canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/opencollection.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection

# Opencollection Brooklynmuseum Opencollection

Opencollection is the public API for the Brooklyn Museum's open-access collection. Two endpoints expose the museum's catalogue: GET `/search/{term}` for full-text search across the collection and GET `/object/{object_id}` for retrieving a specific object's metadata, including title, artist, date, medium, dimensions, provenance, and image references. The API is unauthenticated and intended for educational, research, and creative-reuse projects, with collection imagery available under the Brooklyn Museum's open-content terms.

## For AI agents

Search the Brooklyn Museum's open-access collection by term and retrieve object metadata and imagery for any object record.

## Scope

Does not handle exhibition scheduling, ticketing, or member management - use for Brooklyn Museum collection search and object lookup only.

## Capabilities

- Search the Brooklyn Museum's collection by free-text term across artist, title, and metadata fields
- Retrieve a single object record by its numeric object ID with full catalogue metadata
- Surface object imagery references for embedding museum-quality artwork in research projects
- Access provenance, date, and medium fields for citation and scholarly use
- Build collection-browsing experiences without museum-side authentication or rate-limit handshakes

## Use cases

### Collection Search Experience

Build a public collection-search experience by passing user queries straight to GET `/search/{term}.` The Brooklyn Museum's open-access dataset spans more than 100,000 catalogued objects across painting, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, and antiquities, and is suitable for scholarly browsers, classroom tools, and creative-reuse projects.

Example prompt: GET `/search/Picasso` and return the first page of object IDs and primary thumbnails for a search results page.

### Object Detail Pages

Power object detail pages by calling GET `/object/{object_id}` for the selected record. Each response includes title, artist or culture, dimensions, medium, date, provenance, and references to images, providing the structured fields needed for citation widgets and side-panel cards in cultural-heritage applications.

Example prompt: GET `/object/12345` and render a detail card with the title, artist, medium, dimensions, and primary image URL.

### Educational Content Pipelines

Pull museum imagery and metadata into educational platforms, classroom slide decks, or open courseware modules. Because there is no authentication and the data is open-access, the Opencollection endpoints fit cleanly into automated content pipelines that periodically refresh art-history modules.

Example prompt: Search `/search/{term}` for the term 'Hudson River School' and assemble a slide deck with object IDs, artists, and image references.

### AI Agent Cultural Research

Through Jentic, an AI research agent can answer questions about Brooklyn Museum holdings, surface relevant artworks, and produce citations without building a museum-specific client. The agent searches by intent, loads `/search/{term}` or `/object/{object_id}`, and executes calls against the unauthenticated base URL.

Example prompt: Through Jentic, search for 'search Brooklyn Museum collection by term', load GET `/search/{term}`, and execute it with the term 'Egyptian'.

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/object/{object_id}` | Retrieve a specific object record by ID |
| GET | `/search/{term}` | Search the collection by free-text term |

## Key resources

- **Object** — Retrieve a single object record by ID
- **Search** — Free-text search across the Brooklyn Museum collection

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the Brooklyn Museum Opencollection API by hand means shaping the search and object-lookup requests and parsing their responses yourself, even though no credentials are involved. Through Jentic you install once, import the Opencollection API from the API Directory, and your agent calls it directly.
- **Permission scoping:** This is a read-only collection API with no credentials whose object id and search term travel in the URL path, so scope it by limiting the agent to the operations it needs, such as searching the collection or fetching an object by id. You choose the operations it may call, and nothing beyond that set runs.
- **Credential handling:** Opencollection requires no credentials, so there is nothing to store; your Jentic One instance still routes the call through its execution layer. No secret ever enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'search the Brooklyn Museum collection' or 'look up a museum object by id', and Jentic returns the matching `/search/{term}` or `/object/{object_id}` operation with its path-parameter schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Harvard Art Museums API** — Harvard's open-access collection API with similar object and search resources.
- **OpenCage Geocoder** — Geocode object provenance locations for map-based exhibits.
- **Wikimedia API** — Cross-reference object subjects and artists with Wikipedia and Wikidata.

## FAQ

### What authentication does the Opencollection API use?

The spec declares no security schemes - both `/object/{object_id}` and `/search/{term}` are unauthenticated and can be called directly. Through Jentic, this means agents can hit the endpoints with no your Jentic One instance credential involved, and there is no client-secret handling to worry about.

### Can I search the Brooklyn Museum collection by keyword?

Yes. GET `/search/{term}` accepts the search term as a path parameter and returns matching collection objects across artist, title, and metadata fields. Combine with GET `/object/{object_id}` to drill into a specific record once you have an ID from the search results.

### What are the rate limits for the Opencollection API?

The spec does not publish a numeric rate limit. The Brooklyn Museum runs Opencollection as a public, open-access service - cache search and object responses aggressively, especially for object detail pages where metadata changes rarely, and avoid tight loops over `/search/{term}` for crawl-style workloads.

### How do I retrieve an object's metadata through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'retrieve a Brooklyn Museum object by ID', load GET `/object/{object_id}`, and execute it with the numeric object_id path parameter. Jentic returns the parsed object record so the agent can extract title, artist, medium, and image references without writing any HTTP code.

### Is the Opencollection API free?

Yes. The Brooklyn Museum publishes Opencollection as an open-access service and the underlying object metadata is offered under the museum's open-content terms. There is no subscription or per-call charge - only attribution requirements when reusing imagery.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Opencollection API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which operations the agent can reach, and this is a read-only API with just two operations: searching the collection with GET `/search/{term}` and fetching a record with GET `/object/{object_id}.` You can allow the agent to search only, allow only object lookups, or permit both, and nothing outside the set you approve ever runs. There are no credentials to scope, since the object id and search term travel in the URL path and the endpoints need no authentication.