The Smithsonian Collections Search Center is an online catalog containing most of Smithsonian major collections from our museums, archives, libraries, and research units. There are 13.5 million catalog records relating to areas for Art & Design, History & Culture, and Science & Technology with over 3.1 million images, videos, audio files, podcasts, blog posts and electronic journals.
This catalog is regularly updated as catalog records are being added and revised. To learn more about this "One Stop Search" Center, please see the related blog post and the Tutorial. For more information about individual collection objects please contact the individual museums, archives or libraries listed below.
The Collection Search Center currently contains collections from the following Smithsonian units:
Smithsonian Museum Collections contain objects from the Smithsonian's permanent collection as well as images, audio, videos, blogs, and other born-digital content.
1500 online records of photographs, paintings, drawings, posters, and quilts representing the art, culture and history of African Americans and the Anacostia community.
Contact: 202-633-4820
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700 online records of wall coverings, textiles, drawings, fill papers, decorative arts, embroidery, samplers, borders, furniture and others representing art and design.
Contact: 212-849-8400
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42,050 online records of paintings, vessels, ceramics, photographs, manuscripts, sculptures and calligraphy representing art, culture and history of Asia.
Contact: publicaffairsAsia@si.edu, 202-633-4880
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12,550 online records of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection.
Contact: 202.633.4674
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28,300 online records of aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, navigational instruments, presentation models, awards, memorabilia and art works from the collection of the National Air and Space Museum Collection.
Contact: 202-633-2320
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New records for objects and archival materials from the collections of the National Museum of African American History and Culture are regularly added to the online catalog. Cataloging is an ongoing process and records may be updated as we conduct additional research and review. Please contact us if you have more information about an object.
Contact: NMAAHCDigiTeam@si.edu
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3,700 online records of Sculpture, Paintings, Containers, Costumes, Textiles, Tools and equipment, Masks, Furnishings, Armor and more representing the art, culture and history of Africa.
Contact: nmafaweb@si.edu, 202-633-4600
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113,250 online records with a wide variety of museum objects from all the museum's curatorial divisions: Political History, Armed Forces History, Home & Community Life, Work & Industry, Culture & the Arts, and Medicine & Science.
Contact: 202-633-3129
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Objects, archival collections, blog posts, and videos representing the indigenous cultures of the Western Hemisphere are added to this site regularly. NMAI makes no warranty regarding the completeness or accuracy of the information provided. Please contact us to correct errors you may encounter, provide more information, or notify us of potential cultural sensitivities for items on this site.
Contact: https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-statement
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850 online records from the National Museum of Natural History
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu
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466,700 online records from the Department of Anthropology objects collection.
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu, 202-633-1920
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2,460,400 online records from the Department of Botany specimen collection.
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu, 202-633-0920
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506,650 online records from the Department of Entomology.
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu
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1,816,000 online records from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology.
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu, 202-633-1740
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436,450 online records from the Department of Mineral Sciences.
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu, 202-633-1860
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659,900 online records from the Department of Paleobiology.
Contact: paleodept@si.edu
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578,600 online records from the Department of Vertebrate Zoology - Division of Amphibians and Reptiles.
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu
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524,700 online records from the Department of Vertebrate Zoology - Division of Birds.
Contact: ContactSmithBirds@si.edu, 202-633-0800
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442,400 online records from the Department of Vertebrate Zoology - Division of Fishes.
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu, 301-238-1736
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608,550 online records from the Department of Vertebrate Zoology - Division of Mammals.
Contact: naturalexperience@si.edu
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18,250 online records of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs and documents from the collection of National Portrait Gallery. 94,050 records from the Catalog of American Portraits.
Contact: NPGResearch@si.edu, 202-633-8320
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Browse Catalog of American Portraits
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20,400 online records of collection objects including postage stamps, letters and envelopes, postal operation equipment, military mail, postal employee gear, and archival documents.
Contact: 202-633-5555
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500 online records from the National Zoological Park.
Contact: nationalzoo.si.edu/Contact, 202-633-4888
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44,800 online records of painting, sculpture, photographs, prints, drawings, contemporary crafts and folk art from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Contact: AmericanArtInfo@si.edu, 202-633-7970
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Over 12,000 online records from the Smithsonian Gardens.
Contact: gardens@si.edu 202-633-5840
Over 11,000 records from the Living Plant Collections including orchids and trees. Browse Collection
Over 1,000 records of collection objects from the Horticultural Artifacts Collection including nineteenth and twentieth century garden furnishings, garden ornaments, floral design accessories, horticultural trade memorabilia, Victorian fancywork and costume accessories such as hair-work, pressed botanical albums, and bouquet holders. Browse Collection
Archival collections contain more than 2.1 million descriptions of personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, films, works of art, organizational records as well as images, audio, videos, blogs, and other born-digital content.
Browse Collections | Browse Images | Browse Social Media | Catalog Record Source
Browse Collections | Browse Images | Browse Social Media | Catalog Record Source
Browse Collections | Browse Images | | Catalog Record Source
Smithsonian Libraries collections are particularly strong in natural history, tropical biology, and Chesapeake Bay area ecology; Anthropology; American and African American history and culture; postal, horticulture and garden history; the history of science and technology; aerospace history, astronomy, and planetary sciences; African, American Asian, contemporary, and design and decorative art; conservation science, and museum studies.
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Collections:
The Smithsonian's library collections contain over 1.7 million volumes, including print and electronic serials, rare books and manuscripts.
Contact: askalibrarian@si.edu, 202-633-1680
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Art and Artists Files:
Over 100,000 files that contain exhibition announcements, newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, brochures, reviews, invitations, illustrations, resumes, artists' statements, and exhibition catalogs.
Contact: askalibrarian@si.edu, 202-633-8230
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Trade Literature Collections:
Over 400,000 historical trade catalogs, representing over 30,000 companies featuring predominantly American-manufactured products for industry, agriculture, business, and decorative arts. Primarily from 1880-1945, the collection includes product catalogs, technical manuals, advertising brochures, price lists, and company histories.
Contact: askalibrarian@si.edu, 202-633-3865
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Smithsonian Research Online:
Over 49,630 staff publications. Smithsonian Research Online is a set of services to the research community both within and outside the Smithsonian Institution.
Contact: hutchinsona@si.edu, 202-633-1031
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The Research Databases and Centers listed below contain catalog records of materials that may or may not be owned by the Smithsonian Institution.
Browse Sculptures | Browse Paintings | Catalog Record Source
Online records from the National Science Resources Center.
Contact: 202-633-5555
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Online records from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Contact: 617-495-7461
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Online records from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
Contact: 443-482-2200
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Browse Bibliography | Browse Images | Browse Social Media | Catalog Record Source
Browse Cephalopod Bibliography | Browse Images | Catalog Record Source
Online records from the Smithsonian Institution.
Contact: 202-633-1000
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Online records from the Smithsonian Affiliations.
Contact: 202-633-5500
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Online records from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.
Contact: 202-633-3595
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Online records from the Smithsonian Channel.
Contact: smithsonianchannel.com
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Online records from the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies.
Contact: educate@si.edu, 202-633-5330
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Online records from the Smithsonian Journeys.
Contact: 855-330-1542
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Online records from the Smithsonian Magazine.
Contact: 202-633-1000
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Online records from the Smithsonian Migratory Birds Center.
Contact: nationalzoo.si.edu/Contact, 202-633-4888
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Online records from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions.
Contact: 202-633-3168
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Online records from the Smithsonian Latino Center.
Contact: 202-633-1240
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Online records from the Smithsonian Office of the Chief Information Officer.
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Online records from the Smithsonian Office of Public Affairs.
Contact: 202-633-2400
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To find more information about these and other data sources try browsing the Museums pages: www.si.edu/Museums or Research Centers pages: www.si.edu/ResearchCenters
General questions: 202-633-1000, info@si.edu
This Gallery contains a sampling of visual records that are part of the Collections Search Center.
The Collections Search Center leverages a Smithsonian-developed metadata index and web services middle-layer that provides the Institution with a unified view across its multiple collection repositories. The Smithsonian name for this index and services middle-layer is EDAN - "Enterprise Digital Asset Network". In developing EDAN, the Smithsonian reviewed a number of commercial and open-source products. The functional requirements included the support of faceted metadata searching, Boolean / simple search logic, synonym/stemming matching, proximity matching, customizable relevance ranking, and highlighting display capability. It also would need to support a wide range of documents and objects from libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) and be accessible via standard web services. In the end, the Smithsonian selected the open-source Apache Lucene/Solr indexing software for the project and built a set of complementary request and delivery services using Java. A common Index Metadata Model was developed to handle the large variety of data formats from SI's underlying collections systems. In developing the model, SI incorporated elements and best practices from established standards such as Dublin Core, MARC, and METS as well as elements reflected in the underlying COTS museum and library systems. Data mappings were performed and processes were put in place to provide regular record ingest and updates from more than 50 Institution data sources (systems and databases). This iterative process continues and the intent is for EDAN to index all major cataloged Smithsonian collections holdings. EDAN and the Collections Search Center are therefore dynamic and continually growing.
EDAN has offered the Smithsonian a flexible and scalable indexing, metadata and image delivery platform to support Smithsonian web and mobile application access to its fast growing online collections. The Collections Search Center, a web application that uses EDAN, has provided a strong, user-friendly search interface, enhanced through Java and CSS style sheets, for navigating these online collections. In doing so, it furthers the Institution's goal of making its collections available to a worldwide audience.