"National Museum of the American Indian Collection Online"
The National Museum of the American Indian is putting its collection online! This vast new online archive, Collections Search, is one of the most exciting and significant undertakings in the Museum's history and we have already uncovered a wealth of new information in the course of building this critical resource. It's almost as if the Museum was being created all over again, as objects that have been known and labeled as simply as "beaded saddle, Chippewa" take on rich and fascinating new meaning.
Our mission - to preserve the cultural richness of Native American heritage and make it accessible to the widest possible audience - demands we take this next logical step. Collections Search will open our collection to millions who have never had the opportunity to see it in person.
Explore and share the collection today at _www.americanindian.si.edu/searchcollections. _
Every object has a story. And beyond the rudimentary facts about material, tribal origin and age is the deeper level of information that can truly reveal an item's "histories and mysteries." The hard work and resources we're investing in Collections Search is helping us capture the lost, forgotten, and incomplete histories of our collection before they disappear forever.
Because of the unlimited access of the Internet, Collections Search has virtually no limitations. Eventually, Collections Search will contain nearly all 800,000 of the Museum's objects and 65,000 historic photographs, including those that are too fragile to display.
This new way of looking at, and learning about, the Museum's collection will further our mission in profoundly important ways.
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