---
title: "Search archives and historical newspapers"
method: POST
path: "/api/v1/search_archives"
tags: ["humanities"]
---

# Search archives and historical newspapers

`POST /api/v1/search_archives`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://scholarmuse.ai`
- URL: `https://scholarmuse.ai/api/v1/search_archives`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

Search digitised primary sources: historical US newspaper pages (Chronicling America, full OCR text), photographs, maps and manuscripts from the Library of Congress, and cultural heritage items from Europeana. Returns title, date, place, rights statement, thumbnail, item link and a text snippet for each item.

Discipline pack: humanities. Cost: 2 credits per successful call.

## Request body

- object
  - `query` string, required: Keywords, e.g. "influenza Chicago". For newspapers every word must appear on the page.
  - `type` 'newspaper' | 'image' | 'manuscript' | 'map' | 'any': Kind of material (default any).
  - `date_from` integer: Earliest year, e.g. 1918.
  - `date_to` integer: Latest year, e.g. 1918.
  - `sources` string[]: Limit to these sources: loc (Library of Congress), europeana. Default: both.
  - `limit` integer: Items to return (default 10).

## Response `200`

The tool result.

- ToolResult
  - `summary` string, required
  - `billing` CreditStatus
    - `creditsRemaining` integer, nullable, required: Spendable, unexpired balance at checkedAt; null if refresh failed. Credits reserved by pending figures are excluded.
    - `status` 'ok' | 'low' | 'empty' | 'unavailable', required
    - `lowBalanceThreshold` integer, required
    - `topUpUrl` string, uri, required
    - `pricingUrl` string, uri, required
    - `checkedAt` string, date-time, required
    - `notice` string
  - `records` Record[]
    - `id` string, required
    - `type` string, required
    - `source` string, required
    - `title` string
    - `url` string
    - `license` string
    - `attribution` string
    - `retrievedAt` string, date-time, required
    - `data` object, required
  - `partial` boolean
  - `failedSources` object[]
    - `source` string
    - `error` string
  - `files` object[]
    - `name` string
    - `url` string
    - `mimeType` string
  - `extra` object
  - `credits_used` number, required
  - `call_id` string, required

## Other responses

- `400`: The call failed and was not charged.
- `401`: The call failed and was not charged.
- `402`: The call failed and was not charged.
- `429`: The call failed and was not charged.
- `502`: The call failed and was not charged.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/scholarmuse/apis/scholarmuse-rest-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/scholarmuse/apis/scholarmuse-rest-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/scholarmuse/apis/scholarmuse-rest-api/revisions/beafd92e4bfb?raw)