The purpose of this post is to share with you a collection of handpicked resources to help you take your students on virtual field trips to museums all around the world. With a working Internet connection and a computer, you will be able to explore masterpieces of the Louvre, view the wonderful architecture of the Van Gogh museum, discover the galleries of the American Museum of Natural History, and many more.
For an extensive list of famous online museums check out this collection from Google Arts & Culture. For those of you not familiar with Google Arts & Culture, this is platform that allows you to explore and learn about artworks and museums from all around the world. You can take virtual reality tours into world class museums, experience culture in 360 degrees, and use Street View to visit popular sites and landmarks.
If you want to use Google Arts & Culture on your mobile device you will have the added feature of Art Recogniser which allows you to learn more about artworks by simply pointing your device camera at them. Fo science museums check out this post.
1- National Portrait Gallery
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the history of America through individuals who have shaped its culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the American story.2- Smithsonian Museum
The Smithsonian Institution—the world’s largest museum and research complex—includes 19 museums and galleries and the National Zoological Park.
3- The Field Museum
The Field Museum’s 25 million objects—from Antarctic dinosaurs to Peruvian plants, from Inuit masks to Tanzanian mammals—are the lifeblood of the Museum, and an unparalleled resource to the world scientific community. 'Its collections hold answers to fundamental questions about our planet, its life, and its cultures. In an increasingly virtual world, our specimens are the real, concrete evidence of life on Earth.'4- The British Museum
The British Museum hosts thousands of exhibitions from all around the world. it also organizes free and paid tours into different museums from other countries.
5- Science Museum
Science Museum helps you explore the home of human ingenuity online. Find out about our objects, arts projects and medical collection, play educational games and discover climate science."6- National Women's History Museum
The Museum researches, collects and exhibits the contributions of women to the social, cultural, economic and political life of the American nation in a context of world history.
7- Memorial Hall Museum Online
Memorial Hall Museum Online allows you to explore American History with hands-on activities, exhibits, lessons, historic documents and artifacts.
8- American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific and cultural institution. The Museum is renowned for its exhibitions and scientific collections, which serve as a field guide to the entire planet and present a panorama of world's cultures.9- World Wide Museum of Natural History
World Wide Museum of Natural History is an online museum featuring photo galleries and quality educational products for homes, schools and museums. The galleries it features include :"
- The life galleries(vertebrate and invertebrate) are home to some of the most interesting fossils ever found including dinosaurs, ammonites, crinoids, mammals, early life, insects and more
- The WMNH also features galleries of existing life such as Lepidoptera (butterflies/moths) and wildflowers of the American prairie.
- The Astronomy and Geology galleries include meteorites, comets and geology."
10. The Louvre
The Louvre is a great art museum that covers over 10.000 years of history. Louvre's virtual tour allows you to visit the museum and explore its galleries and exhibitions and artwork from the Mona Lisa to The Wedding Feast at Cana.
11-Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History "allow visitors to take self-guided, room-by-room tours of select exhibits and areas within the museum from their desktop or mobile device. Visitors can also access select collections and research areas at our satellite support and research stations as well as past exhibits no longer on display".
With Moon in Google Earth, you can:
12- Moon Tour
With Moon in Google Earth, you can:
- Take tours of landing sites, narrated by Apollo astronauts
- View 3D models of landed spacecraft
- Zoom into 360-degree photos to see astronauts' footprints
- Watch rare TV footage of the Apollo missions
13. The Van Gogh Museum
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam contains "the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) in the world. The permanent collection includes over 200 paintings by Vincent van Gogh, 500 drawings and more than 750 letters. The museum also presents exhibitions on various subjects from 19th-century art history".
14. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, "is one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world with a collection that exemplifies the breadth, richness, and diversity of artistic expression, from prehistoric times to modern day.
World-renowned paintings by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cassatt—as well as the finest group of Monets outside of Paris and one of the richest collections of prints and drawings in the world—share space with mummies, sculpture, ceramics, and gold from ancient Egypt, Greece, the Near East, and the Roman Empire, and masterpieces of African and Oceanic art from the 16th to the 20th centuries".
