We all love elephants. The world’s largest land mammal is everyone’s favorite behemoth onto which we project our affection for the idea of the gentle giant. We love to watch them lumber around the Serengeti in search of watering holes, their young marching alongside them. But what has humanity’s relationship with elephants historically been? And what is that relationship like now that we are acknowledging on a large scale that elephants, which scientists fear may go extinct, are in clear and present danger? These are the questions Game Change: Elephants from Prey to Preservation, a new National Museum of Natural History exhibition, seeks to answer. Through rare books, photographs, manuscripts, artwork, and other items dating from the 1800s to today, including a modern elephant radio collar, the exhibition chronicles the elephant’s journey from big game trophy to the subject of conservation efforts. Once, Americans were enamored with big game hunters treating animals like elephants as conquests, hunting them as sport. Now, a global preservation community actively tries to combat poaching and protect elephants. Learn how the game has changed. Read more>>> The exhibition is on view to Feb. 1, 2020 at the National Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. (202) 633-1000. naturalhistory.si.edu. (Kayla Randall)

OH AND ALSO

The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center presents a double-bill of 1940s noir films Shadow of a Doubt and Address Unknown. 7:30 p.m. at 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $8–$15.

Alabama-born country artist JP Harris performs at Pearl Street Warehouse. 8:15 p.m. at 33 Pearl St. SW. $12.

The Library of Congress hosts a lecture from political theorist and author Eileen Hunt Botting about why Boston writer Hannah Mather Crocker’s Observations on the Real Rights of Women, the first book on women’s rights published by an American, still matters 200 years after its release. 3 p.m. at 10 1st St. SE. Free.

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