Guide to Virtual Resources

** Thank you to MCN for making this extensive “ultimate guide” to virtual resources available free of charge to non-members during this health crisis.**

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

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 us at @museumcn on Twitter!

Every resource is free to access and enjoy.
Much of it, though not all, is also open content, in the sense that it’s freely reusable and re-mixable under Creative Commons licensing.Open content is clearly labeled on its respective website.

PORTALS

Google Arts & Culture: +2000 partners from +80 countries
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
Museum Crush: Select objects from a variety of museums
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)
Science Museum Group: Collections from five UK science museums (325,000+ objects)
York Museums Trust: Collections from various museums in Yorkshire, UK
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
V21ArtSpace: Over 100 exhibit virtual tours
Arte.tv: Cultural documentaries, films, and more.
SHOW ME: Games, collections, videos, stories, homework help and family days out from museums and galleries

Image: V21 Artspace

VIRTUAL TOURS / ONLINE EXHIBITS

Art and Culture Museums

Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford: Virtual Tour
The Louvre, Paris: Virtual Tour
Vatican Museums: Virtual Tours
Dalí Theatre-Museum, Catalonia: Virtual Tour
Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm: VR Tour
Byzantine and Christian Virtual Museum: Virtual Tour
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens: Virtual Tour
Finnish Art Gallery: Virtual Tour
Cranbrook Art Museum, Michigan: Exhibit Virtual Tours
São Paolo Museum of Art: Virtual Tour
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum: Virtual Tour
The Hermitage, Russia: Virtual Tour (YouTube)
Arizona State Museum: Virtual Tour
The Kremer Museum: VR Tour (Requires download)
The Frick, Pittsburgh: Virtual tours, online collections, activities

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
Canadian Museum of History: 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
History Colorado: Online Exhibits
Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum
National Museum of the U.S. Navy
National Women’s History 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
Thomas Cole National Historic Site: Videos
Virginia Museum of History & Culture: Lecture series videos
Age of Revolution: Interactive Timeline
Better World Museum: Draw Together in VR, Bob Ross-style videos
Contemporary Jewish Museum: Learn about Jewish history, art, and culture
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
Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum: Activities, Coloring Pages
Paleontological Research Institution: Resources for Families, K-12 Students, College Students
Bronx Zoo: Field Sight
The Ringling: Lesson Plans and Read-Alongs

Created for Kids

Tate: Tate Kids (Games and quizzes, videos, kids’ art, etc.)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: MetKids
The Andy Warhol Museum: Online Lessons
Speed Art Museum: Art Projects for Kids
Roald Dahl Museum: Make Stories Like Roald Dahl
Rhino Palast: Games and Information (German only)
Exploratorium: Science Experiment “Snacks”
American Museum of Natural History: Ology science website for kids
Shedd Aquarium: Sea Curious- Kid Questions, Animal Answers (YouTube)
Monterey Bay Aquarium: Games, Activities, Coloring Pages
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
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
Frist Kids: Art activities and videos
The MAKESHOP Show: Projects and Activities
iCivics: Virtual games (free beginning with Covid-19)
International Association of Children in Museums: Coronavirus Guide

ONLINE COLLECTIONS

Art and Cultural Collections

Rijksstudio: Remix collections from Rijksmuseum
SMK Open: National Gallery of Denmark Collections
Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway (art by Edvard Munch)
Birmingham Museums Trust, Birmingham, UK (art and history)
Paris Museums: Over 300,000 works
Paris Museum of Modern Art
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Kröller-Müller Museum, The Netherlands
The Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland
Open Access at the Met
Corning Museum of Glass, New York
The Guggenheim, New York
Cooper Hewitt, New York (historical and contemporary design)
Albright-Knox, New York
New Museum Digital Archive
The Barnes Collection, Philadelphia
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Pennsylvania
The Walters, Baltimore
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Akron Art Museum, Ohio
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (visual, performing, media arts)
The Hammer, LA (contemporary art)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Crocker Art Museum, California
Oakland Museum of California
The Khalili Collections: 35,000 works of art
M+ Collections: 5,000+ Cultural Objects
The Leiden Collection
The Rainbow Museum: Art and Photography
Delaware Art Museum
Latino Cultural Arts Center, Denver
Clyfford Still Museum, Denver
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, New Mexico
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts, Arizona
McMaster Museum of Art, Canada
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Museum of New Zealand
The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (MALBA)
Xul Solar Museum, Argentina
National Museum of Fine Arts, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts

Science Collections

Naturalis: 40,000,000 natural science collections objects

History Collections

Canadian Museum of History
UK Postal Museum
Brooklands Museum, Surrey, UK (cars, motorcycles, aircraft)
South West Collections, England
Royal Armouries Collections
National Museum of African American History & Culture
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture
New York Archaeological Repository: Nearly 1,000,000 objects
Chicago History Museum, Illinois
Digital Cleveland History
The Henry Ford, Michigan
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Virginia
National Museum of Korea

DIGITAL ARCHIVES & LIBRARIES

US National Archives Catalog
Library of Congress
The National Archives, UK
Bath Archives, UK
Trinity College Library Dublin
Trove: National Library of Australia images, books, newspapers, maps, etc.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Endangered Archives, British Library
Cambridge Digital 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
New York Public Library: 880,000+ digitized prints, manuscripts, videos, etc.
Villanova Digital Library
British Library of Illuminated Manuscripts
Arctos Database: Access to 3 million specimens and observations in 210 collections

Huge thanks to the many who have written helpful blogs with their favorite museum tech resources. Your contributions are all included here: Cuseum, Mia Ridge, Jenni Fuchs, and Alicja Peszkowska.