Unprecedented access to America's premier archive of culture and history

Gale and the Smithsonian have partnered to give librarians, students, faculty, and researchers a look behind the glass of the Smithsonian exhibits and collections. Smithsonian Collections Online delivers primary source content that's essential for today's researcher. The digitized materials within Smithsonian Collections Online span multidisciplinary topics for both research and education, including:

 

  • Evolution of Flight, 1784-1991
  • Trade Literature and the Merchandizing of Industry
  • World’s Fairs and Expositions: Visions of Tomorrow
  • Air & Space and Smithsonian Magazine Archive
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Collections

Smithsonian Collections Online: Smithsonian and Air & Space Magazines, 1970–2010

This collection brings together Air & Space Magazine and Smithsonian Magazine for the first time in a combined and fully-searchable digital archive. Together, the complete history of both of these premier magazines represent decades of in-depth and expert coverage of high-demand topics and unique insights into aviation, space, innovation, science, technology, the arts, and culture, all of which is accessible in an integrated, intuitive display.

Smithsonian Collections Online: Evolution of Flight, 1784–1991

This collection sketches the "story behind the story" of man's desire to fly, including early flight, inventions, air races, the fighter pilot, the evolution of aerial weaponry, Germany's WWII jet program, the Cold War aviation race, and other flight-related developments and events critical to the history of science and technology and the military.

Smithsonian Collections Online: Trade Literature & the Merchandizing of Industry

This collection, covering 1820 to 1926, allows researchers to determine the history of companies and industries, discern trends in sectors from furniture to machinery, analyze marketing and management techniques, and examine illustrations of the items used at home and in business. The collection exposes technological advances, architectural advances, societal changes, and business history in a way that reveals vital aspects of American culture, society, and history.

Smithsonian Collections Online: World's Fairs and Expositions, Visions of Tomorrow

With coverage beginning in 1834 and including the pivotal Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 in London, this collection allows users to explore key cultural and technological progress that shaped contemporary outlooks on life and reflected national identities.

Product Features & Tools

Term Frequency

Researchers can see the frequency of search terms within sets of content to begin identifying central themes and assessing how individuals, events, and ideas interact and develop over time.

Topic Finder

By grouping commonly occurring themes, this tool reveals hidden connections within search terms—helping to shape research by integrating diverse content with relevant information.

Cross-Search Capability

Search across the content of complementary primary source products in one intuitive environment, enabling innovative new research connections.

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National Geographic Virtual Library: National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-2015*

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Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Politics and Society

With this collection, scholars can research and explore primary sources covering such topics as British domestic and foreign policy, the working class, trade unions, Chartism, utopian socialism, public protest, radical movements, the cartographic record, political reform, education, family relationships, religion, leisure, and many others.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture

This collection includes receipts and archives from the Drury Lane Theatre, Royal Philharmonic Society music manuscripts, and the largely forgotten Wandering Minstrels archive, which opens a rare glimpse into the decades of Gilbert and Sullivan. The archive enables scholars to explore primary sources covering such topics as Victorian popular culture, street literature, social history, music, bloods and penny dreadfuls, professional acting on the London stage, the Royal Literary Fund, British dramatic works, and many others.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790–1840

This unique collection of monographs includes a wide range of Romantic literature published in English, French, and German. Sourced from Castle Corvey in North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany, the Corvey Collection is one of the most-important surviving collections of works from the period. With a special focus on these rare works, especially difficult-to-find works by lesser-known women writers, more than 9,500 titles are included.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Maps and Travel Literature

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Maps and Travel Literature provides geographical images from all areas of the globe. The nineteenth century encompassed tremendous growth in maps and map making as the field of cartography gained visibility and professional standards. Mapping of the world during this time period was driven by massive industrialization and exploration. As people ventured further from traditional population centers, a new market for reliable maps was created. This collection supports studies on the evolution of travel and transportation and spans multiple disciplines, providing insight into societal values, interests, colonialism, and exploration.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Photography

As a complement to studies of history, culture, media, and many other disciplines, this collection provides the visual evidence to support and supplement written sources through photographs of people both at work and at leisure, images of scientific research and medical practices, photographs documenting travel and exploration, portraits of people, and coverage of major events such as coronations, funerals, and wars.

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Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Religion, Reform, and Society examines the influence of both faith and scepticism on the shaping of many aspects of society, including politics, law, economics, and social and radical reform movements.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part I

The "long" nineteenth century is an era characterized by industrial, technical, and social revolution. With a changing society came new approaches to the study of natural history, physics, mathematics, medicine, and public health. Boasting a wealth of curated primary sources, this collection helps researcher place essential subjects in the larger picture of historical study.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part II

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part II expands subject coverage in Part I, gathering together periodicals and monographs from renowned sources, and providing a global view of science and technology from a critical era of scientific development.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks

The Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women and Transnational Networks collection covers issues of gender and class, igniting nineteenth-century debate in the context of suffrage movements, culture, immigration, health, and many other concerns. Using a wide array of primary source documents, including serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals, this collection focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early twentieth century, all through a transnational perspective.

Sabin Americana History of the Americas, 1500–1926

Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, this digital archive provides a firsthand account of 450 years of history in the Americas, including discovery and exploration, slavery and European colonization, native peoples, wars of independence, religion and missionary work, social and political reforms, economic development, westward expansion, notable individuals, and much more.