Online Collections
Many of Dumbarton Oaks’ rich collections, including the museum, rare books, and library and archives, are available online. See below for additional collections available through our website, and explore curated selections in Highlights from the Collections.
Museum Collections
Search the collections on our museum website, and explore several of our most significant collections of Byzantine objects below.
Byzantine Seals
An ongoing project to record the 17,000 Byzantine lead seals held by Dumbarton Oaks and publish them online. Browse the collection, learn about sigillography, and explore highlights.
Byzantine Coins
The collection of over 12,000 Byzantine coins at Dumbarton Oaks is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. The online catalogue presents new acquisitions to the collection, and will eventually provide online access to the full collection.
Textiles in the Byzantine Collection
Featuring late antique, Byzantine, and Islamic textiles, the catalogue of over 260 objects is accompanied by ten essays by leading textile scholars that focus on furnishing textiles in Byzantium and Early Islam.
Manuscripts in the Byzantine Collection
Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss acquired the first manuscript for the museum in 1939. The manuscripts in the Byzantine Collection available as digital facsimiles and accompanying high-resolution images may be explored online.
Rare Book Collection
Search the collection through the HOLLIS catalog, and explore selections below.
Digitized Rare Books
Access full digital facsimiles of more than one hundred and fifty select titles in the Rare Book Collection, relating to Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian Studies, through this searchable resource.
Garden Archives
The Garden Archives makes publicly available over six thousand individual pieces of correspondence, drawings, and photographs. These original materials have been supplemented by histories of the garden areas, biographies of individuals and firms, and sections on contemporary art installations.
Autograph Letter Collection
The Rare Book Collection includes a remarkable assortment of autograph letters from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cultural notables. This growing resource makes available digital images of the letters as well as transcription, translation, and commentary.
Library and Archives
Search our library holdings in the HOLLIS catalog, browse archival holdings, and explore additional collections below.
Moche Iconography
The Moche Archive has formed the basis of a body of scholarly work that, in combination with the archaeological record, advances an understanding of the Moche world, including the rites, rituals, flora, fauna, foodways, and practices of this ancient Peruvian culture.
Manuscripts-on-Microfilm Database
This database allows researchers to search for specific manuscripts represented within the collection of almost two thousand microfilm rolls that are reproductions of medieval and early modern manuscripts, the originals of which are held in institutions around the world.
Ephemera Collection
The Ephemera Collection consists of a variety of materials related to the Byzantine and Pre-Columbian cultures and to worldwide gardens and landscapes that provide an alternative, popular cultural perspective on the academic research fields at Dumbarton Oaks.