Claude Desktop
Desktop · Freemium · Proprietary
Anthropic's official Claude AI desktop application. Supports MCP servers to extend functionality.
WindowsMacOS
Arts & Culture · Research & Data
Smithsonian MCP
molanojustin/smithsonian-mcp
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Smithsonian Institution's Open Access collections.
Install
docker run --rm -e SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY -e MCP_TRANSPORT=http -p 127.0.0.1:8000:8000 smithsonian-mcpClient configuration
{
"mcpServers": {
"smithsonian_open_access": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"--from",
"<value>",
"smithsonian-mcp"
],
"env": {
"SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY": "<SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}Environment variables
SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY- Author
- @molanojustin
- Category
- Arts & Culture, Research & Data
- License
- MIT
- Updated
- Oct 6, 2026
Tags
About Smithsonian MCP
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.
Which Muppets are on display right now at the National Museum of American History?
Tools (14)
search_objects
Find objects, or archive records, by keyword and filters, including what is on view now
get_object
Get the full record, images and web page of one object
list_museums
See which museums contribute, with their codes, record types and accepted names
explore_topic
Browse a varied sample of a topic across museums
get_collection_stats
Count what search can return, for the whole collection or one museum
search_collections
search_objects
summarize_search_results
No replacement needed; results are already compact
find_and_describe
search_objects, then get_object
get_object_details
get_object
get_smithsonian_units
list_museums; search_objects also accepts museum names
get_objects_on_view
search_objects(on_view=true)
simple_explore
explore_topic
get_collection_statistics
get_collection_stats
get_museum_collection_types
search_objects(object_type=..., museum=..., limit=1); total_count answers it
Details on this page are taken from the project's README. Open README
Supported clients
Clients mentioned in this server's README:
VS Code GitHub Copilot
Desktop · Freemium · MIT
VS Code integrates MCP with GitHub Copilot through agent mode, allowing direct interaction with MCP-provided tools in your agentic coding workflow. Configure servers in Claude Desktop, workspace, or user settings, with guided MCP installation and secure handling of secrets in input variables to avoid leaking hardcoded keys.
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