AAM Museum Directory Scraper

AAM Museum Directory Scraper

Scrape museum listings from the American Alliance of Museums directory, filtered by state and type. Each record includes the museum name, address, phone, website, and category. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The American Alliance of Museums directory is the central public listing of accredited museums in the United States, but it offers no bulk export. This Actor reads the directory directly, letting you pull museum records by state or museum type. You get structured data ready for research, outreach, or enrichment without manual copying.

Who uses it	What they scrape American Alliance of Museums for
Grant writers	Build a targeted list of museums by state and type for funding proposals.
Sales teams	Generate a prospecting list of museum contacts for products or services.
Researchers	Assemble a dataset of US museums for academic or market analysis.
Nonprofit consultants	Identify potential client museums by region and specialization.

What it does

This Actor collects museum profiles from the AAM directory and returns each one as a flat row with name, location, contact details, and category.

• 🗺️ State filter: Limit results to a single US state using its two-letter postal code.
• 🏛️ Museum type filter: Narrow the scrape to a specific category like Art, History, or Science.
• 📊 Structured output: Every museum comes back as a clean row with consistent fields.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with American Alliance of Museums data

📋 Build a state-wide outreach list.

A membership coordinator filters by their state to get every listed museum, then imports the CSV into their CRM for a renewal campaign.

🎨 Find all art museums for a product launch.

A supplier sets the type filter to 'Art' and collects contact details for every art museum in the directory to send samples.

🗺️ Map museum density by region.

A researcher runs the Actor for multiple states, combines the datasets, and plots museum locations to study cultural access.

📞 Create a cold-call list for fundraising services.

A consultant scrapes all museums without a type filter, then sorts by phone availability to prioritize calls.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API needed	Reads the public directory pages directly, no key or registration required.
Bulk export	Collect up to a million museum records in one run and download as a spreadsheet.
Targeted filtering	Pull only the museums that match your state or category criteria.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets American Alliance of Museums the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	AAM Museum Directory Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When American Alliance of Museums changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with an optional state code and museum type, and set a maximum number of records to collect per run. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.85
1,000 results	$8.50
10,000 results	$85.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the AAM Museum Directory Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to American Alliance of Museums through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/aam-museum-directory-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check your state code is a valid two-letter abbreviation and your museum type matches the directory's exact wording. Try running without filters first to confirm the Actor works.

The run stopped before collecting all museums.

Increase the maxItems value. If it still stops early, the directory may have fewer listings than your limit, or a temporary network issue occurred. Retry the run.

Some fields are empty in my results.

The AAM directory does not require every field for every listing. If a museum did not provide a phone number or website, that field will be blank in your output.

The museum type filter is not working.

Enter the type exactly as it appears on the AAM site, including capitalization and punctuation. 'Children's Museum' and 'childrens museum' may behave differently.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Does this scrape the entire AAM directory?	Yes, if you run it without a state or type filter and set a high maxItems value, it will attempt to collect every listed museum.
Can I filter by multiple states at once?	The state input accepts a single two-letter code per run. To get multiple states, run the Actor once per state and merge the results.
What museum types are available?	The directory includes types like Art, History, Science, Children's, Natural History, and others. Check the AAM website for the current list, then enter the exact name in the type filter.
Is the data live or cached?	The Actor reads the live AAM directory on each run, so you always get the current listings.
Do I need an AAM membership to scrape?	No. The Actor reads the public-facing directory pages, which are accessible without a login.
What format does the data export to?	You can download your results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify dataset tab.
How many museums can I collect?	You set the maximum in the input, up to one million records per run. The full directory contains fewer than that, so a high number will get everything.
Does it get the museum website URL?	Yes, the website field is included in the output when the directory lists one.
Can I schedule this to run weekly?	Yes, Apify's scheduler lets you set a recurring run to keep your dataset fresh.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by American Alliance of Museums. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.