Towards a Linked Open Index: Reconciling Museum Records to Wikidata for Index of American Design Constituents

The Index of American Design, a 1930s–40s federal work relief project, generated over 18,000 watercolors and extensive documentation now held at the National Gallery of Art. Reconciling thousands of associated constituents in the museum’s Collection Management System (CMS) with Wikidata using OpenRefine exposed both opportunities and challenges: incomplete or inconsistent identifiers, conflicts between local records and Wikidata, and the labor of aligning diverse roles beyond artists. This discussion paper examines those methodological hurdles, highlights strategies for improving reconciliation, and demonstrates how a linked Power BI tool enables ongoing monitoring of data quality, access, and representation across humanities research infrastructures.