Princeton University Objects API

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: Princeton University Art Museum Objects API
  version: '1.0'
  summary: Open, no-authentication REST access to the Princeton University Art Museum collections.
  description: 'REST-style service providing developer access to data about the Princeton University Art Museum and its collections. Four resource surfaces are documented: objects (art objects and their tombstone records), makers (artists, cultural groups and other makers), packages (curated groupings) and a full-text search endpoint backed by Elasticsearch. All responses are JSON. No authentication is currently required, though the Museum notes this may change.

    PROVENANCE: the Museum publishes prose documentation in a GitHub repository, not a machine readable contract. This OpenAPI was DERIVED by API Evangelist from that documentation and verified against live responses on 2026-08-19; it was not published by Princeton. Paths, parameters and status codes below were each exercised against the production host.'
  contact:
    name: Princeton University Art Museum API
    url: https://github.com/Princeton-University-Art-Museum/puam-api-docs
  x-operator: institution
  x-provenance:
    method: derived
    source: https://github.com/Princeton-University-Art-Museum/puam-api-docs
    derived_by: API Evangelist university pipeline
    verified_against: https://data.artmuseum.princeton.edu
    verified: '2026-08-19'
servers:
- url: https://data.artmuseum.princeton.edu
  description: Production collections data host (verified 200, 2026-08-19)
tags:
- name: Objects
  description: Art objects in the Museum's collection.
paths:
  /objects/{id}:
    get:
      tags:
      - Objects
      operationId: getObjectById
      summary: Get a single art object by ID
      description: Returns the full record for one art object, including titles, makers, depicted subjects, texts, terms and image references.
      parameters:
      - name: id
        in: path
        required: true
        description: Numeric objectid.
        schema:
          type: integer
        example: 9449
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The art object record.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ArtObject'
        '404':
          description: No object with that ID.
  /objects/{id}/tombstone:
    get:
      tags:
      - Objects
      operationId: getObjectTombstone
      summary: Get the tombstone (label) record for an object
      description: Returns the abbreviated "tombstone" record — the caption-level fields a gallery label carries.
      parameters:
      - name: id
        in: path
        required: true
        schema:
          type: integer
        example: 9449
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Tombstone record.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
        '404':
          description: No object with that ID.
  /objects:
    get:
      tags:
      - Objects
      operationId: listObjects
      summary: Get multiple objects by filter
      description: Returns all object records matching the selected criteria. Filter by maker, department, term or on-view status, then control the result window with size/from/sort/sortorder and harvest incrementally with lastupdated.
      parameters:
      - name: maker
        in: query
        description: Maker ID.
        schema:
          type: integer
        example: 6353
      - name: department
        in: query
        description: Exact department name.
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: term
        in: query
        description: Term ID.
        schema:
          type: integer
      - name: onview
        in: query
        description: Restrict to objects currently on view.
        schema:
          type: boolean
      - name: size
        in: query
        description: Maximum records per response (default 10, maximum 500).
        schema:
          type: integer
          default: 10
          maximum: 500
      - name: from
        in: query
        description: Offset of the first result, for pagination.
        schema:
          type: integer
          default: 0
      - name: sort
        in: query
        description: Field to sort on. Defaults to relevance score.
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: sortorder
        in: query
        description: Sort direction.
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - ASC
          - DESC
          default: DESC
      - name: lastupdated
        in: query
        description: Return objects updated on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). The incremental-harvest parameter.
        schema:
          type: string
          format: date
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Matching object records.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: array
                items:
                  $ref: '#/components/schemas/ArtObject'
        '400':
          description: Bad Request — returned as a plain-text body, not JSON, when the filter set is not accepted (for example size supplied with no filter parameter). Verified 2026-08-19.
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                type: string
              example: Bad Request
components:
  schemas:
    ArtObject:
      type: object
      description: An art object in the Museum's collection.
      properties:
        type:
          type: string
          examples:
          - artobject
        objectid:
          type: integer
        objectnumber:
          type: string
        sortnumber:
          type: string
        displaytitle:
          type: string
        department:
          type: string
        classification:
          type: string
        datebegin:
          type:
          - integer
          - 'null'
        dateend:
          type:
          - integer
          - 'null'
        datecomputed:
          type:
          - integer
          - 'null'
        daterange:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        displaydate:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        medium:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        dimensions:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        creditline:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        markings:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        inscribed:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        signed:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        restrictions:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        on_view:
          type: boolean
        accessionyear:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        titles:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
            properties:
              title:
                type: string
              titletype:
                type: string
              displayorder:
                type: integer
        makers:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/ObjectMaker'
        depicted:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
        texts:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
    ObjectMaker:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        displayname:
          type: string
        displaydate:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        datebegin:
          type:
          - integer
          - 'null'
        dateend:
          type:
          - integer
          - 'null'
        prefix:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        suffix:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        role:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        displaymaker:
          type:
          - string
          - 'null'
        displayorder:
          type: integer