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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 42 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture 18 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Portrait Gallery 6 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 Institution Archives 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 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
  • Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 1 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photographs 30 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Archival materials 9 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 16mm (photographic film size) 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • sound films 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • color films (visual works) 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Video recordings 5 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
  • Prints 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Greeting cards 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • African Americans 18 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Christians 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Latin Americans 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Muslims 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
  • Hopi Indians 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
  • 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
  • 1960s 16 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 9 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 2000s 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • 2010s 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • United States 24 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • North and Central America 14 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • New York City 9 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • New York 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • United States of America 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
  • USA 4 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Cook County 3 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Japan 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection 18 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Culture and the Arts: Entertainment 14 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photography 10 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Popular Entertainment 10 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • National Museum of American History 9 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Work and Industry: Photographic History 9 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Black Journal 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Pearl Bowser Collection 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Time-based Media - Moving Images 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Currently not on view 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Television 31 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Photography 17 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Amusements 15 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Motion pictures 10 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Men 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Public television 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Women 8 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Portraits 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Television broadcasts 7 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Arts and Culture 6 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Not determined 50 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • Usage conditions apply 39 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus
  • CC0 2 Filter by term plus Exclude term minus

Filter Settings

Excluded:

  • Remove Museum / Unit: Smithsonian American Art Museum close

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

Television in Motel

Two women standing next to television

Sonata I

Black Journal: 5; The World of Julian Bond

Black Journal: 23; The Nation of Common Sense

Black Journal: 22; The Black G.I.

Jenkins mechanical television (scanning disc)

Dorothy Liebes on the set of a television show

Black Journal: 21; Ethiopia

Black Journal: 18; Malcolm X Liberation University

1939-1940 New York World's Fair Souvenir Button, "I Have Seen the Future"

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1889-1982)

Southern Trailer Home • South Carolina

UAW On TV

What Television Was Like in 1939

poster

Halo Shampoo

photograph, color

Tribble, Large, Brown, "Star Trek" TV Show, Prop

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

Beer can used on set of All in the Family

Pin, Buck Rogers, Blue Button

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

Blowtorch used by Julia Child

Alfred Hitchcock

Ed Sullivan and the Beatles

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

Stamp with rounded gold border like an old TV with a scene of two women eating and hiding chocolate

44c Early TV Memories: I Love Lucy single

Edward R. Murrow


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