There is no doubt that humanity is gaining a better understanding of our global interconnections. As we stay at home for the foreseeable future, it can be challenging to snap out of the desperation that consuming all-day-news can bring. Here are a few resources to check out. It is time to lose yourself in online self-improvement and discovery.
Online Resources
- Google Arts & Culture: Tours of 500 of the world’s most famous museums
- Europeana: 50,000,000 European works of art, books, music, and more
- Smithsonian Open Access: Search 2.8 million images and 3D Models
- China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration: Virtual portal of 100 institutions
- NASA Image & Video Library: All NASA content is in the public domain
- DPLA: Digital Public Library of America
- Digital Agnes: Canadian portal for curatorial research and online exhibitions
- Creative Commons: Aggregates all CC-licensed content and collections globally
- Virtual Museum of Canada: Virtual Exhibits and Cultural Content
- The Vatican: 360-degree Museum Tours
- The Louvre, Paris: Virtual Tour
- Monterey Bay Aquarium: Animal Live Cams
- The Science Museum, London: Shipping Galleries Virtual Tour
- Wikimedia Commons: Over 20,000,000 open images
- Yellowstone National Park, US: Virtual Tours
- Smithsonian Learning Lab
- MoMA Learning
- Sketchfab: 3D Models (link goes to cultural-specific search)
- Les Fruits de Mer: Activities, books, films about Caribbean wildlife
- Museum of Early Trade and Crafts: Recipes, Games, Coloring Pages, etc.
Stuff for Kids
- Metropolitan Museum of Art: MetKids
- Exploratorium: Science Experiment “Snacks”
- The Field Museum: The Brain Scoop (YouTube)
- 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
- Canadian Museum of Nature: Coloring Pages, Arctic, Garden, Dinosaurs
- Smarthistory: Source of history content for Khan Academy
- iCivics: Virtual games (free beginning with Covid-19)
Archives
- US National Archives Catalog
- Library of Congress
- Trove: National Library of Australia images, books, newspapers, maps, etc.
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- Endangered Archives, British Library
- Internet Archive: The Wayback Machine, digitized film, books, music, etc.
- American Literature Portal, WikiSource
- English Literature Portal, WikiSource
