Library of Congress API

Provides access to the Library of Congress digital collections, including books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, newspapers, audio recordings, and film. Supports searching across all collections, browsing by format, and retrieving detailed item metadata.

Screenshot:

Slug: library-of-congress
Key: loc.gov:library-of-congress-api
Base URL: https://www.loc.gov/api/
Auth: none
Endpoints: 23
Reachable: yes
CORS: unknown
Tier: verified
Last checked: 2026-03-14 16:08:31.944852

Links

Homepage: https://www.loc.gov/
API Base: https://www.loc.gov/api/

SDKs:

Topics

CULTURE, GOVERNMENT, KNOWLEDGE

Tutorials

Getting Started with Library of Congress — I can search and browse the Library of Congress digital collections — manuscripts, maps, photos, books, audio, legislation — in unauthenticated JSON requests, and retrieve detailed item metadata with citation formats and IIIF image links at selectable resolutions.

Skills

Search library of congress collections — I can search the Library of Congress digital collections — manuscripts, maps, photos, books, audio, legislation — by keyword and retrieve detailed item metadata with IIIF images and citation formats, all in unauthenticated JSON requests.

Endpoints (23)

Path	Summary	Response	Auth
audio/	Search audio recordings	`application/json`	none
books/	Search books	`application/json`	none
collections	List all digital collections	`application/json`	none
collections/	List all digital collections	`application/json`	none
collections/{collection_name}/	Get a specific collection	`application/json`	none
collections/{collection}/	Get items from a specific collection	`application/json`	none
collections/{name}/	Get a specific collection	`application/json`	none
film-and-videos/	Search film and videos	`application/json`	none
item/{id}/	Get detailed item information	`application/json`	none
item/{itemId}	Get item details	`application/json`	none
item/{item_id}/	Get item bibliographic information	`application/json`	none
legislation/	Search legislation	`application/json`	none
manuscripts/	Search manuscripts	`application/json`	none
maps/	Search maps	`application/json`	none
newspapers/	Search newspapers	`application/json`	none
notated-music/	Search notated music	`application/json`	none
photos/	Search photographs	`application/json`	none
pictures/	Search photographs and prints	`text/plain`	none
pictures/search/	Search pictures and photographs	`application/json`	none
resource/{resource_id}/	Get resource information	`application/json`	none
search	Search across all collections	`application/json`	none
search/	Search everything on loc.gov	`application/json`	none
web-archives/	Search web archives	`application/json`	none