Visiting a Virtual Museum

Before our internet age, to see an exhibit you had to physically go to a museum or buy a book.  Today, you can visit a museum virtually!  The Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum complex and research organization, has a great website that allows you to explore exhibitions online.  It’s part of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and it has a searchable database of online exhibitions.  You can access the site by clicking here: Smithsonian Institution..

The site features links to online exhibitions created by libraries, archives and historical societies – it’s international and multi-lingual.  For example, there’s actually a link to an exhibit held by the Getty Museum in 2007: Stories in Stone: Conserving Mosaics of Roman Africa; Masterpieces from the National Museums of Tunisia.  If you want something in French, you can check out a great astronomy exhibit by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France called Ciel et Terre.  It examines how the ancients thought of the heavens, and has great reproductions of celestial globes and atlases.

The possibilities are endless! It’s quite remarkable that we can “visit” museums and see exhibits from all corners of the world from the comforts of our own home. I urge you to take advantage of the Smithsonian Institution’s resources to learn more about cultures around the globe.