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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 African American History and Culture 16 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Portrait Gallery 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Smithsonian American Art Museum 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Archives of American Art 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Smithsonian Institution Archives 4 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
  • National Air and Space Museum 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of American History 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of the American Indian 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photographs 21 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Archival materials 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 16mm (photographic film size) 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • sound films 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • color films (visual works) 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Sculpture 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Video recordings 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Prints 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • short subjects 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Exterior views 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • African Americans 16 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Christians 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Indians of North America 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Muslims 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Native Americans 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Americans 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Buddhists 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Hopi Indians 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Pueblo Indians 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Southwest Indians 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1920s 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1930s 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1940s 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1950s 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1960s 12 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1970s 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1980s 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 1990s 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 2000s 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 2010s 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • United States 16 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • North and Central America 13 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • New York City 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Chicago 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Illinois 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Cook County 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • New York 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • New York County 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • North America 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Addas Ababa 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection 16 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Black Journal 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Pearl Bowser Collection 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Time-based Media - Moving Images 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Currently not on view 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Portrait Gallery Collection 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photographs and Still Images 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Painting and Sculpture 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Eyejammie Hip-Hop Photography Collection 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Television 20 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Motion pictures 10 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Portraits 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Furnishings 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Men 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Public television 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Arts and Culture 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Entertainers 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photography 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Education 5 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Not determined 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • CC0 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus

Filter Settings

Included:

  • Remove Rights & Restrictions: Usage conditions apply close

Black Journal: 9; Tribute to Malcolm X

Painting

Shopping in Town for Television Set

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

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

Robin Williams

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

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

Photograph of Ilene Segalove

Black Journal: 26; Alice Coltrane

Apollo 11 TV Broadcast July 22, 1969

Jokes I Can't Tell On Television

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

Zen for TV

Nazaret Cherkezian in Video-editing Studio

Jet vol. 75 no. 12

Sonata I

Black Journal: 5; The World of Julian Bond

T.V. Clock

Black Journal: 23; The Nation of Common Sense

Megatron/Matrix

Dorothy Liebes on the set of a television show

Black Journal: 21; Ethiopia

Black Journal: 18; Malcolm X Liberation University

Ramona and her TV, from the portfolio The Tiguas: Pueblo Indians of Texas

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1889-1982)

Southern Trailer Home • South Carolina

What Television Was Like in 1939

Couch from the set of The Oprah Winfrey Show in Harpo Studios

Photograph of MC Lyte performing in the "Sisters in the Name of Rap" tv special

Alfred Hitchcock

Ed Sullivan and the Beatles

Ring with gold and diamond "MTV" design owned by Fab 5 Freddy


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