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Anacostia Community Museum Archives

Archives of American Art

Archives of American Gardens

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection Archive

Human Studies Film Archives

National Air and Space Archives

National Anthropological Archives

National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center

National Portrait Gallery

Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Research & Scholars Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Introduction to Archival Resources

Images from Smithsonian Archives

The Smithsonian Institution has vast archival research collections that measure over 137,000 cubic feet, which, if laid out in boxes end to end, would extend for nearly nineteen miles, making its holdings among the largest collections of historical document resources in the United States. The scope of the collections is equally staggering and covers nearly every facet of our nation's history – from the history of the Institution itself to the history of American, African American, and Latin American art, culture, music, and design; science and technology; landscapes and gardens, and native and indigenous world cultures. The archival collections include technical drawings, photographs, letters, field notebooks, diaries and journals, sketches and sketchbooks, scrapbooks, manuscripts, rare printed materials, motion picture film, video and sound recordings, and much more.

Many of the archival units are repositories within the Smithsonian's museums , libraries, and other larger divisions, and two are independent collecting units. Nearly all have online collections and resources where visitors will find more detail about the scope of collections, collection guides and finding aids, and digitized content. In addition, users may search across the Smithsonian's archival resources within the Collections Search Center and the online SIRIS (Smithsonian Institution Research Information System) catalog.