Digital Collections

About Our Collections

The Libraries' physical collections comprise 1.5 million books and manuscripts, along with over 400,000 pieces of ephemera, microfilm, photo collections and a/v material, housed in over 21 locations in Washington, Maryland, New York, and Panama. Some of those collections are available via inter-library loan request through your local public, school, or corporate library. If you're with an organization interested in using one of our collections items in an exhibition, please see the Exhibition Loan Services page.

Additional details of the collections housed in the various library locations can be found on the branch web pages.
To see if a specific book or journal is in our collection, search our catalog.

Digital Collections

Our digital collections include over 35,000 digitized books and manuscripts (available in either our Digital Library or as part of the Biodiversity Heritage Library) as well as digitized photo collections, ephemera, and seed catalogs.

Many of our physical collections have not yet been digitized. Some of the resources listed below - such Trade Literature and Art and Artist Files - are portals for searching the inventories of those collections.

List of bibliographies, indexes, photo and ephemera collections.
Artists' Books Works of art, like paintings or sculpture, in book form - artists’ books exist at the intersections of printmaking, photography, poetry, visual arts, and graphic design.	Art & Artist Files in the Smithsonian Libraries' Collections Search the database of over 150,000 files on artists, art collectives, galleries, and museums held in our Art and Design and History and Culture libraries.
Finding Aid to Postal Files at the NPM Library Inventory of archival files in the Library of the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum including Panama Canal Zone and Aerial Mail Service material.	Hirshhorn Museum Library Audio Archive Index and samples from event recordings and artist interviews dating back to the founding of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1969.
Index Animalium Compiled over 43 years by one man this index to every living animal discovered between 1758 and 1850 is still considered the essential reference for zoologists and paleontologists.	Instruments for Science A collection of uniquely valuable trade literature that tells the history of 19th c. science through instrument catalogs.
Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web Curated by Libraries staff, this guide to online exhibitions from libraries, archives, and manuscript collections around the world is one of a kind.	Modern African Art: A Basic Reading List An annotated bibliography that dispels the notion that nothing has been published on contemporary African art. Updated regularly.
Monographs on African Artists: An Annotated Bibliography A bibliography that separates the polished gems from the stones - a list of substantive monographs and exhibition catalogs on 20th-21st century African artists.	Seed and Nursery Catalogs Colorful collection of catalogs that document the history of the seed and agricultural implement business as well as ornamental and edible plants in the U. S.
Sewing Machines: Historical Trade Literature in Smithsonian Collections A popular collection of catalogs, manuals, and brochures showing the range of material published by and about American sewing machines companies from the 1840s to the early 20th c.	Shedding Light on New York This massive archive of photographs show the variety of lighting fixtures E. F. Caldwell & Co. produced for wealthy clients like Carnegie, Morgan, and Astor.
Taxonomic Literature 2 online Online version of Taxonomic Literature 2, the premier guide to the literature of systematic botany.	Trade Literature Collection This collection of manufacturer issued catalogs is internationally known as an important source for the history of American business, technology, marketing, and design.
Unearthed! In celebration of the opening of the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils, the Smithsonian Libraries has curated an online collection of the Libraries’ Paleobiology literature.