Harvard Art Museums API
✓ Official Vendor SpecMediaContent DeliveryapiKey6 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Search and retrieve Harvard Art Museums objects, people, exhibitions, and galleries with a free API key.
Use for: Search Harvard Art Museums for paintings by Rembrandt, Get the full record for object ID 299843, List all exhibitions ever held at the Harvard Art Museums, Find every artist named in the Harvard Art Museums collection
Not supported: Does not handle ticketing, donations, or write-back metadata edits — use for read-only Harvard Art Museums collection lookups only.
The Harvard Art Museums API is a REST-style service that exposes the same collections data that powers the museums' public website, including objects, the people associated with them, exhibitions, and galleries. The API has 6 read-only endpoints covering listings and single-record lookups for objects, persons, exhibitions, and galleries. Authentication is a free API key passed as an apikey query parameter. Image and IIIF media URLs are returned alongside metadata so consumers can render artwork directly from the response.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Harvard Art Museums API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Harvard Art Museums API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Harvard Art Museums API.
Search the Harvard Art Museums object collection with rich filters
Fetch a single object record by ID with image and provenance data
List people (artists, sitters, makers) and fetch a single person by ID
List exhibitions held by the Harvard Art Museums
List galleries within the Harvard Art Museums physical space
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Harvard Art Museums API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Educational Collection Browser
Build a teaching tool that surfaces a curated subset of Harvard Art Museums objects with image, title, and credit line by querying GET /object with filters. Each object record returns IIIF image URLs that classroom apps can render directly. The API is free and requires only an apikey query parameter.
Query GET /object with classification 'Paintings' and century '19th' and return the first 20 objects with their primary image URL.
Artist Lookup and Linked Records
Use GET /person to list artists, sitters, and makers in the collection, and GET /person/{id} to retrieve a full biographical record. The same person ID appears on object records, so a UI can chain object → person → other works by the same artist. Useful for biography pages and 'related works' sections.
Get person ID 28017 via GET /person/28017 and then query GET /object with that person's ID to list their works in the collection.
Exhibition Programming Display
List past and current exhibitions for a public-facing exhibitions page by calling GET /exhibition. Each record returns dates, gallery, and a description, which a website or kiosk can render without scraping. Pair with GET /gallery to map exhibitions to physical spaces.
List recent exhibitions via GET /exhibition and pair each with its gallery from GET /gallery for a 'now showing' page.
AI Agent Art Research Assistant
Wire an art research assistant that answers 'show me Dutch Golden Age paintings at Harvard' by calling /object with appropriate filters through Jentic. The free API key is held in the Jentic vault, and the agent only handles structured object records, never the raw key. The API is read-only, so an agent cannot modify museum data.
When asked 'find Dutch Golden Age portraits', call GET /object with culture 'Dutch' and classification 'Paintings' and return titles, makers, and image URLs.
Key Endpoints
6 endpoints — the harvard art museums api is a rest-style service that exposes the same collections data that powers the museums' public website, including objects, the people associated with them, exhibitions, and galleries.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/object
Search and list objects
GET
/object/{id}
Get a single object by ID
GET
/person
List people
GET
/person/{id}
Get a single person by ID
GET
/exhibition
List exhibitions
GET
/gallery
List galleries
GET
/object
Search and list objects
GET
/object/{id}
Get a single object by ID
GET
/person
List people
GET
/person/{id}
Get a single person by ID
GET
/exhibition
List exhibitions
GET
/gallery
List galleries
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
Harvard Art Museums API keys live in the Jentic vault and are appended as the apikey query parameter on each call. Raw keys never appear in the agent's prompt or tool transcripts.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic for 'search harvard art museums for paintings' and Jentic returns GET /object with the schema and filter parameters, so agents skip crawling the api-docs repo on GitHub.
Time to first call
Direct integration: a few hours to wire the six read endpoints. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Harvard Art Museums API through Jentic.
What authentication does the Harvard Art Museums API use?
The API uses an API key passed as the apikey query parameter on every request. Keys are issued for free by the Harvard Art Museums. Through Jentic the key is stored in the encrypted vault and appended to each call, so it never enters the agent's prompt context.
Can I retrieve full image URLs for artworks via this API?
Yes. GET /object and GET /object/{id} return primary image URLs and IIIF service URLs in each object record, so a downstream UI can render the artwork without a separate image lookup. Image rights vary per object and are reflected in the record's metadata.
What are the rate limits for the Harvard Art Museums API?
The Harvard Art Museums applies fair-use throttling rather than a hard published quota. Their developer documentation requests considerate use and back-off on errors. Expect HTTP 429 if a client bursts well above ordinary read traffic.
How do I search for paintings through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'search harvard art museums objects', load the schema for GET /object, and execute with classification 'Paintings' plus any culture or century filter. Run pip install jentic and use the async client.search, client.load, and client.execute pattern.
Does the Harvard Art Museums API support write operations like submitting metadata?
No. The API is read-only across all six endpoints. Crowdsourced metadata corrections go through a separate editorial process at the museums; this API only exposes the published, curated collection.
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