incorporated into the tradition.
Change & Continuity: Hall of the North American Indian
Diverse North American cultures are explored through the objects produced by indigenous peoples of the nineteenth century. The Changes and Continuity exhibit considers historic interactions between native peoples and Europeans during a period of profound social change.
Pacific Islands Hall (Closing June 30, 2015)
The Hall features a diverse array of artifacts from the Pacific Islands brought to the Museum by Boston’s maritime merchants.