Information about this database, our image use policy, search tips, and a list of additional sources of information are available in the Introduction.
Use the Keyword Search to perform simple keyword searches on selected fields. If you need to search on another field, use the By Field Search. If you would just like to see a sample from the collection, choose a topic from the Quick Browse Searches below.
Searches will return a maximum of 5000 records. Larger datasets process more slowly, so consider using additional search terms to narrow the results.
For more information about Anthropology collections, see our main collections page.
See the Help tab to learn more about searching and then exploring your returned results (sorting, exporting, etc.).
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War Department Collection, 1864 |
8352171 8352172 8352173 8352174 8352207 8352209 8352211 8359813 8359878 8360277 8367434 8367445 8367493 8367527 8367546 8368271 8371619 8372508 8372519 8372530 8372541 8372564 8372597 8372608 8372619 8372632 8372643 8372665 8372756 8372768 8372820 8372875 8373028 8373085 8373089 8378229 8378276 8378293 8378294 8378494 8378572 8378573 8378574 8378575 8378577 8378603 8378605 8378606 8378960 8379296 8410498 8468143 8468144 8468185 8468552 8470323 8470334 8470345 8484426 8339935 8339936 8339943 8402149 |
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Selected Egyptian Archaeology |
8314175 8314239 8009759 8010131 8026567 8030218 8043122 8047379 8047382 8054373 8071703 8071752 8072515 8072552 8072575 8072819 8073146 8075360 8075476 8075477 8077485 8077492 8077502 8077517 8077533 8077852 8079304 8080771 8085119 8101697 8103101 8110603 8110925 8110930 8121919 8121926 8121930 8121944 8121947 8124348 8126274 8126277 8126289 8168467 8168476 8175519 8175520 8175522 8182572 8184940 8188781 8193597 8193671 8193684 8193887 8193897 8206876 8206883 8206907 8208096 8208100 8208102 8219975 8219984 8503876 8503881 8503885 8503894 8503979 8503980 8503990 8504005 8504006 |
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Hawaii, Selected Objects |
8083872 8083873 8083871 8376356 8376319 8376321 8411378 8403666 8421183 8376260 8376279 8376264 8377647 8381197 8376146 8376148 8407560 8414724 8409708 8433040 8409707 8435421 8344757 8376339 8377676 8376320 8376322 8418816 8419351 8479358 8334997 8393720 8425329 8376449 8383670 8376294 8376519 8083878 8395632 8365064 8487688 8401929 8376342 8376115 8393911 8426419 8376402 8376513 8365988 8409843 8376142 8414732 8393905 8403853 8340847 8341008 8383671 8376375 8376374 8414719 8417593 8376368 8376346 8376345 8403894 8377689 8393885 8336559 8403895 8340844 8376386 8376347 8376340 8376523 8376183 8083874 8083876 8376396 8457946 8387690 8376381 8417591 8376384 8487443 8400050 8376354 8435423 8376308 |
Enter your keywords separated by spaces and click Search. Records that match your search terms will be returned.
- Using parentheses to clarify the logic, you can create complex queries with OR and NOT (here capital letters are required, otherwise they will be treated as keyword terms).
- You can also use double-quotes to specify terms that should be treated as one.
Keyword search example: knife ("sri lanka" OR "india")
Use the By Field search to find specimen data that match values in specific database fields. Enter a value or choose one from the dropdown lists.
- Click the Search button to initiate a search. Clear resets all fields.
- Some lists are linked, so for example, choosing a Country narrows the choices for Province/State/Territory, and District/County. Dropdown choices also narrow as you type.
- Note that the Province/State dropdown is populated only after you have chosen a Country. You can type a Province/State without selecting a Country.
- Check Only Records with Images if you want to restrict the search to records with multimedia content.
- You will receive a warning when you enter invalid information in the text fields. For example, Catalog Numbers are composed strictly of letters and numbers; other characters will raise a warning.
- Select Advanced Search to search additional fields.
The results of your searches can be displayed in Grid (a sortable, customizable table)
or Gallery View (best for reviewing images). Use the Switch button 
to cycle between these views.
- You can choose whether to display 5, 10, 20, 50, or 100 records at a time.
In Grid View:
- You can choose the columns to display from any column's dropdown menu (mouse into a column header and click the dropdown icon). Under Columns, click the name to display or hide the field (you do not need to click the checkbox specifically).
- You can drag a column header to change its order of appearance in the grid.
- You can also drag the edge of a column to make it wider or narrower.
- Click in the expansion (
) column to view the full record.
In Gallery View:
- Click the image to view the full record.
See Exporting Results for information on downloading results to, for example, Excel.
Open the full collection record by clicking the expansion button () in Grid View,
or anywhere within the image frame in Gallery View. Inverse expansion buttons (
) indicate records with multimedia (typically, images).
- In the Record window, metadata for the multimedia content is available when you mouseover the thumbnail.
- Clicking the thumbnail opens the content in your browser or other appropriate application.
- Record windows may be resized or moved within the browser window.
- You may have up to ten Record windows open at any one time.
Sort results in Grid View by clicking the column header (or by choosing Sort from the column's dropdown menu).
- Sort on multiple columns by consecutively sorting columns in reverse order. For example, to view results sorted by Country and Province/State, first sort by Province/State and then sort again by Country.
- For any column you can choose to sort in Ascending or Descending order.
Export all or selected results by clicking the Export Results as CSV button in the bottom toolbar in Grid,
or Gallery View.
- Select individual records for Export by checking the export selection box (along the left edge of the Grid View grid).
- Clear all selections with the Clear Selections button in the bottom toolbar.
- Results are exported as comma-separated-values, one record per line, which can be saved to disk or opened directly with applications such as Microsoft Excel.
To create a link to specific records at NMNH provide the appropriate unit and querystring to:
http://collections.mnh.si.edu/search/UNIT/?QUERYSTRING
where UNIT is:
- anth, birds, botany, ento, fishes, herps, iz, mammals, ms, or paleo
and QUERYSTRING is (use a plus-sign to separate words):
- One or more CATALOG NUMBERS, e.g.
- mammals/?nb=98312+A884
- paleo/?nb=v4734
- One or more BARCODES, e.g.
- anth/?bc=e2457-0
- botany/?bc=00007842+00588979
- The NAME of a TYPE specimen, e.g.:
- birds/?qt=corvus+corax
- herps/?qt=bottae
- paleo/?qt=canis+edwardii
- The NAME of a specimen or object, e.g.:
- anth/?qn=woven+basket
- ento/?qn=musca+domestica
- fishes/?qn=ablabys
- ms/?qn=new+concord
- A By Field query supplying the NAME (qn) and/or TYPE STATUS (qt) of a specimen, and/or its COLLECTOR (co), the COLLECTION (cn) it is part of, the LIFE STAGE (ls), records with IMAGES ONLY (io), e.g.:
- iz/?q=qn+torre+bartsch+qt+holotype+cn+henderson+collection+co+webb
- iz/?q=ls+phyllosoma+io+yes
(Holotypes whose name includes Torre and Bartsch collected by Webb and part of the Henderson Collection)
- To open the Collections Search to a specific search tab, e.g.
- iz/?ti=1 (Invertebrate Zoology Keywords Search)
- mammals/?ti=3 (Mammals Whale Collection Search)
Tabs are numbered left to right, beginning with zero.
There are ways to speed up your queries (or slow them down!) and to find specific information.
- The more specific you make your queries the faster they will execute. Using more, rather than fewer, terms will very likely speed up your search.
- These following special characters modify the interpretation of search terms (use with as many other terms as possible to avoid slowing your search):
- * matches any number of characters, e.g. *pseudo*
- ? matches a single character, e.g. young?lus frank?
- ! negates the presence of a term, e.g. !new
- ~ matches all terms with the given stem, e.g. ~spear for spear, spears, spearing, etc.
- = match is case-sensitive, e.g. =Paris
- Query results are typically limited to 5000 records. Avoid general queries, when you can, that are likely to bring back very large numbers of records, e.g. searching for arrow.
- Long running queries are automatically terminated, with no results returned.
- Some terminology has not been standardized. If you do not find what you are looking for, try synonyms and alternate spellings.
- Ethnology records often have a culture listed, but not a specific locality. Therefore, if you are looking for ethnology collections from a certain place, you may find more records by searching for the culture associated with that area (for example, Korean rather than South Korea)
- Archaeology records often have a site or geographic information listed, but not a culture. Therefore, you may find more records by searching by country, state, or site, rather than culture names or time periods (for example Cahokia rather than Mississippian)
- Information about this database, image use policies, and other sources of information are available in the Introduction.
Please use the Feedback page to report back any problems you find with the data, or with using these search pages.
