The staff of The Lyceum has produced many exhibitions over the years on a wide array of topics. Here is a brief description of three of these past exhibitions, for which companion catalogs are still available in The Lyceum Museum Shop.

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In the Neatest Most Fashionable Manner: Three Centuries of Alexandria Silver.

This exhibition brought together more than 150 objects from some of America's most prominent institutions and private collections to tell the story of 27 Alexandria silversmiths. Focusing both on the craftsmen and their special forms such as military pieces and presentation work, the exhibition included a variety of flat and holloware forms, sugar tongs, ladles, spectacles and serving pieces.

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The Green Family of Cabinetmakers: An Alexandria Institution, 1817-1887.

In 1817, William Green arrived in Alexandria with his wife Mary and his seven children and established a cabinetmaking business on King Street. For the next three generations, the Green family business grew to become one of Alexandria's largest enterprises, eventually serving customers in Washington, and the Shenandoah Valley. This exhibition showcased nearly three dozen Green furniture pieces.

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History Makers.

History Makers offers a glimpse into the stories of a few Alexandrians who are represented in The Lyceum's collection through a variety of artifacts. Most of the people profiled in the exhibit never became famous, but learning about them helps us make a more personal connection to the past. This, in turn, gives us the opportunity to gain a better insight into the present, and ourselves. The artifacts provide tangible connections to the people's lives and their community. Each piece helps to tell their stories.

Made in Alexandria, 1790-1860: An Exhibit of Decorative Arts.

This early exhibition was one of the first to be shown in The Lyceum as it evolved from a Bicentennial Center into the City's history museum. It was a general overview of Alexandria-made items from silver sauce ladles and side chairs to storage jars and iron downspouts. The exhibit also included some interesting items that had been in Alexandria's first museum, established by Alexandria-Washington Masonic Lodge Number 22 in 1818.

Prehistoric Alexandria.

So much has happened in just the last 20,000 years that we do not need to go back very far to find a Virginia that was quite different from what we know today. Prehistoric Alexandria examines some of this area’s distant past, with a close look at the period since the peak of the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago.