Encyclopedia Smithsonian

Continuing the rich history of scholarly publishing by the Smithsonian, including digital publications from the Contributions Series.

Highlights include the Online National Air and Space Museum Directory of Airplanes.

View a major aircraft, space objects and engines on display, sortable by name, location and exhibition.

Resources for the astronomical community, including current research data, facilities information and archival material.

Search millions of records, with images, video and sound files from Smithsonian museums, archives, and libraries.

The Smithsonian's 22 branch libraries contain more than 1.8 million volumes, including 40,000 rare books.

Online database of Library, Archives, and Research Catalogs

Smithsonian Research Online is a set of services to the research community both within and outside the Smithsonian Institution. Managed by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the program assists in capturing the research output of Smithsonian scholars and making it available to Institutional management as well as scientists and historians world-wide.

Images and information on the Wright brothers: the first to make powered, controlled flights in an airplane.

Search the Smithsonian Institution Archives’ collections, which contain the official records of the Smithsonian, as well as personal papers, special collections, records of professional societies, and oral/video histories relating to the history of the Smithsonian.

Includes data compiled by Smithsonian volcanologists over the past three decades and represents an updated electronic version of Volcanoes of the World (Simkin and Siebert, 1994).

Special programs sponsored by  The Smithsonian Associates, educating and entertaining audiences for more than 45 years.

The National Air and Space Museum offers a variety of free educational programs for school groups and organized youth groups. Here you will find information on educational activities at the Museum as well as resources provided for classroom learning.

The gateway to Smithsonian educational resources for educators, families, and students.

Seeks to improve the teaching of science in the nation's schools .

Videos from the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum which maintains the largest collection of historic air and space artifacts in the world.

Video recordings in the Collections Search Center.

Video from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Telling America's stories through video.

Video material from the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.