A Catalog of APIs

This is a non-exhaustive list of APIs that can be used to retrieve data from cultural institutions, and other sources, that can be used for research, teaching, or event to build or integrate with applications.

About Authentication

Although some APIs do not require authentication, it is important to check the API documentation to be aware of usage limits and other restrictions. Otherwise, you can get blocked from the API provider.

US Based APIs

API	Version	Description	Link to Documentation	Requires Authentication	Status of Documentation
Internet Archive	N/A	API for searching and retrieving data from public collections from the Internet Archive	IA Tools and APIs	Yes	Well documented with examples and code snippets
Library of Congress	N/A	Provides structured data about Library of Congress collections	APIs for LoC.gov	No	Well documented. Some collections have their own documentation. See Additional APIs
Getty Museum	N/A	API designed for tasks like getting records, tracking changes, and querying the collection	Getty API Documentation	No	“Work in progress”
Metropolitan Museum of Art	v1	Provides access to Open Access data and public domain high-resolution images	The Met Collection API	No	Well documented with examples and code snippets
Art Institute of Chicago	v1	REST-style service to explore and integrate the museum’s public data	Art Institute of Chicago API	No	Well documented with examples and code snippets
Harvard Art Museums	N/A	REST-style service for integrating museum collections in projects	Harvard Art Museums API	Yes	Detailed and well-documented. See GitHub Docs
The Cleveland Museum of Art	4.0.0	Provides access to the museum’s collection data in JSON format	Cleveland Museum of Art API	No	Well documented but not very user-friendly
Smithsonian Institution	N/A	Open access to Smithsonian collections and research datasets	Smithsonian API	No	Comprehensive documentation with examples
HathiTrust	N/A	API for accessing and managing HathiTrust collections and data	HathiTrust Data API	Yes	Limited and somewhat outdated documentation
Walters Art Museum Collections	N/A	Access to Walters Art Museum’s public data and metadata	Walters API	No	Limited documentation available on GitHub
National Archives Catalog	v2.0	Access to the National Archives collection metadata	National Archives API	No	Well documented with examples
The New York Times Archive	v3	Provides access to NYT articles, archives, and multimedia	NYT APIs	Yes	Comprehensive documentation with examples
Digital Public Library of America	N/A	Provides access to metadata and content from partner libraries	DPLA API Codex	Yes	Detailed documentation available

Non-US APIs

Note

Policies for using APIs from non-US institutions may be different from those in the US. It is important to check the API documentation for each institution to be aware of usage limits and other restrictions.

API	Version	Description	Link to Documentation	Requires Authentication	Status of Documentation
Europeana	v2.0	API to search and retrieve European cultural heritage metadata	Europeana API	Yes	Comprehensive documentation with code examples
Rijksmuseum	N/A	Provides access to Rijksmuseum collection data and images	Rijksmuseum API	Yes	Moderately documented with examples
V&A Collections	N/A	API for accessing the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection data and images	V&A API	Yes	Well-documented with examples
Science Museum Collections	N/A	API for accessing the Science Museum’s collection data and images	Science Museum API	Yes	Well documented but not very user-friendly