Smithsonian Institution website screenshot

Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution Open Access REST API providing search and retrieval of over 4.7 million digitized objects, images, 3D models, and metadata across 19 museums and research centers. All content is released under CC0 (public domain) and covers art and design, history and culture, and science and technology collections.

Smithsonian Institution publishes 3 APIs on the APIs.io network: content API, metrics API, and search API. Tagged areas include Museums, Open Access, Cultural Heritage, Collections, and Images.

The Smithsonian Institution catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Smithsonian Institution’s developer surface includes authentication, documentation, engineering blog, pricing, and 10 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
49.2/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 41/100 agent ready Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-05 · rubric v0.9.1
AccessPaidSelf serve
3 APIs
MuseumsOpen AccessCultural HeritageCollectionsImages3D ModelsPublic DomainCC0

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-05 · rubric v0.9.1
Composite quality — 49.2/100 · developing
Contract Quality 17.7 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 4.3 / 20
Commercial Clarity 10.0 / 20
Operational Transparency 2.7 / 13
Governance 7.0 / 12
Discoverability 7.4 / 10
Agent readiness — 41/100 · agent ready
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8
Request/Response Examples 7 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
A2A Agent Card 0 / 8
Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/smithsonian: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 3

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Smithsonian Institution content API

Retrieve individual collection objects by ID or URL

Smithsonian Institution metrics API

Statistics about CC0 objects and media

Smithsonian Institution search API

Search across Smithsonian collections

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Smithsonian Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Smithsonian Rate Limits

0 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Smithsonian Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Smithsonian Context

5 classes · 39 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Smithsonian Institution API Rules

5 rules · 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 2

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Smithsonian Collection Object

12 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Smithsonian Search Response

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Examples 2

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Smithsonian Content Response Example

4 fields

EXAMPLE

Smithsonian Search Response Example

3 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Smithsonian Authentication

apiKey · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Smithsonian Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Smithsonian Agentic Access

5 operations

5 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrg
GitHubOrg

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity
 Authentication
Authentication

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

StatusPage
StatusPage
 RateLimits
RateLimits

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing
Pricing
 Plans
Plans
 FinOps
FinOps

Company 3

The organization behind the API

Website
Website
 LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 Blog
Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

X
X

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: smithsonian
name: Smithsonian Institution
description: Smithsonian Institution Open Access REST API providing search and retrieval of over 4.7 million digitized objects,
  images, 3D models, and metadata across 19 museums and research centers. All content is released under CC0 (public domain)
  and covers art and design, history and culture, and science and technology collections.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: paid
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Paid · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/smithsonian.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/smithsonian/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
tags:
- Museums
- Open Access
- Cultural Heritage
- Collections
- Images
- 3D Models
- Public Domain
- CC0
apis:
- aid: smithsonian:smithsonian-content-api
  name: Smithsonian Institution content API
  description: Retrieve individual collection objects by ID or URL
  humanURL: https://edan.si.edu/openaccess/apidocs/
  baseURL: https://api.si.edu/openaccess/api/v1.0
  tags:
  - content
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/smithsonian-content-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://edan.si.edu/openaccess/apidocs/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://api.data.gov/signup/
- aid: smithsonian:smithsonian-metrics-api
  name: Smithsonian Institution metrics API
  description: Statistics about CC0 objects and media
  humanURL: https://edan.si.edu/openaccess/apidocs/
  baseURL: https://api.si.edu/openaccess/api/v1.0
  tags:
  - metrics
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/smithsonian-metrics-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://edan.si.edu/openaccess/apidocs/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://api.data.gov/signup/
- aid: smithsonian:smithsonian-search-api
  name: Smithsonian Institution search API
  description: Search across Smithsonian collections
  humanURL: https://edan.si.edu/openaccess/apidocs/
  baseURL: https://api.si.edu/openaccess/api/v1.0
  tags:
  - search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/smithsonian-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://edan.si.edu/openaccess/apidocs/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://api.data.gov/signup/
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/smithsonian-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/smithsonian-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/smithsonian-authentication.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.si.edu
- type: Documentation
  url: https://edan.si.edu/openaccess/apidocs/
- type: GitHubOrg
  url: https://github.com/Smithsonian
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/smithsonian-institution
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.si.edu/openaccess
- type: Pricing
  url: https://api.data.gov/signup/
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://api.data.gov/
- type: X
  url: https://twitter.com/smithsonian
- type: Plans
  url: plans/smithsonian-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/smithsonian-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/smithsonian-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com