This week, 2.8 million of the Smithsonian Museum’s digital collections were released for public use from https://www.si.edu/openaccess. You can now download, transform, and share the wonders of the Smithsonian. When I first met with the Smithsonian at the beginning of the digitizing project I had no idea we would get to this exciting point that the collection will be open and free. This is an amazing resource for learning around the world.

21st-Century Diffusion with Smithsonian Open Access

“For the first time in its 174-year history, the Smithsonian has released 2.8 million high-resolution two- and three-dimensional images from across its collections onto an open access online platform for patrons to peruse and download free of charge. Featuring data and material from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, the new digital depot encourages the public to not just view its contents, but use, reuse and transform them into just about anything they choose..

And this gargantuan data dump is just the beginning. Throughout the rest of 2020, the Smithsonian will be rolling out another 200,000 or so images, with more to come as the Institution continues to digitize its collection of 155 million items and counting.”

Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain

In related news, Autodesk own Tinkercad now includes the Smithsonian digital artifacts.
Smithsonian Artifacts Added to Tinkercad