Virtually Exploring During the Time of COVID
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to run its course, cabin fever is reaching new peaks for many of us. The weather is getting nice and we are all starting to get out and explore. As the state reopens it feels like more opportunities for leaving our homes are presenting themselves. But the prospect of traveling far is not possible for many of us and even trips to museums and the like will be limited for some in the coming months. Here is the Washington State Law Library’s guide to virtual exploration and travel.
If learning about US history and historical figures is your thing, there are many sites on the internet that host virtual exhibits and tours for you to explore. The National Archives has a bounty of online and live exhibits. Their Records of Rights exhibit engages visitors with documents related to the history of various rights in America. For example, see the telegram that informed Estelle Griswold’s counsel that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned Connecticut’s anti-contraception statute establishing privacy rights in marital relations. Griswold had been arrested for opening a Planned Parenthood office in violation of the state’s anti-contraception statute. Other rights highlighted in the exhibit are rights of freedom and justice, Native American rights and equal rights.
If you would like to tour a Presidential Library museum, you can find links to all of these museums at the Archives website. Some of the offerings are a virtual tour of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum and virtual visits of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home, along with the museum’s online exhibits. The Eisenhower library has its own IkeLibrary YouTube channel that collects virtual tours and exhibits and other video, such as the library’s Lunch & Learn educational series.
If you are looking for an easy way to find virtual tours and exhibits like these try searching Google Arts & Culture. Through this initiative, partner organizations receive help in digitizing and publishing their collections online. You can search the site by keyword or you can browse by collection, theme, historical event, and more. The sky is the limit with Google Arts & Culture.
Browsing the American Democracy theme leads you to exhibits at the National Women’s History Museum on women in Congress and African American women in the civil rights movement. Learn about the constitutional legacy of John Marshall at the National Constitution Center or the American Missionary Association schools and colleges responsible for educating many African Americans in the post-Civil War era at the Amistad Research Center.
“From Yosemite to Broadway, take a trip around the States with more than 480 institutions.” The Google Arts & Culture United States of Culture theme is a great way to discover American parks, museums, performance venues and travel destinations. Explore The Historic Route 66. Or if street art is something you seek out when you travel, you can view the art form in locations such as Honolulu, New York City or Los Angeles. Featured museums include Los Angeles’s J. Paul Getty Museum, D.C.’s National Museum of Asian Art, and the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky.
While we are all left to dream of our future travel plans, we hope we have sparked your interest in a few destinations. We will travel again — go find out where! (SC)
