The free collection started today and is an expansion of the Google Art Project that went online in 2011. The new and expanded project features virtual tours of museums using the same virtual presence system Google employs for Google Maps’ street-level view. The site is called Google Arts and Culture – Natural History.
While the tech giant may have started with 17 art museums in 2011, the expanded website features 50 natural history museums among the additional 1,000 museums found around the world that are also featured, reports CTV News.
So whether you might be interested in artworks from the Frick or St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum, or want to learn more about creatures that roamed the Earth millions of years ago, sit back, and prepare for the trip of a lifetime.
Google teamed up with 50 natural history museums to add over 150 interactive stories, some 300,000 new pictures, and videos, and over 30 virtual tours. This writer just had to try out one of the virtual tours, already, going to Berlin and meeting the 13-meter tall Giraffatitan. That was an experience!
You can also learn about biodiversity or the origins of the universe, or even closer to home, the “rise and fall of the prehistoric world.” Digital Journal came across one exhibit called “Drawing our Precious Wildlife” that lets us see wildlife through an artist’s eyes and work. The drawings are quite beautiful.
To be perfectly honest, this site is like having the world at your fingertips, and seriously, it would be easy to spend hours perusing just some of the topics, but it would take forever to look at every single one.
All that is needed is a computer, or an iOS or Android smartphone. Engadget says that a Google Cardboard would be helpful if you wanted to get the whole immersion effect.
