|
|
|
TopClicks
->
The Arts
->
Museums
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum - When you hear the word "desert," does it conjure up visions of sand dunes? Even Africa's Namib, perhaps the sandiest desert in the world, is only about 30 percent dunes. In Arizona's Sonora Desert, sand covers only 1 or 2 percent of the area. It doesn't mean there are no plants, either. Sloping and flat desert lands host so many plants, you can't walk without bumping into bushes! Also, flowers bloom most of the year. Learn more about the interrelationships of the plants, animals, and geology of this arid environment, as presented by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
Artcyclopedia: The Guide to Museum-Quality Art on the Internet - If you only had more Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh, you might be able to get to a museum to see art like this. But until then, visit a palette of museums online. Searchable by the name of the artist or museum, this site Rubens, er, rules!
Aviation Time Line - Science Museum of London - Look, it's a bird! No, it's a plane! In fact, it's a whole bunch of things that fly. From the Montgolfier brothers' hot-air balloon (built in 1783) to the world's largest passenger airplane, the Boeing 747, you'll discover it all here. You'll learn the history of flight and the people and technology behind it.
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum - Although the museum is located in Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay's estuary runs 190 miles and touches several states, from the mighty Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to Virginia's capes. At its widest point, the bay is 30 miles across, and its greatest depth is 174 feet. An interesting array of boats has developed around the bay's main occupations: crabbing, oystering, and waterfowling. Take the online museum tour to get a look at some of these sleek maritime beauties, and learn a lot about the Chesapeake Bay as you explore.
Cleveland Museum of Art Pharaohs Exhibition - See kings and queens, pharaohs, and their treasures. See statues and carvings from long ago. Learn some fun facts about the pharaohs. Did you know that some of them were women? Follow your guide, Rosetta Stone, and learn how to construct a paper model of a pharaoh (the pattern is printable) or go on an expedition to find out more about animals of ancient Egypt. Hut, hut, go King Tut!
Computer Museum - Robots Gallery - If you were going to build your own robot to explore Mars, or maybe creep into a live volcano, or perhaps entertain humans at a party, what would you need to consider in your design? You'd need to figure out how it gets power, how it moves around, and of course, how it looks. This Shockwave simulation allows you to try out various choices in a robot lab and get feedback on your choices.
Diego Rivera Web Museum - Diego Rivera was a famous painter originally from Mexico, but his paintings have been enjoyed throughout the world. You can sample some of this great artist's works here. You'll see fantastic murals, learn about Rivera's life, and enjoy Latino art at its best.
Endangered! Exploring a World at Risk - Since 1869, the American Museum of Natural History has played a leading role in the study and interpretation of the natural world. Through the establishment of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation in 1993, the Museum continues to lead the way in scientific excellence through the expansion of its programs to address one of today's key issues -- conservation of biodiversity. The Center, drawing on the combined strengths of the scientific, education, and exhibition departments, strives to integrate scientific knowledge into the conservation process and to disseminate information on biodiversity conservation widely. Endangered! Exploring A World At Risk, will be on display in the Museum's Gallery 3. This was followed in 1998 by theng of a major permanent exhibition hall devoted to the topic of biodiversity, which will provide up-to-the-minute information on many of the themes explored in this guidebook.
Field Museum of Natural History On-Line Exhibits - Where can you see pictures of dinosaurs, hear their names pronounced, and then watch them run? You can do all of this and more by visiting the exhibit pages at the world-famous Field Museum of Natural History. Here you can see birds dodge Jurassic dinosaurs and listen to the Triassic forecast (1-900-CLIMATE) on the dinosaur weather report. Tours include the following: Life Before Dinosaurs; Dinosaurs!; Teeth, Tusks, and Tarpits: Life After Dinosaurs. Make tracks to go see it!
Guide to Museums and Cultural Resources - The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County invites you to take a virtual tour of all the continents (including Antarctica) and explore museums in each. You may peek inside the Wool Museum in Australia, check out the Information Highway exhibit in Canada, or visit an art museum in Singapore. This will give you a good idea of how many different cultures are in the world and an understanding of what each has to teach.
Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village - Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village® celebrates the spirit of innovation and resourcefulness in America. With holdings of more than one million objects and 26 million documents, prints and photographs, it is the largest indoor/outdoor historical complex in the world.
Hoophall.Com - The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the game was born. Although there is not much at their site right now, they promise it will be cool Real Soon Now.
Huron Lightship Museum - Where it was too deep or impractical to build a lighthouse, but a navigation aid was still needed, a lightship like the Huron was often used. They displayed a light at the top of the mast and offered bells, whistles, foghorns, and other warning sounds as well. Take a virtual tour of this historic vessel, and learn all about the uses of lightships on the Great Lakes. There is also an extensive list of maritime links.
Imperial Tombs of China in Orlando, Florida - Long ago, when a Chinese emperor died, he was buried with fabulous treasures. One was buried with thousands of life-size terra-cotta soldiers and horses. One was buried in a special garment made of thousands of jade pieces held together by gold thread. Two hundred fifty objects from tombs spanning 2,500 years of Chinese history have been touring the world's museums. Now you can see the tour here online.
International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame - The International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame Online! Enjoy a taste of our 50,000 sq. ft. sport history museum, located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.
Mariners' Museum - Newport News, Virginia - This is a very handy time line of exploration, which starts with 3200 B.C., when Pharaoh Snefru brought 40 ships from Byblus to Phoenicia. From there, you can trace events and explorers, including Marco Polo, Magellan, and James Cook, among others. Some explorer descriptions have additional links where you can go to find out more. For example, Cook was one of the first to carry a chronometer--a special device that helped captains figure out their positions on the sea, before the days of GPS satellite navigation.
Metropolitan Museum of Art - Let's read the tour brochure: "The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collections include nearly three million works of art spanning 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present." Hmmm, maybe we should think about spending the whole day exploring this one site! This world-class art museum is located in New York City. If you visit the virtual version, you'll see suits of armor, Egyptian antiquities, Asian art, twentieth-century art, sculpture, and lots of famous art masterpieces. This site is also available in Japanese.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Explore and Learn - That's a nice painting, but can you explain why you like it? This site defines what elements go into works of art: composition, texture, pattern, and light are some you'll learn about as you explore the pages of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Museum of Automobile History - The largest museum of its kind in the world! The entire family will enjoy this unique musuem! Here everyone will see the amazing world that the automobile has left in its wake over the past 200 years. Take a walk through the Age of the Automobile, starting with an account of one of the first attempts at automaking in the 1770's, and on through to the cars of today!
Museums Index at World Wide Arts Resources - From this jumping-off point, you can explore almost 1,000 museums all over the world! You'll find art museums galore, but you'll also experience science, folk, maritime, and other specialized exhibits if you explore the lists. Many countries, from Africa to Asia, are represented.
National Air and Space Museum Homepage - See pictures and learn about milestones in aviation. For example, Charles Lindbergh was one of the most famous pilots in history. In his plane, Spirit of St. Louis, he was the first to cross the Atlantic alone. He took off from Roosevelt Field, in New York State, early on the morning of May 20, 1927. After 33 hours, Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, welcomed by a cheering crowd. This was the first solo crossing of a major ocean by air, and it was a very big deal at the time. Come in for a landing at this online museum, where you'll also see famous spacecraft and even a real moon rock! The National Air and Space Museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution, and it is located in Washington, D.C.
National Civil Rights Museum - Take the virtual tour to discover what it was like when African Americans had to sit at the back of the bus and avoid "whites only" restaurants, swimming pools, and drinking fountains. As bizarre as this seems to us now, before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, this was standard, everyday life in many places in the U.S. The Freedom Summer of 1964 included student sit-ins, boycotts, and marches. This museum in Memphis, Tennessee, re-creates some of the sights, sounds, and scenes of that era. Remember, the struggle for civil rights continues around the world today, and it involves people of many races.
National Cryptological Museum - Years ago, the road signs pointing to the CIA (the spy guys--the Central Intelligence Agency) building in Virginia read "Bureau of Public Roads." Everybody knew what it was, but nobody was willing to admit it publicly. A lot of this has changed. The National Security Agency, a similar government agency that does all kinds of James Bond-type things,d (in 1993) this public museum devoted to secret codes and code breaking. This page has a nice sampling of museum exhibits, complete with photographs. You'll see once-secret cryptology devices, such as the Cipher Wheel, the Black Chamber, and Enigma. You'll also find out about the Native American "Code Talkers" and their critical role in World War II. Museum hours and instructions on how to get to the place (including a map) are available here as well. Thank goodness they didn't put the directions in code!
National Museum of American Art - Look at all those paintings of yours that Mom has hung proudly on the refrigerator! One day you may become a famous American artist. Then your work would become part of a tradition of American art, and it might find a home in this museum. The museum boasts a grand collection of the best artwork produced by American artists. Which page will your artwork be on? Maybe Posters American Style, or part of the permanent collection? Browse these pages and take a walk through history.
National Museum of the American Indian - The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian is in New York City, not in Washington, D.C. (like their other museums). Most of the one million objects in its collection represent cultures in the United States and Canada, although there are also items from Mexico and Central and South America. You can see many artifacts of ancient and contemporary culture through the online exhibits of clothing, baskets, beadwork, and other objects. This museum displays sacred materials only with the permission of the various tribes and returns these materials on request. Chances are you've never seen things like this before! Imagine wearing a beautiful eagle-feather costume as you dance. "When a Ponca singer sings, the singing and the music make you dance. Some singers don't move you, but a Ponca singer will move you in your heart and mind; they make it easy to dance longer. These eagle feathers are stripped so they can hang down and flutter in the wind, like the ribbons on our shirts" (Abe Conklin, Ponca-Osage).
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum - Look in the Exhibits area. Are these really the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll? Well, it's a start, and if you have other ideas, you can always vote in the Ballot Box for your personal choice. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cleveland, Ohio, and it is a little bit like the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Read profiles of the rock legends who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame and listen to their audio files. You can also read about and listen to the 500 songs. If you take the virtual tour to the museum's exhibits, say "Hi" to Eddie the Elevator Man. What rock star was born on your birthday? A file in Play Around will tell you.
Royal Tyrrell Museum Homepage - Take a virtual tour of this famous museum in Alberta, Canada. You can stay on the guided tour, or you can use the virtual maps to go from exhibit to exhibit in any order you want! There are fantastic dinosaur exhibits with lots of pictures, and you'll find information on the second floor in Dinosaur Hall. In addition to all the dinosaurs, you can visit a paleoconservatory, which is a greenhouse full of primitive plants. Try the link to Dinosaur Provincial Park, where most of the museum's exhibits have been excavated.
Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives - There have been many different exhibitions on Latino culture at this Smithsonian museum. You can see some of them online, and there are pointers to other museums around the Web. Check out the Borderlands festival (with audio samples). It's in the History and Culture Related Resources section.
Splendors of Christendom - The Vatican, an independent city-state, is located in Rome, Italy. It has its own postage and souvenir coinage, but it is best known as being the worldwide center of Roman Catholicism. The head of the Catholic Church, the pope, lives there. The world-famous Vatican Museums are there; the popes have been collecting art since 1503, so there is a lot to see! If you go to the Vatican, you'll have to wait in line to get in, but here in the virtual museum, you can walk right in. View over 500 images of paintings, tapestries, and sculptures.
Teylers Museum - Teylers Museum is the oldest museum in Holland. It has the traditional stuff you'd expect from a great gallery. In addition to its excellent permanent exhibits, it also has rotating exhibits that feature the coolest new stuff. This site has lots of graphics, whose clever design is to carry you from one great find to the next. If you can't make it to the Netherlands this year, do the next best thing and take a leisurely tour of the anything-but-boring Teylers Museum.
The American Century - The Whitney Museum of Art presents this fascinating exhibit of art created in the twentieth century. Included are examples of painting, sculpture, decorative arts, film, and even architecture. If you have the right plug-ins, you can listen to a tour narrated by the director of the museum. Otherwise, plunge right in and enter the exhibit. In the Learning Center there are activities for families and kids aged 5-10. The concentration matching game is a good way to learn about a few significant artworks of the last century--and it's fun, too! Or, you can make your own artwork by dragging shapes onto a virtual canvas and manipulating them by stretching, rotating, or changing their colors. Save your work to the virtual gallery and become part of the exhibit yourself.
The Canadian Museum of Civilization - If you think museums are b-o-r-i-n-g, this one will change your mind! Be sure to register as a visitor, then hop the elevator to Level 2 to see the displays of folk art and fine crafts. Visit the Treasures Gallery to see why Canada is truly a cultural mosaic. Canada Hall is on Level 3. An interactive map lets you explore 1,900 years of Canadian history. Or take the voyage through all the regions of Canada and see a prairie curling rink, an Alberta oil rig, and lots more. Take a snack break if you need to, but don't leave the museum before venturing up to Level 5 to see the History in a Box Exhibit and find out what the colors and symbols on a mailbox can tell about the history of a country. Cool! Learning history was never so much fun.
The Exploratorium - This is the offical page for one of my favorite museums, the Exploritorium in San Francisco. Here you can find out what an aurora is or play memory games (Java required). If I had to choose one favorite, I would choose the Observatory section. The cool part is that you can see a movie of an eclipse from space. Or if you like, you can look at past ehibits, for example, the dissection of a cow's eye (something I saw live when I visited the "mooseum" I mean museum!). From auroras to sheep brain dissections, this page has everything.
The Louvre Museum - This museum was originally designed as a palace. In medieval times, it was a fortress. Now you can walk in what used to be the moats, but your feet will stay dry! The collections include not just French art but also paintings, sculpture, and works of art from many countries and times. To jump right to the paintings on this site, go to The Collections and click on Paintings. Whose eyes are those peering out at you? Click on them to find out.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame - Visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Get information on exhibits and tours, and check the online versions. You'll read about Babe Ruth's bat, Mickey Mantle's locker, and the special displays on women in baseball. You can also read about the baseball greats who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, as well as see pictures of this year's class of inductees. Don't miss the list of new acquisitions in the research library. When we checked, they had just received photographs showing a statue of Mark McGwire made entirely of Girl Scout cookies.
The Robert C. Williams American Museum of Papermaking - Young Roman students did their homework on wax tablets. Thanks to innovative thinking in China over 1,700 years ago, today you turn your homework in on paper. By the time you are out of school, students will probably hand in their assignments on computer disks. The American Museum of Papermaking highlights the development of papermaking. From clay tablets to the modern paper mill, follow the winding history of paper. After all, without paper how would you make paper airplanes?
The Sukuma Museum - The Sukuma culture is the largest in Tanzania. They live near the equator close to Lake Victoria, the second largest lake in the world. Visit the Sukuma Museum and learn about Sukuma culture, religious practices, and dances. You'll read about the traditional Sukuma healers and learn "that their power for healing is dependent on the goodwill of their ancestors." There is much more to read and learn about these people and their lives, and the text has many pictures that can be enlarged by clicking on them.
The Virtual Museum of Computing - The world's largest museum devoted to computers is appropriately located in Downtown Hyperspace. Don't worry about putting coins in the parking meter. Just stroll around and check out the ever-growing collection. You'll find galleries featuring local virtual exhibits, corporate histories, and entire wings with histories of computing organizations and societies, plus general computer history. Special exit doors will take you to a couple of dozen other online computing museums. While there is no virtual snack bar here yet, you can drop in on an assortment of selected computer-oriented newsgroups to chat about what you've seen. You'll even find a gallery of mousepads old and new. Parental advisory: This is a large site with many links, and they have not all been checked.
The Virtual Museum of Traditional Japanese Arts - What do you think of when you hear the word "art"? Paintings, sculptures, drawings. This site is sure to expand your understanding of that simple three-letter word. Would you have thought of landscape art, or dance, or sumo wrestling? Or maybe ceramics, bonsai, or archery? Read about these Japanese art forms and many more at this site.
United States Air Force Museum - The U.S. Air Force museum is in Dayton, Ohio. Take a virtual visit to it here. See hundreds of planes, missiles, and other exhibits in this cyberspace version. Of note is a special feature on presidential aircraft. The "Sacred Cow" was the nickname of Franklin Roosevelt's plane, built in 1944. Because the president used a wheelchair, the plane was equipped with an elevator behind the passenger cabin. This site offers fascinating facts and stories about planes throughout the history of the Air Force.
WebMuseum: Bienvenue! (Welcome from the Curator) - Browse through an incredible collection of famous paintings and other artwork. See the Mona Lisa, the most recognized piece of art in the world, or listen to some classical music in the auditorium. You can even take a minitour of Paris! Theng page of the WebMuseum includes a list of its mirror sites. Choose one close to you to provide a faster connection.
Women of the West Museum - Be sure to visit the online exhibit "There are no Renters Here" and follow the story of one Nebraska farm family and their lives in a prairie sod house. Read letters and diary entries to learn about one year's incredible crop of watermelons and find out what families used for fuel. (Hint: Buffalo chips aren't something you eat.)
|
|
