Get Smithsonian Object
smithsonian_get_objectRead-onlyIdempotent
Fetch a normalized catalog metadata projection for a Smithsonian object by its record_id (from smithsonian_search_objects results). Returns title, dates, description, labeled notes, makers, materials, dimensions, places, cultures, topics, exhibitions, credit line, identifiers, rights, and a media summary. Natural-history records can include scientific_names, taxonomy, and collection coordinates without inferred precision. The media summary counts the media and links every non-image item (3D models, scanned books, documents); full image URLs come from smithsonian_get_media.
Tool call template
Replace each placeholder with a value matching the input schema. Only required parameters are included; add optional parameters as needed.
{
"id": 1,
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"arguments": {
"id": "<id>"
},
"name": "smithsonian_get_object"
}
}Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Yes | Object record_id from smithsonian_search_objects results (e.g. "nasm_A19670093000"). |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| dates | No | All date fields in the catalog record. | |
| error | No | Present when the call failed. Absent on success. | |
| notes | No | All nonempty catalog notes in source order, including repeated labels. | |
| place | No | Geographic place associations. | |
| title | No | Object title. | |
| is_cc0 | No | True when the object metadata is CC0 (open access). The Smithsonian Open Access corpus is CC0 throughout, so this flag rarely varies — read media_summary.has_cc0_images to predict whether smithsonian_get_media returns images. | |
| makers | No | All named parties associated with this object. | |
| topics | No | Subject and topic terms. | |
| culture | No | Culture associations. | |
| sources | No | Where this answer came from. A page served from oa_mirror lists its rows in mirror order, not the live API's, and its notice names the snapshot date. Present only on a server that keeps a mirror. | |
| taxonomy | No | Reported taxonomic ranks; absent ranks remain omitted. | |
| materials | No | Physical material descriptions. | |
| record_id | No | Unique object identifier. | |
| unit_code | No | Museum unit code the object is indexed under — the value a unit_code filter matches. | |
| dimensions | No | Dimension and measurement strings. | |
| coordinates | No | Collection points without inferred precision or geocoding; empty when no valid decimal pairs exist. | |
| credit_line | No | Attribution or credit string. | |
| description | No | Best available prose description from Summary, Physical Description, Brief Description, Description, Description (Brief), or Citation notes. Absent when only administrative notes exist. | |
| exhibitions | No | Exhibition history. | |
| identifiers | No | All accession and catalog identifiers. | |
| museum_name | No | Full museum name. A few rarely-indexed archive sub-unit codes have no mapped name and fall back to the raw unit code. | |
| record_link | No | Canonical Smithsonian Institution URL for this object. | |
| media_summary | No | Media availability summary, with a link to each non-image item. Call smithsonian_get_media for full image URLs. | |
| object_rights | No | Rights statement from the catalog. | |
| mirror_snapshot | No | Publication time (ISO 8601) of the Open Access snapshot the mirror held; what came from oa_mirror reflects the catalog as of then. Present when part of this answer came from oa_mirror. | |
| scientific_names | No | All reported scientific names in source order; no accepted-name inference. | |
| holding_museum_name | No | The unit that holds the object, from the record's own data source, when it differs from the unit that indexes it (unit_code). Absent otherwise. |