Collections API

Instagram and Slack have APIs – and now so do we. Over the past couple of years our team have been mining the deepest recesses of our collections metadata in order to offer it to you for creative use.

Collections Online has information on more than 800,000 artworks, objects, and specimens from Te Papa’s collections. These items are complemented by over 200,000 images, with over 60,000 available for high-resolution download.

There’s also a wealth of information on related people, places, topics, species, and research from Te Papa.

API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface. An API is set of tools that allow one computer or application to talk with another computer or application. To use the API you will need some computer programming skills.

Collections API Terms of Use (66.51 KB)

Technical information

Request an API key and get started

Read more about the API through our blog ‘Make cool stuff with our collections using our API’