Smithsonian Open Access MCP Server
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Smithsonian Institution's Open Access collections. It lets AI assistants such as Claude Desktop search more than 14 million object records and 2.8 million archive records from Smithsonian museums, libraries, archives and research centers, find out what is on display now, and fetch full object records with images and links to the museum websites.
Ask, for example:
Which Muppets are on display right now at the National Museum of American History?
The assistant calls search_objects(query="muppet", museum="American History", on_view=true) and finds the objects currently on view, such as:
| Objects | Exhibition |
|---|---|
| Elmo, Fozzie Bear, Oscar the Grouch and Rosita puppets | Entertainment Nation |
| Oscar the Grouch's trash can and Mr. Hooper's costume from Sesame Street | Entertainment Nation |
| The Muppets lunch box (1979) | Taking America To Lunch |
Version 2.0 replaces the 28 tools of version 1.x with 5. See Migrating from 1.x and the changelog.






