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.
Television
Skip to facets for narrowing search results
Skip to search results
-
Black Journal: 23; The Nation of Common Sense
-
Megatron/Matrix
- 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"
-
Ramona and her TV, from the portfolio The Tiguas: Pueblo Indians of Texas
-
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
Facets
-
Resource Type
- filter Photographs 29 Exclude Photographs
- filter Archival materials 9 Exclude Archival materials
- filter 16mm (photographic film size) 8 Exclude 16mm (photographic film size)
- filter sound films 8 Exclude sound films
- filter color films (visual works) 7 Exclude color films (visual works)
- filter Video recordings 5 Exclude Video recordings
- filter Sculpture 4 Exclude Sculpture
- filter television receiver 4 Exclude television receiver
- filter Posters 3 Exclude Posters
- filter Prints 3 Exclude Prints
-
Culture
- filter African Americans 18 Exclude African Americans
- filter Christians 2 Exclude Christians
- filter Indians of North America 2 Exclude Indians of North America
- filter Latin Americans 2 Exclude Latin Americans
- filter Muslims 2 Exclude Muslims
- filter Native Americans 2 Exclude Native Americans
- filter Spaniards 2 Exclude Spaniards
- filter Americans 1 Exclude Americans
- filter Buddhists 1 Exclude Buddhists
- filter Hopi Indians 1 Exclude Hopi Indians
- Date
-
Place
- filter United States 25 Exclude United States
- filter North and Central America 14 Exclude North and Central America
- filter New York City 9 Exclude New York City
- filter New York 7 Exclude New York
- filter United States of America 5 Exclude United States of America
- filter Chicago 4 Exclude Chicago
- filter Illinois 4 Exclude Illinois
- filter USA 4 Exclude USA
- filter Cook County 3 Exclude Cook County
- filter Japan 2 Exclude Japan
-
Set Name
- filter National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection 18 Exclude National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
- filter Culture and the Arts: Entertainment 14 Exclude Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
- filter Photography 10 Exclude Photography
- filter Popular Entertainment 10 Exclude Popular Entertainment
- filter National Museum of American History 9 Exclude National Museum of American History
- filter Work and Industry: Photographic History 9 Exclude Work and Industry: Photographic History
- filter Black Journal 8 Exclude Black Journal
- filter Pearl Bowser Collection 8 Exclude Pearl Bowser Collection
- filter Time-based Media - Moving Images 8 Exclude Time-based Media - Moving Images
- filter Currently not on view 6 Exclude Currently not on view
-
Topic
- filter Television 37 Exclude Television
- filter Photography 17 Exclude Photography
- filter Amusements 15 Exclude Amusements
- filter Motion pictures 10 Exclude Motion pictures
- filter Women 9 Exclude Women
- filter Men 8 Exclude Men
- filter Portraits 8 Exclude Portraits
- filter Public television 8 Exclude Public television
- filter Furnishings 7 Exclude Furnishings
- filter Television broadcasts 7 Exclude Television broadcasts
- Media Usage
- Metadata Usage