Wikipedia:GLAM/Smithsonian Institution Archives/Requests

This page is for media requests related to the archives of the Smithsonian Institution Archives. We will do our best to meet your needs!

General requests
This is the place for archival materials and general information that you might be seeking about someone or something.


 * Would be interested in the letters of S Dillon Ripley to Salim Ali and any other Indian ornithology related material Shyamal (talk) 04:59, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Image requests
Many images in the Smithsonian's collection are available for public domain use. If you find it on the Smithsonian Institution Archive website, then you can upload it to Commons. If you aren't finding something on the website, let us know and we'll do our best!


 * Isabel Pérez Farfante
 * Myra Keen
 * Henry C. Kellers
 * Mary Stuart MacDougall
 * Ira Rubinoff ✅
 * Grace Sandhouse
 * Harlow Shapley thinking to crop this image for a head-and-shoulders in his main article. Iridia (talk) 01:46, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Crop is low quality but suitable for infobox at HarlowShapely-crop.jpeg . DocTree (talk) 01:34, 22 April 2012 (UTC) ✅
 * Priscilla Fairfield Bok
 * Would it be possible to access the The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art (http://sirismm.si.edu/siris/eepatop.htm)? I have some troubles to understand which contents are under the archive and which are outside it. Maybe also those contents are in public domain but there is no explicit explanation. Thank you very much - --Iopensa (talk) 11:08, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Sadly this falls out of the scope of our project since it's at a different unit of the Smithsonian. Most content is probably not going to be available digitized at this time if it's not online already. Sorry! Sarah (talk) 18:45, 20 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Can you please confirm whether this 1964 photo of the 1814 Star Spangled Banner is in the public domain? The description page seems to indicate that permission is needed to use it, despite it being on the archive website. Thanks, Avenue (talk) 14:31, 20 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi Avenue. Yes, it is actually under the "no known copyright" policy. You can see the template you can use when you upload it to Commons in use, here. I hope this helps! Sarah (talk) 18:45, 20 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Sarah, that is helpful. I've uploaded it and used it in our article on The Star-Spangled Banner. Now, more generally, the beginning of this section seems to me to imply that every image found on the Smithsonian Institution Archive website can be uploaded here. Is that correct, and if so, would they also fall under the Smithsonian's "no known copyright" policy? --Avenue (talk) 01:25, 21 June 2012 (UTC)
 * That is true. However it breaks down three different ways:
 * If it was made before 1923 it's public domain (so use the PD template)
 * If it's made by a name Smithsonian employee, use the SI-gov template.
 * All others, are no known copyright

Sometimes you'll find a federal gov one, but, it's not that often. PLease be sure to use the Commons category "Smithsonian Institution Archives" when you upload an image from the site! Sarah (talk) 05:35, 22 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I've uploaded a few more, but I'm not sure if I'm getting them right. In particular, I presumed Julian Scott (the photographer who took this photo) was a Smithsonian employee, based partly on this piece about his photos in the Science Service archives. But now I see that Science Service wasn't around yet during the first half of Scott's activity, so now I'm not so sure. Is there any way to check who was an employee? By the way, I think the 1923 cutoff is for the date of publication, not creation, but you probably knew that already. Thanks, Avenue (talk) 15:34, 24 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi there! Great job with the uploads. Science Service is actually all federal gov and public domain with the fed template :) Sorry I forgot to mention that! Sarah (talk) 21:27, 25 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually, the Science Service Collection was a private news organization, not Smithsonian, so the copyright status for them is somewhat unknown. The 'no known copyright restrictions' template should be used instead. I will change the few that I saw. Thanks for your help in getting these images up!--Digitaleffie (talk) 14:27, 10 July 2012 (UTC)


 * John Weaver (artist). He worked there for years sculpting. Do you have any images of his works, biography info, etc.? Just add to his talk page, my talk page, stick it on a fridge, etc.--Canoe1967 (talk) 20:21, 17 July 2012 (UTC)