Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Smithsonian Open Access collections
Smithsonian MCP MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on Smithsonian MCP directly instead of describing what you should do. Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Smithsonian Open Access collections.
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides AI assistants with access to the Smithsonian Institution's Open Access collections. This server allows AI tools like Claude Desktop to search, explore, and analyze over 3 million collection objects from America's national museums.
The server ships on npm as Installation, so your MCP client can launch it on demand — there is no separate build step. Add the server block to your client's configuration, restart it, and the tools register themselves.
Once Smithsonian MCP is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:
Installation — The Installation tool exposed by this serverConfiguration — The Configuration tool exposed by this serverDevelopment — The Development tool exposed by this serverWindows — The Windows tool exposed by this serverYou will need one environment variable: SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
This sits in the developer tooling group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Smithsonian MCP's toolset — Installation, Configuration, Development and 1 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by molanojustin; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
This entry was verified against Smithsonian MCP's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Installation | The Installation tool exposed by this server. |
| Configuration | The Configuration tool exposed by this server. |
| Development | The Development tool exposed by this server. |
| Windows | The Windows tool exposed by this server. |
{
"mcpServers": {
"smithsonian_open_access": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@molanojustin/smithsonian-mcp"],
"env": {
"SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
}
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
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