Open Knowledge · Public Domain · Art for Everyone
Data Sources & Open Collections
Calliope is built entirely on open-access museum APIs, CC0 datasets, and public domain knowledge. Every source listed here is freely available to researchers, developers, and the public. Alongside artwork records, Calliope searches open publication libraries to bring scholarly and curatorial context to every result. We believe great art belongs to everyone.
Live Museum Collections Actively Searched
These 11 collections are searched in real time whenever you ask Calliope a question. Results, images, and on-view status are fetched directly from each museum's open API.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
500,000+ objects spanning 5,000 years. Fully open API with image access, no key required.
metmuseum.github.io
Art Institute of Chicago
120,000+ works including Impressionist and modern masterpieces. Open REST API.
api.artic.edu/docs
Rijksmuseum
800,000+ objects, the world's finest Dutch Golden Age collection. Free API key.
rijksmuseum.nl/en/api
Victoria and Albert Museum
1.2 million objects covering art, design, fashion, and performance. Fully open, no key.
api.vam.ac.uk
Smithsonian Institution
5+ million objects across 19 museums including the Freer, American Art, and Natural History.
si.edu/openaccess
Minneapolis Institute of Art
90,000+ objects with exceptional Asian, African, and Oceanic holdings. Open search API.
search.artsmia.org
Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh's world-class collection. CC0 open dataset.
github.com/cmoa
National Gallery of Art
Washington DC. 150,000+ works, strong European masters. CC0 open data.
nga.gov/open-access
Publications & Scholarly Texts Actively Searched
Calliope searches open publication libraries in parallel with museum collections. This bibliographic layer gives Claude real curatorial and scholarly context — specific book titles, authors, and years — that it weaves into its narrations. All publications are freely readable.
Open Library
Millions of books including art history, catalogues raisonnés, and museum publications. Searched by artist name and subject. Free to read online.
openlibrary.org
Internet Archive — Art Books
The world's largest digital library. Searched specifically for art books, exhibition catalogs, and criticism in English. Fully free to read.
archive.org/artbooks
Met Publications Open Access
The Metropolitan Museum's complete library of open-access scholarly publications — exhibition catalogs, collection guides, and academic monographs.
metmuseum.org/metpublications
Getty Publications Virtual Library
300+ free art history publications from the Getty Research Institute, including landmark catalogs and conservation studies.
getty.edu/publications
Reference & Context Used for Context
These sources provide the biographical, historical, and encyclopedic context that Calliope weaves into her narrations. Wikipedia is queried live for artist and movement summaries.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia
Artist biographies and art movement summaries fetched live to enrich Calliope's narrations.
wikipedia.org REST API
Wikimedia Commons
Free media repository with millions of public domain art images and historical photographs.
commons.wikimedia.org
Wikidata
Structured open knowledge base linking artists, works, movements, and institutions worldwide.
wikidata.org
Europeana
50+ million cultural heritage objects from European institutions. Open API and datasets.
pro.europeana.eu/apis
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
47+ million items from American libraries, archives, and museums. Open API.
api.dp.la
Internet Archive
Billions of historical documents, books, images, and web pages freely accessible.
archive.org
Project Gutenberg
70,000+ free ebooks including classic art criticism, aesthetics, and cultural history.
gutenberg.org
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Botanical and natural history illustration — a rich source of scientific art spanning centuries.
biodiversitylibrary.org
Getty Vocabularies & Publications Scholarly
The Getty Institute's open vocabularies are the authoritative global standard for art terminology, artist names, and geographic references used by museums worldwide.
Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
The global standard vocabulary for art styles, movements, materials, and techniques.
getty.edu/research/tools/aat
Getty Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)
Authoritative names and biographical data for 700,000+ artists and architects.
getty.edu/research/tools/ulan
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
Authoritative geographic vocabulary for art historical place names and relationships.
getty.edu/research/tools/tgn
Getty Virtual Library
Free art history publications, exhibition catalogues, and scholarly research from the Getty.
getty.edu/publications
Open Data Platforms Additional Sources
Broader open data infrastructure that connects cultural institutions and enables discovery across collections globally.
Harvard Art Museums API
250,000+ objects across the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler museums.
harvardartmuseums.org/api
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
216,000+ design objects spanning product design, textiles, and decorative arts.
apidocs.cooperhewitt.org
museum-digital
Open platform connecting hundreds of smaller museums, primarily in Europe.
museum-digital.org
Data.gov — Art Datasets
US federal open data portal with art and cultural heritage datasets from government collections.
catalog.data.gov (art)
data.europa.eu
European Union open data portal including cultural and heritage datasets from member states.
data.europa.eu
Archaeology Data Service
UK's national archive for archaeological data — excavation records, finds, and site reports.
archaeologydataservice.ac.uk
Research & AI Datasets Academic
Curated datasets used in computer vision and art history research, enabling machine understanding of visual art at scale.
Met Dataset for Visual Recognition
400,000+ Met museum images annotated for visual recognition and art AI research.
cmp.felk.cvut.cz/met
FRAME Dataset (arXiv 2602.19133)
Fine-grained recognition and art museum evaluation dataset for multimodal AI research.
arxiv.org/abs/2602.19133
All data used by Calliope is either in the public domain, licensed under CC0, or made available through official open-access programs by the respective institutions.
We do not store, redistribute, or modify any museum data — all queries go directly to source APIs in real time.
If you are a museum or institution wishing to be included, please reach out via Instagram @Ask.Calliope.