Anacostia Community Museum Archives
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
National Air and Space Archives
National Anthropological Archives
National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center
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
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out in boxes end to end, would extend for nearly nineteen miles, making its holdings among the largest collections of historical document resources in the United States.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.