molanojustin/smithsonian-mcp

Overview

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes the Smithsonian Institution's Open Access collections to AI assistants. It allows MCP-compatible clients to search and retrieve collection data via standard MCP tool calls.

Best for

Best for
Developers building MCP-enabled AI assistants focused on cultural heritage or museum data

Use cases

• Search Smithsonian collections for objects by keyword or category
• Retrieve detailed metadata and images from the Open Access API
• Integrate cultural heritage data into MCP-based AI assistant workflows

How to use

Install

npx -y @molanojustin/smithsonian-mcp

Tested with

Claude Desktop, Claude Code, VS Code

Example client config

{\n  "mcpServers": {\n    "smithsonian_open_access": {\n      "command": "npx",\n      "args": ["-y", "@molanojustin/smithsonian-mcp"],\n      "env": {\n        "SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY": "your_key_here"\n      }\n    }\n  }\n}

Notes

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes the Smithsonian Institution’s Open Access collections to AI assistants. It allows MCP-compatible clients to search and retrieve collection data via standard MCP tool calls.

9 stars on GitHub. Last updated 2026-04-13. Licensed MIT.

Use cases

• Search Smithsonian collections for objects by keyword or category
• Retrieve detailed metadata and images from the Open Access API
• Integrate cultural heritage data into MCP-based AI assistant workflows

Pros

• Provides structured access to millions of Smithsonian digital records
• Simple MCP interface works with any compatible client
• Open source and easy to self-host or extend

Cons

• Limited to Smithsonian collections data only
• Depends on external Smithsonian API availability and rate limits
• Relatively small project with low community activity (9 stars)

Indexed from awesome-mcp-servers-punkpeye and enriched against its public facts.