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Television

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

Television collections at the Smithsonian Institution span near-all museums and research centers, attesting to the medium's profound impact on American and global society. From Nam June Paik's iconic and unmistakable cathode ray tube sculptures and installations (like 1995's "Megatron/Matrix" held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM)), to artefactual props from iconic TV programs (like The Muppets, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Star Trek), to the vast moving image collections of shows like the landmark arts and culture series Black Journal and early kinescope records of broadcasts from the DuMont network, the Smithsonian is tuned into TV!

To celebrate the United Nations' "World Television Day" on November 21st, here are some of our favorite online TV-related collections as selected by staff of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative.


  • National Museum of American History 37 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture 11 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Air and Space Museum 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Archives of American Art 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Smithsonian American Art Museum 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Smithsonian Institution Archives 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Portrait Gallery 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Smithsonian Archives - History Div 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Smithsonian Channel 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photographs 27 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Archival materials 9 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Video recordings 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 16mm (photographic film size) 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • color films (visual works) 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • sound films 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • television receiver 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Posters 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Sculpture 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Greeting cards 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • African Americans 11 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Latin Americans 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Spaniards 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Americans 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Christians 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Indians of North America 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Japanese 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Native Americans 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Tiwa Indians 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1920s 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1930s 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1940s 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1950s 11 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1970s 13 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1980s 12 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1990s 12 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 2000s 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 2010s 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • United States 18 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • North and Central America 10 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • New York 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • New York City 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • United States of America 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Chicago 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Cook County 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Illinois 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • USA 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Japan 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Culture and the Arts: Entertainment 11 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection 11 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photography 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of American History 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Popular Entertainment 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Work and Industry: Photographic History 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Work and Industry: Electricity 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Black Journal 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Air and Space Museum Collection 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Pearl Bowser Collection 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Television 28 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photography 14 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Amusements 11 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Television broadcasts 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Motion pictures 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Women 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Furnishings 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Mass media 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Men 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Portraits 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Not determined 49 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Usage conditions apply 33 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • CC0 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus

Filter Settings

Excluded:

  • Remove Date: 1960s close

Bendix Television Set

Communications Exhibition at National Museum of History and Technology Featuring Closed Captioning on Television

Camera, Television, Lunar Surface, Apollo

Selena interview, 1994

Four Emmy Statuettes awarded for the Smithsonian Film "Celebrating a Century"

Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols on Uhura's Radical Impact

Choco Drink TV

Video Flag

Swanson TV Dinner Tray

"Pigs in Space" Puppet

Robin Williams

Bob Johnson, President and founder Black Entertainment Television, in his Georgetown office in the early days of B.E.T evolution

Nielsen TV Viewing Diary, 1977

Cloak used by Elisabeth Moss as Offred in The Handmaid's Tale

Storyboard created for the animated television series The Simpsons

WCAU-TV Philadelphia

David Sarnoff (1891-1971) as Seen by TV Viewers at the 1939 World's Fair

Sony "Watchman" portable television

Photograph of Ilene Segalove

El Chapulin Colorado Lunch Box

Television Screen

Black Journal: 26; Alice Coltrane

Apollo 11 TV Broadcast July 22, 1969

Television Get Well Card

Neon sign from set of Late Night with David Letterman

Photograph of Queen Latifah on the set of "Fly Girl" video shoot

Hawaiian shirt worn by Tom Selleck on Magnum P.I.

WSCV Telemundo 51 Microphone Cube

Nazaret Cherkezian in Video-editing Studio

Jet vol. 75 no. 12

Electronic Game, Telegames Super-Pong

Strike Poster

Dumont prototype "Duoscopic" television receiver

Two women reclining on a bed, watching TV

Two women standing next to television


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