Here’s how to visit some great museums without leaving your home

While we are all sitting at home, with very little opportunity to travel and sightsee, I’ve found a great way to visit some of the best museums in the world; virtual tours.

Most museums have, at the very least, some photos of their exhibits, and many provide much more, including video and audio tours. Many of these can be viewed right on the museum’s web site, while others require a separate app.

Make your first stop, our nation’s capitol, Washington, D.C., and the Smithsonian Museums. Every one of the museums in this group are worthy of your time, and some I’ve actually been to in person. But, if you’ve never been to the Smithsonian, now’s a good time to check it out online.

The National Museum of Natural History is a great place to begin. On the museum’s website, it gives this description, The Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History virtual tours 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. [naturalhistory.si.edu]

Another stop in Washington should be the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. This museum’s website even has a “K-12 Learning Resources” section, that is handy for not only teachers, but parents, too. As a kid, this museum was a favorite of mine because I was enthralled with the whole space program and what NASA was doing in during the 1960s through the 1980s. [airandspace.si.edu]

Before you leave D.C., make sure you check out the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. This is by many considered the “cool” museum. Here’s where you’ll find artifacts and memorabilia from our nation’s past, including items from the founding members of our great country, Presidents, pop culture icons, and much more. One exhibit depicts “America on the Move,” with antique automobiles, a steam engine locomotive, and a display of artifacts along the “Mother Road” – Route 66. One of my favorite exhibits here is “Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers.” [americanhistory.si.edu]

If art and history aren’t your thing, how about the International Spy Museum, also in D.C.? This museum is built around espionage, but it also has a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor to it, as well. The museum’s home page says, “Spy on us from home.”

Here you’ll find virtual field trips, lesson plans, and the language of espionage. As the website points out; Through its extensive collection, the International Spy Museum illustrates the real-life stories of intelligence professionals and offers insight into the overall impact of spycraft on world history as well as public perception of espionage practices.

Now let’s leave Washington and head north to New York City, where we’ll visit the American Museum of Natural History. Yes, this is the museum featured in the famous A Night at the Museum movie, but you can visit online at any time of the day. This museum’s mission is to discover, interpret, and disseminate – through scientific research and education – knowledge about human cultures, the natural world and the universe.

That’s a mouthful, but the bottom line is, there are a lot of cool exhibits, and the virtual tour will take you through most of the museum, plus, like many of these websites, there a plenty of resources for teachers and parents. [www.amnh.org.]

If you have your “passport” ready, let’s head to France. My family and I had the distinct honor of visiting the Louvre Museum in Paris in 2005. Although we only had three hours to spend there, we ran from room to room, taking in as many of the exhibits as possible. If you spent two days at the Louvre you wouldn’t see everything, but they know that some people have a limited amount of time, and the museums map-brochure gave the option and provided directions on how to see all the most famous pieces of work on a limited schedule. That was very helpful.

We saw the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, the Roman Antiquities, and much more. You can too, on the website’s virtual tour. [www.louvre.fr/en]

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. There are so many great museums from around the U.S. and around the world that you can visit right from the comfort of your own quarantine quarters, and it doesn’t cost a dime.