Smithsonian MCP server
online · 100% uptimeSearch 14.5M Smithsonian Open Access objects, get CC0 images, find cross-collection connections.
not scanned yet
2 stars660 downloads/wk
Reviews
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If you have run it, two minutes of your experience saves the next person an afternoon.
Smithsonian tools
Tool list not cached yet. `describe` through the gateway fetches it live.
How Smithsonian compares
Against every graded Web search MCP server, from our own scans and uptime checks. Updated after each scan run.
- Safety score
- 93/100
- higher than 95% of 3,470 Web search servers
- Uptime
- 100%
- of our recent checks; the typical remote Web search server answers 100%
- Response time
- 530 ms
- faster than 27% of 2,238 Web search servers
- GitHub stars
- 2
- more than 70% of 1,786 Web search servers
- Downloads a week
- 660
- more than 90% of 827 Web search servers with a package
Release history: 5 versions in the registry since 2026-08-25, latest 2026-11-01, typically one every 18 days.
Install Smithsonian in Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code
claude mcp add --transport http smithsonian-mcp-server https://smithsonian.caseyjhand.com/mcp
What the publisher says
From the Smithsonian repository's README, as published. We do not edit it. Read it on GitHub
@cyanheads/smithsonian-mcp-server Search 14.5M Smithsonian Open Access objects across 20+ museums via MCP, and retrieve CC0 images for the 5.2M that carry openly-licensed media. STDIO or Streamable HTTP. 6 Tools
Public Hosted Server: https://smithsonian.caseyjhand.com/mcp
Overview
Smithsonian Open Access catalog — 14.5 million objects across 20+ museums, with CC0 images for the 5.2 million that carry them. Search by free text or exact category, browse by museum, culture, date, or topic, and discover cross-collection connections from any MCP client. Runs as a stdio process, a local Streamable HTTP server, or the public hosted endpoint above.
Tools
Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.
Nothing above is checked by us. What we check is on the safety report.
Smithsonian: common questions
- Is Smithsonian MCP server safe?
- Yes, by our scan: it is graded A (93/100). Read the Smithsonian safety report
- How do I install Smithsonian?
- It runs remotely at smithsonian.caseyjhand.com. Add it to Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop with the snippets above, or call it through the mcp.market gateway without installing anything.
- Does Smithsonian need an API key?
- No secret keys are declared. It reads 9 settings from the environment.
- Is Smithsonian maintained?
- The last commit was 27 days ago (2026-10-08). The latest release is v0.4.0.
- Is Smithsonian up?
- 100% of our last 28 checks got an answer. We check remote servers about four times a day.
- What can I use instead of Smithsonian?
- Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Brave Search MCP server, Airweave Search MCP server and Brave MCP server.
- How does Smithsonian compare with other Web search MCP servers?
- safety score 93/100 (higher than 95% of 3,470 Web search servers); uptime 100% (of our recent checks; the typical remote Web search server answers 100%); response time 530 ms (faster than 27% of 2,238 Web search servers). Full comparison.
Alternatives to Smithsonian
Same job from other publishers: the closest match first, then the best rated.
- Brave SearchBrave Search MCP Server: web results, images, videos, rich results, AI summaries, and more.not reviewedEstablishedA
- Airweave SearchMCP server for searching Airweave collections with natural language queries.not reviewedEstablishedC
- BraveVisit https://brave.com/search/api/ for a free API key. Search the web, local businesses, images,…not reviewedEstablishedA
fojin — Buddhist Canon ToolsBuddhist canon tools: search, passages, cross-canon parallels, dictionaries — all URN-cited.not reviewedEstablishedA
