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harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline

Build ETL pipelines and analytics dashboards using the Harvard Art Museums API with Python, SQL, and Streamlit

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npx skills add https://github.com/reason-machines/data-skills --skill harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline
  1. 01

    Install

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  2. 02

    Describe the task

    Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline automatically when relevant.

  3. 03

    Review the result

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SKILL.md

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Harvard Art Museum ETL Pipeline

Skill by ara.so — Data Skills collection.

This skill enables you to build end-to-end data engineering and analytics applications using the Harvard Art Museums API. The project demonstrates real-world ETL pipelines, SQL database design, analytical queries, and interactive Streamlit dashboards for museum artifact data.

What This Project Does

The Harvard Artifacts Collection app provides a complete data engineering workflow:

  • Extract: Fetch artifact data from Harvard Art Museums API with pagination and rate limiting
  • Transform: Convert nested JSON into normalized relational tables (metadata, media, colors)
  • Load: Batch insert data into MySQL/TiDB Cloud with proper foreign key relationships
  • Analyze: Execute 20+ predefined SQL queries for insights
  • Visualize: Display results in interactive Plotly charts via Streamlit

The architecture follows: API → ETL → SQL → Analytics → Visualization

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Manali0711/Harvard-Artifacts-Collection-Data-Engineering-Analytics-App.git
cd Harvard-Artifacts-Collection-Data-Engineering-Analytics-App

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Set up environment variables
export HARVARD_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"
export DB_HOST="your_database_host"
export DB_USER="your_database_user"
export DB_PASSWORD="your_database_password"
export DB_NAME="harvard_artifacts"

Configuration

API Key Setup

Obtain your Harvard Art Museums API key from: https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/api

Store it securely:

import os

API_KEY = os.getenv('HARVARD_API_KEY')
BASE_URL = "https://api.harvardartmuseums.org/object"

Database Configuration

Configure your MySQL/TiDB connection:

import mysql.connector
import os

db_config = {
    'host': os.getenv('DB_HOST'),
    'user': os.getenv('DB_USER'),
    'password': os.getenv('DB_PASSWORD'),
    'database': os.getenv('DB_NAME')
}

conn = mysql.connector.connect(**db_config)

Database Schema

The project uses three normalized tables:

-- Artifact Metadata
CREATE TABLE artifactmetadata (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    title VARCHAR(500),
    culture VARCHAR(200),
    period VARCHAR(200),
    century VARCHAR(100),
    classification VARCHAR(200),
    department VARCHAR(200),
    division VARCHAR(200),
    dated VARCHAR(200),
    url TEXT,
    primaryimageurl TEXT
);

-- Artifact Media
CREATE TABLE artifactmedia (
    media_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    artifact_id INT,
    media_type VARCHAR(100),
    baseimageurl TEXT,
    renditionnumber VARCHAR(50),
    FOREIGN KEY (artifact_id) REFERENCES artifactmetadata(id)
);

-- Artifact Colors
CREATE TABLE artifactcolors (
    color_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    artifact_id INT,
    color VARCHAR(50),
    spectrum VARCHAR(50),
    hue VARCHAR(50),
    percent FLOAT,
    FOREIGN KEY (artifact_id) REFERENCES artifactmetadata(id)
);

Running the Application

# Start the Streamlit app
streamlit run app.py

# The app will be available at http://localhost:8501

ETL Pipeline Implementation

Extract: Fetch Data from API

import requests
import os

def fetch_artifacts(page=1, size=100):
    """Fetch artifacts from Harvard Art Museums API with pagination"""
    api_key = os.getenv('HARVARD_API_KEY')
    url = "https://api.harvardartmuseums.org/object"
    
    params = {
        'apikey': api_key,
        'page': page,
        'size': size,
        'hasimage': 1  # Only artifacts with images
    }
    
    response = requests.get(url, params=params)
    response.raise_for_status()
    
    data = response.json()
    return data['records'], data['info']

# Fetch multiple pages
def extract_all_artifacts(max_pages=10):
    all_artifacts = []
    
    for page in range(1, max_pages + 1):
        records, info = fetch_artifacts(page=page)
        all_artifacts.extend(records)
        
        # Check if more pages exist
        if page >= info['pages']:
            break
    
    return all_artifacts

Transform: Normalize JSON Data

import pandas as pd

def transform_artifacts(artifacts):
    """Transform raw API data into normalized dataframes"""
    
    # Metadata table
    metadata_records = []
    media_records = []
    color_records = []
    
    for artifact in artifacts:
        # Extract metadata
        metadata = {
            'id': artifact.get('id'),
            'title': artifact.get('title', '')[:500],
            'culture': artifact.get('culture', '')[:200],
            'period': artifact.get('period', '')[:200],
            'century': artifact.get('century', '')[:100],
            'classification': artifact.get('classification', '')[:200],
            'department': artifact.get('department', '')[:200],
            'division': artifact.get('division', '')[:200],
            'dated': artifact.get('dated', '')[:200],
            'url': artifact.get('url'),
            'primaryimageurl': artifact.get('primaryimageurl')
        }
        metadata_records.append(metadata)
        
        # Extract media
        if 'images' in artifact and artifact['images']:
            for img in artifact['images']:
                media = {
                    'artifact_id': artifact.get('id'),
                    'media_type': 'image',
                    'baseimageurl': img.get('baseimageurl'),
                    'renditionnumber': img.get('renditionnumber')
                }
                media_records.append(media)
        
        # Extract colors
        if 'colors' in artifact and artifact['colors']:
            for color in artifact['colors']:
                color_record = {
                    'artifact_id': artifact.get('id'),
                    'color': color.get('color'),
                    'spectrum': color.get('spectrum'),
                    'hue': color.get('hue'),
                    'percent': color.get('percent')
                }
                color_records.append(color_record)
    
    return (
        pd.DataFrame(metadata_records),
        pd.DataFrame(media_records),
        pd.DataFrame(color_records)
    )

Load: Insert into Database

from mysql.connector import Error

def load_to_database(metadata_df, media_df, colors_df, db_config):
    """Batch load data into MySQL database"""
    
    try:
        conn = mysql.connector.connect(**db_config)
        cursor = conn.cursor()
        
        # Insert metadata (batch)
        metadata_query = """
            INSERT INTO artifactmetadata 
            (id, title, culture, period, century, classification, 
             department, division, dated, url, primaryimageurl)
            VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s)
            ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
            title=VALUES(title), culture=VALUES(culture)
        """
        cursor.executemany(metadata_query, metadata_df.values.tolist())
        
        # Insert media
        if not media_df.empty:
            media_query = """
                INSERT INTO artifactmedia 
                (artifact_id, media_type, baseimageurl, renditionnumber)
                VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s)
            """
            cursor.executemany(media_query, media_df.values.tolist())
        
        # Insert colors
        if not colors_df.empty:
            colors_query = """
                INSERT INTO artifactcolors 
                (artifact_id, color, spectrum, hue, percent)
                VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s, %s)
            """
            cursor.executemany(colors_query, colors_df.values.tolist())
        
        conn.commit()
        print(f"Loaded {len(metadata_df)} artifacts successfully")
        
    except Error as e:
        print(f"Database error: {e}")
        conn.rollback()
    finally:
        cursor.close()
        conn.close()

Analytics Queries

Sample SQL Queries

ANALYTICS_QUERIES = {
    "Artifacts by Department": """
        SELECT department, COUNT(*) as count
        FROM artifactmetadata
        GROUP BY department
        ORDER BY count DESC
        LIMIT 10
    """,
    
    "Artifacts by Century": """
        SELECT century, COUNT(*) as count
        FROM artifactmetadata
        WHERE century IS NOT NULL
        GROUP BY century
        ORDER BY count DESC
    """,
    
    "Most Common Colors": """
        SELECT color, COUNT(*) as count, AVG(percent) as avg_percent
        FROM artifactcolors
        GROUP BY color
        ORDER BY count DESC
        LIMIT 15
    """,
    
    "Media Availability": """
        SELECT 
            COUNT(DISTINCT m.artifact_id) as artifacts_with_media,
            COUNT(*) as total_media_files
        FROM artifactmedia m
    """,
    
    "Artifacts by Culture and Century": """
        SELECT culture, century, COUNT(*) as count
        FROM artifactmetadata
        WHERE culture IS NOT NULL AND century IS NOT NULL
        GROUP BY culture, century
        HAVING count > 5
        ORDER BY count DESC
        LIMIT 20
    """
}

def execute_query(query, db_config):
    """Execute analytical query and return results as DataFrame"""
    conn = mysql.connector.connect(**db_config)
    df = pd.read_sql(query, conn)
    conn.close()
    return df

Streamlit Dashboard Implementation

import streamlit as st
import plotly.express as px

def main():
    st.set_page_config(page_title="Harvard Artifacts Analytics", layout="wide")
    st.title("🏛️ Harvard Art Museums Analytics Dashboard")
    
    # Sidebar for query selection
    query_name = st.sidebar.selectbox(
        "Select Analysis",
        list(ANALYTICS_QUERIES.keys())
    )
    
    # Execute query
    if st.button("Run Analysis"):
        with st.spinner("Executing query..."):
            query = ANALYTICS_QUERIES[query_name]
            results_df = execute_query(query, db_config)
            
            # Display results
            st.subheader(f"Results: {query_name}")
            st.dataframe(results_df)
            
            # Auto-generate visualization
            if len(results_df.columns) >= 2:
                fig = px.bar(
                    results_df,
                    x=results_df.columns[0],
                    y=results_df.columns[1],
                    title=query_name
                )
                st.plotly_chart(fig, use_container_width=True)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Common Patterns

Complete ETL Workflow

def run_etl_pipeline(max_pages=5):
    """Complete ETL pipeline execution"""
    
    # Extract
    st.info("Extracting data from Harvard Art Museums API...")
    artifacts = extract_all_artifacts(max_pages=max_pages)
    
    # Transform
    st.info(f"Transforming {len(artifacts)} artifacts...")
    metadata_df, media_df, colors_df = transform_artifacts(artifacts)
    
    # Load
    st.info("Loading data to database...")
    load_to_database(metadata_df, media_df, colors_df, db_config)
    
    st.success(f"ETL complete! Processed {len(artifacts)} artifacts")
    
    return {
        'artifacts': len(artifacts),
        'media_files': len(media_df),
        'color_records': len(colors_df)
    }

Rate Limiting for API Calls

import time

def fetch_with_rate_limit(page, size=100, delay=0.5):
    """Fetch data with rate limiting to avoid API throttling"""
    records, info = fetch_artifacts(page=page, size=size)
    time.sleep(delay)  # Wait between requests
    return records, info

Troubleshooting

API Connection Issues

# Handle connection errors gracefully
try:
    response = requests.get(url, params=params, timeout=10)
    response.raise_for_status()
except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
    st.error("API request timed out. Please try again.")
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
    st.error(f"API error: {e}")

Database Connection Failures

# Test database connection
def test_db_connection(db_config):
    try:
        conn = mysql.connector.connect(**db_config)
        if conn.is_connected():
            st.success("Database connected successfully")
            conn.close()
            return True
    except Error as e:
        st.error(f"Database connection failed: {e}")
        return False

Missing Data Handling

# Handle missing fields in API response
def safe_get(dictionary, key, default='', max_length=None):
    """Safely extract value from dictionary with defaults"""
    value = dictionary.get(key, default)
    if max_length and value:
        value = str(value)[:max_length]
    return value

Advanced Usage

Incremental Data Loading

def get_latest_artifact_id(db_config):
    """Get the latest artifact ID from database"""
    conn = mysql.connector.connect(**db_config)
    cursor = conn.cursor()
    cursor.execute("SELECT MAX(id) FROM artifactmetadata")
    max_id = cursor.fetchone()[0] or 0
    conn.close()
    return max_id

def incremental_etl(db_config):
    """Load only new artifacts since last run"""
    latest_id = get_latest_artifact_id(db_config)
    
    # Fetch artifacts with ID > latest_id
    params = {
        'apikey': os.getenv('HARVARD_API_KEY'),
        'q': f'id:>{latest_id}',
        'size': 100
    }
    # Continue with ETL...

This skill provides everything needed to build production-ready ETL pipelines for museum data using modern data engineering practices.

FAQ

What does the harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline skill do?

Build ETL pipelines and analytics dashboards using the Harvard Art Museums API with Python, SQL, and Streamlit

How do I install harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/reason-machines/data-skills --skill harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline/ (personal) or .claude/skills/harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline/ (project).

Which AI agents can use harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline safe to install?

No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.

Who maintains harvard-art-museum-etl-pipeline?

It is published by reason-machines in reason-machines/data-skills. It has 749 recorded installs.

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