Smithsonian Collections Object (One Museum Object Record by Id)

smithsonian/object

Returns the full catalogue metadata for one Smithsonian Institution object, artwork, specimen or publication record: title, owning museum, dates, makers, places, materials, dimensions, credit line, identifiers and the museum's own description. Give it the record_id from Smithsonian Collections Search (the part of a result's url after edanmdm:, for example nmah_1464762). Only records the Smithsonian marks CC0 are returned, metadata only: no image or media links. Dates are the museum's free text ("ca 1976", "n.d."), not machine dates. An unknown id is an error, not an empty result. Attribution: Smithsonian Institution Open Access (CC0); not endorsed by the Smithsonian.

activeper callv2

Price

$0.0026 per call

You pay the price shown. If a call turns out to cost more than its quote, you pay the actual price, capped at twice the quote. No monthly minimum. Top-ups start at $5.

Data source

Smithsonian Institution

Metadata from the Smithsonian Institution Open Access collections (si.edu/openaccess), released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). Served by Eden Engine; not an official Smithsonian product and not endorsed by the Smithsonian.

Use it

Five steps: search, inspect, learn, run, settle. No per-tool setup; your agent reaches this tool through the meta-tools it already has.

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agent

// 1. search: find the tool
omnial_search({ query: "what you need" })

// 2. inspect: price and input schema
omnial_inspect({ tool: "smithsonian/object" })

// 3. learn: read the usage guide at runtime
omnial_learn({ tool: "smithsonian/object" })

// 4. run: price the exact call first, then run it
omnial_execute({ tool: "smithsonian/object", input: { /* see input_schema */ }, dry_run: true })
omnial_execute({ tool: "smithsonian/object", input: { /* ... */ } })

// 5. settle: the call is charged when it finishes, nothing to do

Not connected yet? Point your MCP client at https://mcp.eden-engine.com/mcp, then copy a config for your client.

Pricing

Every charge this tool can incur.

Charge	Price
Per call	$0.0026

Updated: Oct 20, 2026

Input and output schemas

Input schema

input_schema.json

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "record_id"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "record_id": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9_.-]{0,99}$",
      "description": "The record's id without the edanmdm: prefix, for example slasro_138838 or nmah_1464762: the descriptiveNonRepeating.record_ID of a Smithsonian Collections Search result, or its url after edanmdm:. An unknown id returns an error."
    }
  },
  "additionalProperties": false
}

Output schema

output_schema.json

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "id",
    "url",
    "title",
    "unitCode",
    "content"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "id": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The Smithsonian's row id for the record."
    },
    "url": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The record's identifier, for example edanmdm:nmah_1464762. The part after edanmdm: is the record_id Smithsonian Collections Object takes."
    },
    "type": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The record type, edanmdm for an object."
    },
    "title": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The object's title or name."
    },
    "content": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": [
        "descriptiveNonRepeating",
        "freetext",
        "indexedStructured"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "freetext": {
          "type": "object",
          "description": "The record's text fields (date, name, place, notes, physicalDescription, identifier, objectType, creditLine, topic ...), each a list of {label, content}.",
          "additionalProperties": true
        },
        "indexedStructured": {
          "type": "object",
          "description": "The search facets: object_type, date (decade or century buckets), place, name, topic, geoLocation, online_media_type.",
          "additionalProperties": true
        },
        "descriptiveNonRepeating": {
          "type": "object",
          "required": [
            "metadata_usage"
          ],
          "properties": {
            "metadata_usage": {
              "type": "object",
              "required": [
                "access"
              ],
              "properties": {
                "access": {
                  "enum": [
                    "CC0"
                  ],
                  "type": "string"
                }
              },
              "additionalProperties": true
            }
          },
          "description": "record_ID (the museum's own id, for example nmah_1464762), data_source (the owning unit's name), guid (a persistent link to the record), record_link (the museum's own page, when it has one) and metadata_usage.access, always CC0.",
          "additionalProperties": true
        }
      },
      "description": "The metadata: descriptiveNonRepeating (record_ID, data_source, guid, record_link, metadata_usage), freetext (fields as lists of {label, content}, in the museum's wording) and indexedStructured (the search facets: object_type, date buckets, place, name, topic, coordinates).",
      "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "unitCode": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The owning unit's acronym, for example NMAH or NMNHBOTANY."
    },
    "timestamp": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "When the index first took the record in, Unix seconds as a string."
    },
    "lastTimeUpdated": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "When the index last re-read the record, Unix seconds as a string. Not the date the object was made."
    }
  },
  "additionalProperties": false
}