search te papa's collections api for new zealand museum objects
domain: data.tepapa.govt.nz · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
register for a free API key at data.tepapa.govt.nz/register.html
run a simple full-text search with GET https://data.tepapa.govt.nz/collection/search?q={term} (works without a key for basic GET search)
for advanced search with sorting/facets, POST to the same /collection/search endpoint with an x-api-key header and a JSON request body
use the ObjectResource endpoints (/object, /object/{id}, /object/{id}/related) to retrieve a specific object's full record and its relationships to agents, places, and media
resolve associated MediaResource entries via /media/{id} to get image URLs and per-image licensing
Known gotchas
basic GET search works without a key but advanced POST search (sorting/faceting) requires the x-api-key header — endpoints are not uniformly open
API metadata is CC BY 4.0 with attribution waived by Te Papa, but individual images retain their own separate licenses shown per record — check each image's license before reuse
the API's terms of use note cultural-sensitivity restrictions can apply to certain taonga (treasured object) records — review the linked terms-of-use PDF
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