Museums
You're on vacation and it's pouring rain. What to do? Visit a museum, of course. This column presents links to many of the local, national, and European museums (non-art; see art museums for a listing of art museums). You'll be able to take a virtual tour of a museum, browse or purchase from the online store, find the opening hours, obtain driving directions, and, in general, plan your visit. Two listed sites provide links to a majority of the world's museums.
Regional Museums
Museum of Science, Boston -www.mos.org- Current and online exhibits, calendar of events, shows, and coming exhibitions; purchase tickets and shop online at the Museum store.
Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, MA -www.monh.org- An American history museum - from thematic shows such as The Shakers of Canterbury, New Hampshire and Women of the Wild West to collections of toys, costumes, furniture, photographs, and paintings.
The Discovery Museums, Acton, MA -www.discoverymuseums.org- "Two separate (The Children's Discovery Museum and The Science Discovery Museum) but complementary museums filled with exciting, interactive exhibits for children of all ages using focused spaces and hands-on activities inviting exploration and discovery".
Harvard University Museums -www.harvard.edu/museums- Links to Harvard's museums.
American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA -www.athm.org- "The Museum's large collection includes thousands of books, manuscripts and images, millions of textile samples and hundreds of textile-making machines, the Museum is an unparalleled resource for the study of American textile history".
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA - pem.org - "One of New England's largest museums, the Peabody Essex has internationally renowned maritime collections; four centuries of American Decorative Arts; and art from China, Japan, Korea, India, and the Pacific Islands. It also displays one of the world's largest and most important collections of Asian decorative arts produced for the Western Market". Everything you will need to plan a trip can be found at this site.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
- www.jfklibrary.org - The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is dedicated to the memory of our nation's thirty-fifth president and to all those who through the art of politics seek a new and better world.
US Museums
Smithsonian Institution Museums -www.si.edu/museums- Links to all the museums Smithsonian Institution.
New York Hall of Science -www.nyhallsci.org- Online interactive exhibits and information to plan a visit.
American Museum of Natural History, New York -www.amnh.org- From anthropology to zebras, tour past and present exhibition highlights. Current exhibitions information, public programs, online guide to shopping and dining at the Museum, hours of operation, directions and parking, Museum tours, floor plan - all are available online to help you plan your visit.
European Museums
The British Museum, London -www.britishmuseum.org- One of the great museums of the world. This site will help you find out about the collections of the British Museum and help you plan a visit to the Museum.
Deutsches Museum (The German Museum), Munich -www.deutsches-museum.de- In English and German. This is the mother of all science and technology museums, founded in 1903 and completely rebuilt after the Second World War; the Web site shows it off very well. Over 100 exhibits from Aerospace to Weights and Measures are on display in the Museum and presented in this very comprehensive Web site. Dioramas, interactive demonstrations, panorama views, video-clips, and audio-clips are all offered at this site. An extensive overview of the museum's archival holdings can be found here. The archives of the Deutsches Museum are the leading collections for the history of science and technology in Europe. They hold currently 4.3 kilometers of archival material, sources and documents. The archival collections focus on transportation, aeronautics and astronautics, the history of physics and chemistry.
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris -www.mnhn.fr- In French and English.
The Royal Museum of the Army and Military History, Brussels -www.klm-mra.be- The Royal Museum of the Army and Military History is located in one of the buildings of the Cinquantenaire Park and contains about one hundred thousand items. This collection makes the Museum rank among the top military museums in the world - on display are hand weapons, experimental models, gunsmith's equipment, automatic machine guns, World War equipment, photos, documents, and armoured tanks. In one of the larger halls, a collection of 130 airplanes can be seen. Special attention is given to the airplanes of the period around the second World War as used by the Luftwaffe and the Allied Forces: Hurricanes, Spitfires, Mosquitos, etc. Also on display: Jet planes, Gloster Meteor, F 104 G, a Swedish Draken, Dakota, C-119, Pembroke, etc.
Museum Metasites
Museum Computer Network (Museum Sites Online) -www.mcn.edu/resources/index.asp?subkey=81- Links to over 1,000 international museums and museum WWW sites.
VLMP (Virtual Library museum pages)-vlmp.museophile.com- A distributed directory of on-line museums listed by country.
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