The Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 19 museums and the National Zoo, remains true to its mission since it was founded in 1846 as an institution for the growth and diffusion of knowledge. Its commitment to public education and the promotion of scholarship in art, design, science, technology, history, and culture has led the Smithsonian to make available to the public around 2.8 million from across its collections onto an open access online platform. The institution adopted this policy to encourage the public to view the content and to use and transform the artwork images into anything they choose. The new platform and tools provide total access to digital images and data from all Smithsonian’s museums, nine research centers, libraries, and archives. The Smithsonian’s end goal is to migrate the museum collections into the public domain.
