The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections

From ‘ The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections’ published by MCN on Saturday 14th March 2020.

In the blink of an eye, once-crowded museums sit empty. We’re preparing ourselves for social distancing and potential quarantine. This is the time for museum technology to step up and fill the void. The potential of online collections, virtual tours, and social media campaigns have always been there, but now the opportunity for impact is incalculable.

Access to endless open content. Educational resources for e-learning. Virtual retreats to art, culture, and history around the globe. This is the museum technology community’s time to shine! If you’re a museum tech enthusiast looking to be part of the conversation, join one of MCN’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs). They are currently free for non-members so more can share resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This list will be continually updated with examples of museum and museum-adjacent virtual awesomeness. It is by no means exhaustive. Share more with @museumcn on Twitter!

Pitt Rivers Museum, Image from a 3D Virtual Tour produced by V21 Artspace

Portals

• Google Arts & Culture: Tours of 500 of the world’s most famous museums

• Heritage on the Edge: A project of Google Arts & Culture

• Europeana: 50,000,000 European works of art, books, music, and more

• Smithsonian Open Access: Search 2.8 million images and 3D Models

• ArtUK: Art collections from 3,200 UK organizations

• Mexican Ministry of Culture: Short films, books, radio, paintings, from all cultural orgs

• Memorica: Open access Mexican culture content portal

• China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration: Virtual portal of 100 institutions

• OpenGLAM: Aggregates 88 unique open collections

• NASA Image & Video Library: All NASA content is in the public domain

• DPLA: Digital Public Library of America

• MIMO: Musical Instrument Museums Online (64,000+ instruments)

• BioExplora: Natural science open collections portal (3D images, bio diversity)

• Archaeological Analytics: Archaeological Open Access Collections

• Digital Agnes: Canadian portal for curatorial research and online exhibitions

• English Heritage: Variety of mediums of British content (Podcasts, videos, etc.)

• Creative Commons: Aggregates all CC-licensed content and collections globally

• Wikimedia Commons: Over 20,000,000 open images

• Wikidata: “The Sum of all Paintings” metadata initiative via Wikimedia

• GLAM Portals Google Search: Courtesy of Mia Ridge (context on her blog)

• Open Culture Coloring Pages: 113 museum coloring books

• Global Museum: Portal for museum news, jobs, and resources

• V21 Artspace: Over 100 exhibit virtual tours

• Arte.tv: Cultural documentaries, films, and more.

Pitt Rivers Museum, Image from a 3D Virtual Tour produced by V21 Artspace

Virtual Tours / Online Exhibits

• Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford: Virtual Tour

• Dalí Theatre-Museum, Catalonia: Virtual Tour

• The Vatican: 360-degree Museum Tours

• The Palace Museum: The Forbidden City, China, 360-degree Virtual Tour

• Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm: VR Tour

• Byzantine and Christian Virtual Museum: Virtual Tour

• The Louvre, Paris: Virtual Tour

• The Hermitage, Russia: Virtual Tour (YouTube)

• Westminster Abbey, London: Virtual Tour

• The Science Museum, London: Shipping Galleries Virtual Tour

• Florence as it Was: 3D models of Florentine buildings, artworks, and squares

• Mexican National Institute of Anthropology & History:Virtual Tours (Flash)

• National Museum of Natural History, US: Virtual Tour

• National Archaeological Museum, Spain: Virtual Museum

• The Frick, Pittsburgh: Virtual tours, online collections, activities

• Cranbrook Art Museum, Michigan: Exhibit Virtual Tours

• American Battlefield Trust: 360-degree Battlefield Tours

• Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello: Virtual Tour

• George Washington’s Mount Vernon: Virtual Tours, timelines, etc.

• Yellowstone National Park, US: Virtual Tours

• Yosemite National Park, US: Virtual Tour

Online Exhibits

• Girl Museum: Online Exhibits

• Virtual Migration Museum: Interactive Online Experience / App

• JFK Library: “Moonshot” App and Online Interactive

• Virtual Museum of Canada: Virtual Exhibits and Cultural Content

• Museum of Ontario Archaeology: “History of Ste. Marie II” Online Exhibit

• Monterey Bay Aquarium: Animal Live Cams

• National Museum of Canada: Online Exhibitions

• Remembering Lincoln, Ford’s Theatre: Interactive online exhibit

• M Woods, Beijing, China: Experimental Online Exhibition

• Second Canvas Apps: 30 Museum Apps (Google Sheet)

• Reina Sofía Museum Radio: Audiovisual resources; an acoustic museum experience

• Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum

E-Learning

• Smithsonian Learning Lab

• MoMA Learning

• Speed Art Museum: At-home art-making videos

• The Field Museum: The Brain Scoop (YouTube)

• North Carolina Museum of Art: Learn, (collections, videos, curriculum)

• Sketchfab: 3D Models (link goes to cultural-specific search)

• The Hammer: Contemporary Art programs, (YouTube)

• Royal Albert Memorial Museum: Exeter Time Trail (Interactive timeline)

• Les Fruits de Mer: Activities, books, films about Caribbean wildlife

• Museum of Early Trade and Crafts: Recipes, Games, Coloring Pages, etc.

• Museum Strathroy-Cardoc: Sydenham River Discovery online exhibit (Flash)

• Denver Art Museum: Artist videos

• Virginia Museum of History & Culture: Lecture series videos

• Better World Museum: Draw Together in VR, Bob Ross-style videos

• Discover XR: The Future of Social Media & Online Learning (YouTube)

• KaiXR: Free Museum VR Field Trips (no VR gear needed)

• HistoryView.org: Virtual Reality Tours

Created for Kids

• Tate: Tate Kids (Games and quizzes, videos, kids’ art, etc.)

• Metropolitan Museum of Art: MetKids

• Exploratorium: Science Experiment “Snacks”

• American Museum of Natural History: Ology science website for kids

• Shedd Aquarium: Sea Curious- Kid Questions, Animal Answers (YouTube)

• Glazer Children’s Museum: Online Activities

• Children’s Museum of South Dakota: Recipes for Play

• Suzhou Museum: Online Mini-Games

• Pittsburgh Children’s Museum: The MAKESHOP Show (Makerspace Blog)

• The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis: Museum at Home

• Long Island Children’s Museum: Play Outside Ideas

• Norton Simon Museum: Art Projects for Kids (scroll to section)

• The Kennedy Center: ArtsEdge, art education resources

• Thomas Cole National Historic Site: Videos

• Canadian Museum of Nature: Coloring Pages, Arctic, Garden, Dinosaurs

• MCA Chicago: “Art Like Me” Culturally-Relevant Art Workbook for Kids

• National Museum of Australia: “Fun at Home” DIY activities

• Smarthistory: Source of history content for Khan Academy

• iCivics: Virtual games (free beginning with Covid-19)

• International Association of Children in Museums: Coronavirus Guide

Online Collections

• Rijksstudio: Remix collections from Rijksmuseum

• Naturalis: 40,000,000 natural science collections objects

• SMK Open: National Gallery of Denmark Collections

• Canadian Museum of History

• UK Postal Museum

• South West Collections, England

• Brooklands Museum, Surrey, UK (cars, motorcycles, aircraft)

• Open Access at the Met

• New York Archaeological Repository: Nearly 1,000,000 objects

• Cooper Hewitt, New York (historical and contemporary design)

• Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

• Albright-Knox, New York

• The Barnes Collection, Philadelphia

• Corning Museum of Glass, New York

• Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts, Arizona

• The Henry Ford, Michigan

• Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

• Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Virginia

• Akron Art Museum, Ohio

• Oakland Museum of California

• National Museum of African American History & Culture

• Chicago History Museum, Illinois

• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (visual, performing, media arts)

• The Hammer, LA (contemporary art)

• The Walters, Baltimore

Digital Archives & Libraries

• US National Archives Catalog

• Library of Congress

• Trove: National Library of Australia images, books, newspapers, maps, etc.

• Biodiversity Heritage Library

• Endangered Archives, British Library

• National Archives of Japan

• Amsterdam City Archive

• Louisiana Digital Library: 400,000+ digital items from archives, libraries, museums

• Internet Archive: The Wayback Machine, digitized film, books, music, etc.

• American Literature Portal, WikiSource

• English Literature Portal, WikiSource