For students and their families looking for ideas to supplement their learning during the Easter holidays or simply looking for inspiration for things to do, here is Worth’s guide to online places to visit. These are just ideas and the list is not comprehensive but gives you a flavour of what is about. Most museums offer virtual tours and there is something for everyone if you look around.
Ten British Museums 1. Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum in London is a natural history museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. Links: Museum virtual tour: www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/virtual-museum.html Behind the scenes tour: www.youtube.com/channel/UC7zosc8-0T6Dfyo1bg0w7KA Explore a 360 degree panorama of Antartica: www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/360-panorama-of- antarctica.html
2. The Science Museum
The Science Museum has over 325,000 objects and archives from its collection available to discover online at. Links: Museum: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ Collection search: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/ Items reproduced in 3D on the computer: https://sketchfab.com/sciencemuseum/models
3. The British Museum
This iconic museum, located in the heart of London, allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on the museum’s virtual tour. Links: Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/ Virtual tour: https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
4. National Gallery London
The National Gallery is home to 2,300 publicly-owned paintings, watercolours, drawings and other European art from the 13th to the mid-20th century. Link: Exhibitions and 360-view virtual tour: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
5. The Faraday Museum
The Faraday Museum is an amazing venue where you can discover historic artefacts from over 200 years of world class scientific research, experiment and invention. Part of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the museum is named after one of Britain's most famous scientists, Michael Faraday. Links: Museum: https://www.rigb.org/visit-us/faraday-museum A 3D tour of Faraday’s magnetic laboratory: https://www.rigb.org/our-history/michael- faraday/magnetic-laboratory
6. The Old Operating Theature Museum
If you are a budding medic, The Old Operating Theatre Museum is a museum of surgical history and one of the oldest surviving operating theatres. Links: Museum: http://oldoperatingtheatre.com/ Online archive: https://ehive.com/objects?accountId=6025
7. Oxford University Museum of Natural History
This museum has 491786 records online, with collections varying from fossils to geology to zoology. Link: Online collection: www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/search
8. The Royal Society
The Royal Society is the world’s oldest independent scientific academy, dedicated to promoting excellence in science. Links: Museum: https://royalsociety.org/ Online exhibits archive, including an excellent piece on Alan Turing: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-royal-society
This museum is home to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the iconic historic sailing ship Cutty Sark, the National Maritime Museum and the Queen’s House art gallery. Links: Museum: https://www.rmg.co.uk/ An expert guide through some of the exhibits: https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore
10. Edinburgh Zoo
This is one of many zoos that have set up webcams so that you can watch the animals from home. You can try out the panda cam or watch the penguins, koalas or even the tigers. Link: Panda cam: www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/webcams/panda-cam/
Around the world in six steps The Google Arts and Culture collection (https://artsandculture.google.com/partner) provides some excellent suggestions as to where to visit online. Here are six we picked out:
1. Guggenheim Museum, New York Google’s Street View feature lets visitors tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras. Link: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/solomon-r-guggenheim-museum
2. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. There are two virtual exhibits. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895, including many renderings of clothes from the colonial and Revolutionary eras. The second is a collection of works from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer. Link: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-gallery-of-art-washington-dc?hl=en
3. Musée d’Orsay, Paris You can virtually walk through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others. Link: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris?hl=en
4. Pergamon Museum, Berlin As one of Germany’s largest museums, Pergamon has a lot to offer – even if you can’t physically be there. This historical museum is home to plenty of ancient artifacts including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and, of course, the Pergamon Altar. Link: https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/pergamon/m05tcm?hl=en
5. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Anyone who is a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter can see his works up close (or, almost up close) by virtually visiting this museum – the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters. Link: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/van-gogh-museum?hl=en
6. National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City Built in 1964, this museum is dedicated to the archaeology and history of Mexico’s pre- Hispanic heritage. There are 23 exhibit rooms filled with ancient artifacts, including some from the Mayan civilization. Link: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-national-museum-of-anthropology-mexico- city-ziko-van-dijk-wikimedia-commons/bAGSHRdlzSRcdQ?hl=en And one more worth visiting …
Vatican Museums, Rome Soaring vaulted ceilings, intricate murals and tapestries, the Vatican’s museums are creatively rich sites. Don’t forget to look up when exploring the seven spaces in the museum’s virtual tour, including the Sistine Chapel. Wander around the rest of Vatican City with a virtial tour that takes in Saint Peter’s Basilica and Square, complete with a tour guide narrating each interactive space. Link: http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html#lnav_explore