Monday, December 24, 2012

A Walk in the Park: California State Parks' Online Museum Collections

As I've mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of federal and state land programs.  I grew up going to many national parks for vacations, and I'm now lucky to live in an area with many beautiful state parks and forests nearby.  In recent years, many of these administered lands have begun to create exhibits and programs to accompany their natural splendor, and some are even creating online museums.  That's exactly what the California State Parks system has done, and while it's a noble endeavor, it's execution leaves much to be desired.

These online collections consist of images arranged by category, and the array of topics is pretty impressive.  You can view nature photographs, images of historic structures, immigration documents, paintings, advertising materials, and landscapes, among many other objects.  The most fascinating are the certificates that Chinese workers presented upon their arrival to California - you can view twelve of these papers in detailed images.  Also interesting - assuming you're into the lives of the American elite - are artifacts from Hearst Castle.

Unfortunately, there's not much to these collections beyond images.  Few of the images contain meaningful descriptions to provide context for the objects or artwork - most simply communicate what the objects look like and what their dimensions are - and a good number have no explanation at all.  The only collection categories that had interesting texts accompanying their objects were Architect Julia Morgan:  A Blueprint for Success and Treasurers from a Pioneer Family.  I suppose that the information provided is sufficient for a researcher, but for a general audience most of the collections fall flat.

It's too bad, because as the land administration system for the most populous state, the California State Parks department could surely provide a lot of fascinating content.  There are some interesting subjects on display here and I believe a greater depth of information could really draw online visitors in.  As it stands now, though, I can't see these virtual collections really adding anything to the park experience.


California State Parks' Online Museum Collections
Website:  www.museumcollections.parks.ca.gov

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Fashion Forward: The Museum at FIT Online Collections

I love fashion.  A lot.  What I love even more is historical fashion:  hoop skirts, flapper dresses, those gorgeous A-line gowns from the 50s, and on and on.  I've always heard that New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has a wonderful museum, but I've never had a chance to go in person.  So you can imagine that when I stumbled across FIT's online collections, I had to fight the urge to swoon.  I'll try to be objective in reviewing these collections, but it's going to be difficult.

The best feature of FIT's online presence is the sheer number of objects on display.  You can view hundreds of objects, from the 18th century to the present day, in highly detailed photographs.  For many objects there are multiple images available, each showing a different view, that can be viewed in higher resolutions.  All objects are labeled with the materials they're made of, their date and country of origin, and what designer they come from (if known).  I especially like the descriptions that accompany each object, because for the most part they are short enough to keep your attention, yet still contain some interesting information - like how Vogue likened Chanel's first little black dress to a Ford.

Besides learning about clothes and accessories, there are also detailed biographies of every designer whose work is featured in the online collections.  These biographies are informative but a little lengthy and dry.  I wasn't too interested in reading more than a few, so I can imagine that someone less fashion-oriented might not care too much for this feature.

Although I really enjoy these collections, if I put myself in the shoes of someone who's not so keen on fashion I can see that FIT needs to add more features if it wants to attract a wider audience.  Beyond enlarging the images, there's nothing that's really interactive about the content.  There's also not a lot of variety - it's all clicking and looking - and no real connections between the objects.  It would be worthwhile to create exhibits highlighting how earlier eras influenced later styles and how designers drew on those who came before them.  3D views and interviews with living designers would also add a change of pace to what's already here.

Not that I'm complaining - I could easily spend a few hours or more combing through these collections in wonder.  But I realize that I'm a special case, and that the collections' current format seems designed to appeal to researchers and those of us who are already fashion converts.  It's my feeling that caring about clothes doesn't have to be a snobbish, elite pastime, but can be enjoyed by anyone who like colors and textures and the way they look on the human body.  The Museum at FIT Online Collections need to be spruced up a little bit if they want to convey that message.


The Museum at FIT - Online Collections
Website:  fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Visiting the President: The White House Museum

Twenty years ago I got to tour the White House, but since I was only five years old I remember absolutely nothing.  Nowadays, because of increased security, it's difficult for an average citizen to be able to visit the President's home.  But if you're curious about the layout of this famous building and its grounds, and you don't mind wading through some dense information, the White House Museum is a pretty good resource.

The museum can seem a little intimidating at first, because when you enter the museum you're greeted with a page full of text and numbers (seriously - the square footage of the White House is listed, along with the number of bedrooms and bathrooms).  The museum's creator must have realized how boring this page looks, because helpfully included are links on the side to some of the building's more popular rooms.  If you scroll to the middle of the page, you can find interactive maps of all White House's wings.  There you can click to arrive on a layout of each floor, which provides a much more interesting museum experience.

The layouts are labeled with all the rooms in the White House, and each room has its own page.  Some of these pages are text-heavy, but most present just enough information.  Included with each room's page are a good number of photographs with brief, informative captions.  Many of the photographs are from the past decade, but there are quite a few historical images, some dating back to the nineteenth century.  The White House grounds are presented in a similar manner, and they're definitely worth a look, if only so you can realize just how many amenities the President has at his residence.

Aside from those two sections, the museum has only one other part, and it turned out to be my favorite.  There is a small gallery of art and furnishing in the White House, and the images of these artifacts are excellent.  A short description of accompanies the objects, as well as a link to the room where each is located.  It's quite interesting to see and learn about a few of the historical pieces that surround the President.

This museum is not connected to the government in any way, but is instead a private effort.  It's pretty amazing, then, to have all these images and information at your fingertips and laid out in an appealing way.  The text definitely needs to be whittled down, but aside from being too wordy this museum is really worth a look.  If you can't make it down to Washington, D.C., this might just be the next best thing.


The White House Musuem
Mission:  To provide a place to explore the history and heritage of the home of the president of the United State of America.
Website:  www.whitehousemuseum.org

Monday, October 15, 2012

FRABOOM Goes the Dynamite

An online children's museum sounds intriguing, doesn't it?  After all, children are becoming more and more adapt at navigating technology, and some would argue that they need to be computer literate as early as possible in order to succeed.  So it would make sense to introduce an online museum to children - they could learn to navigate around the internet and engage with content at the same time.  It sounds good, in theory.  It's just too bad that FRABOOM Online Children's museum doesn't deliver in practice.

The opening screen of FRABOOM shows a cartoonish exterior of a Grecian-style museum building, with five different sections to choose from.  You'll find, though, that you can only navigate to two of them - the games and a "Play Now!" link that asks you to become a paying member.  I'm guessing that all the other parts of the museum would become available as soon as you purchase a membership, but it seems a little dishonest to put for-pay content on the homepage.

I'm not sure I would even want to become a member, because the quality of the exhibits in FRABOOM leaves a little to be desired.  Although I would be interested to see what the U.S. Presidents and Dinosaurs sections look like, I can't really say the same for Talk With a Tooth Fairy Live! or an entire exhibit devoted to the mouth.  Although the topics featured on the museum's map are all pretty standard kid-friendly topics, they seem a little generic and bland.  There are thousands of places on the web where kids can learn about insects or the ocean for free, so if parents are going to be paying for content it had better be pretty spectacular.

Aside from the exhibits, the bonus features aren't too compelling.  There is a section of interactive books that are animated as they're read aloud, which is a cool feature, but there are only four shown on the virtual bookshelves (and only one is available for free).  The museum's games are intended to be educational, but in playing them I found it hard to discern just what I was supposed to be learning.  There's also a selection of so-so cartoons, but do children really need more television to watch?


As you can tell, FRABOOM leaves a lot to be desired.  The potential is there, in the form of some of the exhibits' content, but the momentum is lost in rehashing topics that have been done to death for kids and pushing too much flashy, minimally educational content to the fore.  The need to pay for most of the museum's content is also a huge drawback.  If you're going to shell out cash to see exhibits, you might as well purchase a membership to your local, physical children's museum and go as many times as you like.  I can guarantee there will be more creativity and less gimmickry on display.


FRABOOM - Online Children's Museum
Website:  www.fraboom.com

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Ancient Artifacts: The Penn Museum Online Exhibits

The Penn Museum, which is a part of the University of Pennsylvania's campus, is one of those dusty old museums that contain some really interesting hidden gems.  How much you enjoy the museum depends on your level of patience - are you willing to shuffle through display cases that haven't changed much in fifty years?  If not, you might dismiss this as just another dry scholar's museum.  But if you do take the time to look closely at everything, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised.  The museum is now trying to show the world how interesting it can be through a few online exhibits, though I'm not sure how well they're succeeding.

There are ten exhibits you can browse on the Penn Museum's website, but for some reason the presentation of these exhibits isn't at all consistent.  The best allow for 3D viewing of objects in the collection and the exhibit halls they reside in.  Some also have interactive maps showing where University of Pennsylvania teams unearthed featured artifacts.  And some do a good job of linking the objects shown in these exhibits to the content of the physical museum's permanent displays.

But these positive aspects really only hold true for three exhibits:  The Real Story of the Ancient Olympic Games, The Ancient Greek World, and Egypt:  A New Look at an Ancient Culture.  The other seven exhibits leave something to be desired.  They tend to be long-winded, featuring long blocks of text interrupted only by a sparse few images.  Some take a rather too familiar tone, using a voice that seems much too casual and colloquial for exhibit content.  And one exhibit, The Real Me:  Therapeutic Narrative in Cosmetic Surgery, read like a very long Vanity Fair article slapped up on the web in a tiny blue font.

Over all, the online exhibits are pretty disappointing.  Compared to other physical museums that put content on their website, the Penn Museum is sorely lacking.  It seems strange that such a well-respected museum would neglect consistency and the curatorial voice, not to mention an element of enjoyability, in their online museum presence.  I do hope they get around to sprucing up this content, and soon, or they risk coming off as just another stuffy university museum.


The Penn Museum Online Exhibitions
Website:  www.penn.museum/online-exhibits.html

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Remembrance: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Online Exhibitions

That most of us have learned about the Holocaust, in school and through our families and possibly our religious institutions, is testament is how hard we have worked to ensure that the horrors of this mass persecution aren't ever repeated.  By teaching each other about this tragedy and the awful acts that were committed, we hope to make such violence and prejudice repellent.  That's the aim of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and now through its online exhibits anyone can learn, in depth, the many different aspects of this genocide.

The Holocaust usually conjures up images of Jews being persecuted, which was its primary intention - but it's easy to forget that there were many other facets of the German rise to power.  The Holocaust Museum's multitude of online exhibits cover, basically, everything.  Want to know about the 1936 Berlin Olympics?  There's a huge exhibit about that event.  Curious about survivors who continued their lives in the United States?  You can view many oral histories about this migration.  You can also learn about religious leaders who opposed the German government, Nazi propaganda and Holocaust denial.

Some of these exhibits are highly detailed - the one about the Olympics, for example, goes on for pages and covers just about everything you could possibly think of.  Some are just a few short paragraphs, like the page about people of African descent in Nazi Germany.  This inconsistency is a little annoying, because you don't know if you're going to get a avalanche of information and photos or just a few bits of information.  I was also frustrated by the setup of the online exhibitions, because if you got caught down the rabbit hole of a particularly detailed exhibit, it was difficult to get back to the main page displaying all of the exhibits.

But the online exhibits do plenty of things incredibly well.  There are a wealth of images, video, and oral histories to browse through.  The museum also lets you browse its ID program (which presents photos and histories of specific concentration camp victims) online.  Plus, the shear number of topics is really amazing because it reminds you just how devastating the Holocaust was to so many groups of people.  It's this type of presentation and remembrance that helps us keep in mind how devastating this period in history was, and why we should never forget it.


The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Online Exhibits
Website:  www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online




Sunday, August 12, 2012

Almost There: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Panoramic Virtual Tour

The Smithsonian museum system is, in my opinion, one of America's national treasures.  Comprising nineteen separate institutions plus a zoo and nine research centers, its collections are magnificent and highly varied.  And because it's run by the federal government, you can visit any part of it for free.  But if you've never made the trek to Washington, DC (or if you went there but somehow managed to not go to any part of the Smithsonian), you might never get a chance to see any of this.  But fear not, because the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) now has a virtual tour you can access from the comfort of your own home.

The NMNH's tour is pretty impressive.  You start in the building's rotunda and are treated to a lifelike 3D panoramic view of what's inside.  From there you can move around to all the exhibits - nineteen in total - via hotspots marked as arrows.  Clicking these arrows will take you from one gallery to the next, and in each section you can zoom in or out, rotate, and move up or down.  Galleries can also be accessed on a map in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, where the hotspots are labeled and clickable.

This setup is fascinating, because it really is the next best thing to actually being there.  The dioramas, the artifacts, the taxidermied animals - each of them is right in front of you in all their magnificence.  At some of the exhibits, you can even click on a camera symbol to get a close-up view of a particular specimen.  And since this is a virtual tour, you can spend as long as you like looking at everything, without the crowds and noise of a real museum.  The NMNH has even put several past exhibits online, plus a few views of the museum's grounds.

The only thing I found frustrating was the lack of interpretation on the tour.  In theory, you could zoom in on any of the information panels in the gallery until they were legible.  But in reality, only about half the panels were photographed in a resolution that allowed you to read them.  And those that are clear enough to make out distinct words can be difficult to view - you have to navigate precisely, so that the text comes into your field of vision, and you can easily bypass them if you don't look hard enough.

It would be nice to have information about what's in the galleries readily available - that would probably make this virtual tour perfect.  But even though that's not currently available, I still have to recommend the NMNH's panoramic tour as one of the best virtual museum projects I've seen.  It's made from pretty advanced technology, but it's not full of bells and whistles and gimmicks that take away from the museum's purpose.  It simply recreates the experience of browsing through the museum and seeing its many wonderful objects.


Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Panoramic Virtual Tour
Website:  www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas

Sunday, July 8, 2012

From Sea to Shining Sea: National Park Service Virtual Museum Exhibits

I grew up in a family that loves the U.S. National Park system, so I've had the chance to visit many parks, monuments,  and historic sites.  These places are interesting and definitely teach you a lot about American history and the natural wonders of the United States, but they can also be very remote.  Luckily, if you want to visit one of these sites but don't have time to travel, the Park Service's Virtual Museum Exhibits can bring the parks to your computer.

So far, only a handful of sites have any sort of online exhibit presence, so you might not get to learn about a site you're most interested in.  The sites that are online display pictures of artifacts they have, along with interpretive texts and maps.  All pictures can be viewed in detail, and in some cases the site provides links for you to request a copy of the image.  A few sites, mostly ones based around outdoor scenery and natural formations, also offer video.

But while it's certainly interesting to see historical artifacts and learn about, say, civil war battles and Native American culture, it can quickly get boring just reading and looking.  This format might hold up for really engaging sites like Alcatraz, but I'm convinced that only the most die-hard presidential history buff wants to scroll through pages and pages of text on Harry Truman.

Dinosaur National Monument is the only site to offer truly interactive features in its virtual exhibits.  On their website you can see a movie about the monument, view a 3D dinosaur skull from different angles, and take a virtual tour of an artist's depiction of the prehistoric West.  Features like these help keep a visitor's interest, and it would be great if other sites could incorporate something similar into their online exhibits.

It's definitely worthwhile for these few sites to have an online presence where they can display artifacts, images and information.  The Park Service is a treasure, in my opinion, and is unknown and underutilized by too many people.  But virtual exhibits don't have to be so static - after all, what's contained at these sites is pretty amazing, and visitors should be able to grasp that.  I wish that more sites would display exhibits online - exhibits that are fun and engaging for all kinds of visitors.


National Park Service Virtual Museum Exhibits
Website:  www.nps.gov/museum

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

California Dreamin': The Sierra Nevada Virtual Museum

California may be the biggest state in the U.S., but there are still 274 million Americans who live in some other state or territory.  For many people who grew up elsewhere (including myself), California can seem like a distant, glamorous paradise filled with beautiful people and all kinds of different landscapes.  Other places on the internet can help you find the Golden State's crop of celebrities, but if you're instead interested in the scenery, I can recommend the Sierra Nevada Virtual Museum for browsing and learning.

The sheer amount of information located in this museum is astounding.  You can learn about the art, literature, history, geology, ecology and topography of the area surrounding this mountain range, and also delve into the life stories of notable residents.  Almost every section has accompanying text, and those that don't have are interpreted by videos that combine images and audio clips (either from experts or from the time period being described).  You can also view art, nature photographs (I really liked seeing local petroglyphs), excepts from writings, and interactive maps.

What I especially enjoyed was the Virtual Field Trips, which use narrated video to explore well-known points of interest in the Sierra Nevada (like Yosemite Park and the Pacific Crest Trail).  I like that the museum really tries to bring nature to visitors, and that this section is presented as a series of field trips.  This really helps in bringing the museum's mission to the visitor and replicating a physical museum experience in an appropriate virtual format.

The one thing I didn't like about this museum is their over-reliance on film and animation.  It's great to include some video in the exhibits to keep visitors' attention, but it becomes a little overwhelming when nearly everything moves and plays music.  A few too many sections of the museum have both video and text, which becomes a little too much to take in after a while.  You should know that if you're using a raccoon with an annoying voice to introduce videos, you've gone overboard.

But aside from this one flaw, the museum is a pretty good example of what can be accomplished through a virtual museum.  You might never think of talking about and displaying nature on a computer screen, and yet this museum does it well.  By using a multimedia approach, and covering lots of ground in a mostly engaging manner, the Sierra Nevada Virtual Museum really does bring California into your home.  It's the next best thing to being there.


Sierra Nevada Virtual Museum
Mission:  Sierra Nevada Virtual Museum is a multimedia, interactive online museum the rich history, culture, and natural history of the Sierra Nevada.
Website:  www.sierranevadavirtualmuseum.com

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Friendly Skies: The Aviation History Online Museum

I've been to Kitty Hawk to see the Wright Brothers' airplane models.  I also went to Arctic Thunder 2010, a daylong air show at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.  Beyond that, my knowledge of air transportation is limited.  So I was glad to find the Aviation History Online Museum because, at least in some cases, it provides a lot of interesting and engaging information.

The best part of this museum is its Aircraft gallery, which lists many different airplane models (alphabetized by manufacturer).  For almost every model, you can view photos and a few short paragraphs of information.  You also have the option to see a much longer and more technically detailed history of the aircraft.  I love the way this is set up with two different levels of information because visitors who are really into aviation will be curious enough to read the longer texts, while those who are novices will find the shorter interpretation to be a good introduction.

I also really like the Early Years section, which details all the different inventors whose ideas led up to the first airplane.  The information here is truly interesting and not overly long, and it's presented in a way that lets you see how each person piggybacked off previous discoveries.  The Theory section also does a good job of taking difficult scientific concepts and explaining them for visitors to understand.  There's also a nice selection of videos that show clips of the Battle of Okinawa, the history of TWA, and many other relevant subjects.

There are a few sections that might be tough for the average visitor to get through, like the series of articles posted to the museum.  They're long and too much like Wikipedia, and I imagine that only the nerdiest of aircraft enthusiasts would find them interesting.  The same is true for the section on engines and, disappointingly, the gallery featuring famous aviators.

All in all, though, this is an unexpectedly engaging museum.  It makes aircraft and the history of flight fun and accessible to visitors of all interest levels.  There's a lot of pictures and simple explanations for those of us who have never considered why we fly, and there's also plenty of technical information for airplane enthusists.  I would recommend this museum to anyone, because I guarantee you'll learn something and maybe even become more interested in flying.


The Aviation History Online Museum
Website:  www.aviation-history.com

Sunday, June 10, 2012

As Rome Goes: The Ostia Virtual Museum

Roman art and architecture is beautiful, even if most of it is now crumbling.  But since many people haven't had the chance to visit Italy's historical sites (I've only ever been to Rome's airport), we have to rely on images of the these ancient splendors.  That's the function of the Ostia Virtual Museum, which is dedicated to displaying ruins and unearthed artifacts from this port within the Roman empire.

The breadth of objects you can view at this museum is impressive - the images are organized by medium, so you can view things made of glass, metal, terra cotta, bone and marble, as well as mosaics, stucco reliefs, fading paintings and what's left of ancient buildings.  The images are of varying quality (only some are in color, and most were taken pre-digital camera) but almost every piece has been photographed at various angles, so you can still get a good sense of what each looks like.

The text accompanying the images is better than many other virtual museums I've encountered, but not perfect.  In many cases detailed information is provided about where the object was found and what is depicted, and where there are black-and-white photographs some effort is made to describe the true colors.  It would be nice to know about how old everything is (if ages are indeed known), but more importantly I would like to know just how each piece fits into the Rome's story and culture.

This, I think, is the biggest flaw in the museum:  there is not enough historical context.  From just browsing the museum's website, I got the impression that Ostia was a coastal city somewhere in Italy.  It took a visit to Wikipedia to learn that Ostia is in fact a part of the city of Rome, and was a popular place for Romans to vacation in the summer.  This is information that should be readily available throughout the museum, along with explanations of why the art and architecture mattered in that time.  If you were unfamiliar with Roman mythology, for example, a lot of the art might seem confusing, and the museum provides no way to help understand the depictions and symbolism.

I don't want this criticism to detract from the greatness of this museum, because it's definitely worth a look if you're at all interested in seeing how the ancients lived.  If you like Rome, old things, or seeing well-known myths illustrated, there's plenty to view here.  For a novice, though, this museum could seem stuffy and intimidating.  A little more information here could go a long way.


The Ostia Virtual Museum
Website:  www.ostia-antica.org/vmuseum/vmuseum.htm

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Digital Millenium: The Museum of Computer Art

When you think of art, you probably imagine paintings, drawings, sculptures, and other hand-crafted works.  You might stretch your definition to include performance and found-art pieces, but likely any piece you consider to be art is the result of physical creation.  But what about non-physical art:  works that were created by someone but do not exist in the real world.  Are those art?  Certainly they are, according to the Museum of Computer Art, which aims to collect and display this kind of virtual art.

At this museum, art is categorized by its genesis.  You can view art that was created by manipulating pixels, by 3D rendering, or by algorithms and fractals, among other genres.  You can also search by artist or by the year the art was created.  For each artwork you can view larger images and interpretation by the artist, although it can be hard to get this information.  For some images, you have to click on a thumbnail of each piece just to see its title, and then click again to view any other interpretation.

The museum has also gathered several essays and other pieces of criticism about digital art on its website, which is helpful for the novice visitor.  Some of these are a little stuffy, but for the most part they're written to be at least somewhat helpful in understanding this new form of art.

The only thing I found really off-putting about this museum is the ads, which are incredibly distracting.  They're everywhere - on top of the pages, to the sides, even mixed in with text.  The homepage is such a cluttery mess that it's hard to tell what is and isn't part of the museum.  This is especially disappointing because the Museum of Computer Art tries hard to present itself as a formal museum, but this is greatly undermined by ads asking me to subscribe to People and check out Eastern European dating sites.

If you can get past this commercialization, though, this museum is worth checking out to learn about new forms of art.  There's a lot of art to browse, and enough supporting materials to help you understand why it matters.  If the Museum of Computer Art could only present a more professional image, it might earn its place as a virtual counterpoint to the world's physical art museums.


The Museum of Computer Art
Mission:  To promote digital art in its various forms and manifestations, including such categories as 3-D, fractals, photo-based, mixed technique, computer-drawn, surreal, video, etc.
Website:  moca.virtual.museum

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Flowers in Your Hair: The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco

City by the Bay, Land of Hippies, the place where they riot when their baseball team wins ... San Francisco is known for all those things (and more!) today.  But for those of use who have never lived there, the city's past is probably murky.  So if you've ever wanted to know what events led to the San Francisco that we know today, the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco wants to enlighten you.

The Museum is laid out in 68 exhibitions that cover every subject you can possibly think of and go back as far as the 18th century.  Within each exhibition are a number of articles, some accompanied by a few images, that cover different aspects of San Francisco's history.  These articles are written by scholars or knowledgeable hobbyists or are sources from the past, transcribed online so we can get a first-hand account from the people who lived through each era.

All of this information creates a vast, well-documented history of the city of San Francisco, and I'm guessing that there's not one question you might have that can't be answered by this museum.  I'm especially impressed that historical documents are woven in with the scholarly articles to give a multi-faceted perspective of the city's history.

But this is a format better suited to a book, not a museum.  After all, a museum isn't a lecture, it's an experience.  There is way too much text and not enough images (or other supporting items) to be of interest to the average visitor.  I wish this wasn't the case, because there is so much to be learned here, but the fact is that only the most curious would be able to stay on the museum's website for long.


The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
Mission:  To bring the fabled history of San Francisco into the light of historical accuracy.
Website:  www.sfmuseum.org


Sunday, May 6, 2012

Up in the Air: The National Museum of the Civil Air Patrol

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I only have a vague, fuzzy notion of what national security looks like on a personal level.  I can't name all the branches of the armed forces, and I don't know anything about non-militarized protective groups.  But after I stumbled upon the National Museum of the Civil Air Patrol, I'm a little more informed about at least one volunteer defense organization in the United States.

Created by the CAP Historical Foundation, the National Museum of the Civil Air Patrol consists of seven exhibits that detail the history of this organization, from its founding in the years before World War II to its present-day activities.  There is plenty of information available, but not too much text - I think these exhibits really hit the sweet spot of educating without overwhelming.  There are also plenty of photographs to accompany each exhibit, and they're all available enlarged in a separate photo gallery.

The only thing I'm not so crazy about is that the museum comes off as a little static.  It doesn't seem like there are any plans to add new exhibits or even update the existing ones.  There's also no links to outside content or any kind of supplemental materials for students or for those looking to further engage with this subject.  These would all be helpful additions, because if a museum wants repeat visitors who become loyal followers, it needs change every so often and do different things.

All in all, though, I believe this museum has done the best job I've seen in recreating the physical museum experience online.  It's not boring or too didactic, and it doesn't look like the work of hobbyist with some time on their hands.  It's professional, well-documented, interesting and informative.  It could stand to shake things up every once in a while, and perhaps speak to more and diverse audiences, but these are small critiques for a museum that really helps the uninitiated learn about what our fellow civilians are doing to help our country.


The National Museum of the Civil Air Patrol
Mission:  "To preserve the history and promote the proud heritage of the Civil Air Patrol and the WWII CAP Coastal Patrol."
Website:  www.caphistory.org/museum_lobby.html

Sunday, April 22, 2012

I Spy: The CIA Museum Tour

What comes to mind when you think of the CIA?  If you're like me, you might think of all the questionable meddling in international politics this agency did in the 70s and 80s.  If you have a better view of this federal entity, perhaps spies and intrigue come to mind.  But apparently the CIA is more than that - they have a museum of declassified artifacts set up within their compound in Washington DC, and they've helpfully made some of those artifacts available for online viewing.

The museum tour is nicely set up:  the opening screen brings you to a virtual room filled with virtual cabinets, each of which contains a few artifacts that are organized by theme.  You can click on each artifact to get several different views, plus its dimensions and a brief history of how it was used.  I'm impressed by the brevity shown here - the object descriptions are informative but never overwhelming with facts.  There are many museums, both physical and virtual, that could stand to learn about label writing from the CIA.

The diversity of artifacts is interesting, too.  These objects span all of Cold War history and also delve into some of our more recent conflicts.  There are insignia from the CIA's predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services, and some mementos from the CIA's founding.  There's flight gear and several examples of CIA technology that made its way into civilian fields.  There's all manner of spy equipment, from compacts that reveal codes to cameras for pigeons to devices shaped like flies and fish.  There's even the Enigma Machine, which was used by the Nazis to create codes during WWII.  You can definitely learn a lot about the history of American spying from these artifacts.

But what you can't learn is any of the organization's controversies or its darker stories.  The CIA has not been just about defeating Nazis and keeping the Soviets at bay.  The organization has done terrible things in developing countries, almost always putting America's needs ahead of all others.  I'm sure the CIA would never admit to that on their website or in their museum, but burying this history under a lot of cool artifacts goes a long way towards helping us forget what was done in the name of freedom.

So while this is a very interesting and worthwhile museum to visit, it's important to keep in mind just what these objects represent.  Be awed and informed, but don't forget the severe whitewashing that's going on, and that this government-sponsored museum has an agenda to pursue.


The CIA Museum Tour
Mission:  The CIA Museum supports the Agency's operational, recruitment and training missions and helps visitors better understand CIA and the contributions it makes to national security.
Website:  https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/cia-museum/cia-museum-tour


Sunday, April 15, 2012

Birthplace of a Nation: The Mount Vernon Online Museum

George Washington, as the first president of the United States, has wormed his way into many different facets of our lives.  Besides his role in the founding of our nation, we all learned the apocryphal story of the cherry tree as children.  I remember a jump rope chant and an alternate version of the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" that made use of his name, and I'm sure there are many other references to this Founding Father out there.  Now George Washington and his home have found a place on the internet, in the form of the Mount Vernon Online Museum.

Mount Vernon was the Washington family's estate in Virginia, and for over a hundred years it has operated as a historic house open for visitors.  It's pretty unusual for a historic house to have a strong online presence (mainly because these museums are often small and poorly funded), but since Mount Vernon is so well-known and heavily visited I suppose an online museum was the logical next step.  Currently there are four exhibits:  The Making of a Military Man, Setting George Washington's Table, Rereading Washington Through His Library, and a section about excavation at Mount Vernon.

Each of these exhibits is accompanied by five images of artifacts in the Mount Vernon collection, which are well-labeled and explained with just the right amount of information.  I like that the exhibits tackle somewhat unusual subjects, and not just the typical military-and-politics parts of Washington's life.  It lets us see some day-to-day aspects of this great man's life, and by showing some but not all of Mount Vernon's collection, it becomes a great selling point for the physical museum.

Beyond the images and the topics, though, I'm not terribly impressed with these exhibits.  The main content is long paragraphs set in a small text box, which you have to scroll and click through to read in their entirety.  This reminded me overly detailed Wikipedia pages and made me skim through the information instead of reading and trying to connect it with the objects.  In a physical exhibit I imagine that this text would be spread out throughout a gallery, making it more palatable, but having it all scrunched into one place online isn't really user-friendly.

Hopefully this is just the starting point for Mount Vernon.  I imagine that as their online capacity grows, they'll learn what works online and what doesn't and apply that to make their virtual content even better. I would love to see more objects and have the exhibits based around them instead of around text.  There's got to be so much contained within Mount Vernon that could be shared online, and I hope to be able to check back at a later date and see what new things the museum has for us to explore.


The Mount Vernon Online Museum
Website:  www.mountvernon.org/pre-exhibits

Sunday, March 25, 2012

International Mail: The Online Museum of Persian Stamps

To be honest, I've never really understood how people get into stamp collecting.  Sure, stamps can have interesting images on them, but spending time and tens of thousands of dollars to acquire what are essentially stickers seems a little strange to me.  And now that mail volume is plummeting as people choose to do more and more over the internet, stamps seem to be less and less relevant.  But they still are fun to look at, and sometimes they can tell stories.  At least, this is what I got from the Online Museum of Persian Stamps.

A project of FarsiNet, this museum is compiled from personal collections and visitor submissions.  The stamps cover a wide time period, from 1889 to the 2003 earthquake.  Through the images on the stamps you can trace Iran's modern history: as a battle site during World War One, as a dynasty rules by the Shahs, and finally as an Islamic republic.


Most of this information, though, you'll have to glean from the stamps themselves.  The museum is frustratingly sparse on information, with text accompanying fewer than half of its image galleries.  The information that is presented is good, and there are a couple of links to outside sources, but for the most part you are left gazing at stamps without explanation.  It would really benefit the museum to have interpretation explaining just why all these stamps were considered important enough to display.

To the layperson, this is frustrating.  But I suppose that the philatelists among us, who enjoy stamps for their pure physical form, would be much more appreciative of this museum.  I really want to like the idea of a museum telling a nation's history through stamps, because it's a fascinating concept that our mail can tell our stories.  To the non-stamp collectors, I would recommend keeping this museum open in one tab while simultaneously clicking through a history of Iran on a more informative website.


The Online Museum of Persian Stamps
Website:  www.farsinet.com/tambr

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Children's Play: The Helen Keller Kids Museum

This is the first time I've come across a virtual children's museum, and I've got to say I'm not sure how I feel about the whole concept.  I work at a children's museum with a physical space, and everyday I encounter kids running through out exhibits, exploring, touching everything and learning by doing.  The idea of a children's museum where the only tactile thing visitors do is click from one page to the next seems like the exact opposite of my expectations.

The Helen Keller Kids Museum, no matter what its form, would never really lend itself to interactive exhibits.  The subject here is a historical figure who is mainly known through her life story and her writings.  Perhaps, then, the internet is the best place to display a museum devoted to this fascinating subject.  And since so many children learn about Helen Keller during their elementary school days, it is nice to have a lot of information on her life gathered in one kid-friendly place.

A project of the American Foundation for the Blind, the Helen Keller Kids Museum delivers the story of Helen Keller's life in segments that focus on the different stages of her development (her childhood, for example, or her activism work).  Each of these sections are broken down further into small chunks of text accompanied by photographs.  The writing is pretty well suited for children, and the photographs are never paired with too much text.  I like how the information is conveyed, in a way that's easy for children to understand.

This is what the Helen Keller Kids Museum does well - but that's about all they do.  There is a section where Helen Keller's great-grandniece answers questions that people send in, but there are no other parts to this museum.  A few games or other interactives would be nice - perhaps something that conveys just what living in a dark, noiseless world would be like.  And what about deaf, blind children who are living today?  What are their stories?  There is a lot of potential to make these disabilities relevant to today's children, but the museum doesn't follow those paths.

The Helen Keller Kids Museum is very informative in a child-centered way, and I can see it being a great resource for the countless children who are tasked each year with writing Helen Keller biographies.  I'm also grateful to the museum for making me aware of the possibilities of bringing children's museums online and breaking down barriers to learning.  The model that the Helen Keller Kids Museum presents, though, is not really analogous to physical children's museums.  Kids need to be able to explore and play alongside gaining knowledge, and I don't see that happening with this museum.  With just a few changes and additions, though, this museum could lead the way in virtual children's museums.


Helen Keller Kids Museum
Mission:  The American Foundation for the Blind designed the museum to teach kids about Helen Keller's remarkable life.
Website:  www.braillebug.org/hkmuseum.asp

Sunday, March 4, 2012

King Me: The Online Museum of Checkers History

I'll admit I don't know much about checkers, aside from what colors are represented on the board.  That's probably because I don't really have the patience to play slow games - heck, I don't even like puzzles because they take too long.  So it would be nice to have a museum at my fingertips that could explain the game and its history in a format that would allow me to choose how much I want to learn.  So I'm sorry to report that although it tries very hard to be helpful, the Online Museum of Checkers History doesn't even come close to fulfilling that desire.

The online museum started as a way to save the contents of the International Checker Hall of Fame, which burned to the ground five years ago.  It seems that this site is the work of a few dedicated fans, with contributions from several players.  It's a noble effort, but the execution of the online museum leaves a lot to be desired.  Many pages are way too long and contain mountains of text in various sizes, colors, and fonts.  There's an abundance of all-caps typing and ellipses, which makes you very unwilling to read more than a few words.  Combined with scrolling text and some very weird graphics, the online museum resembles one of those long-lost Geosites personal webpages.

Some of the galleries on the museum are informative, like the images of old game boards and rosters of players from tournaments past.  I also find it interesting that the museum's administrators are trying to crowdsource its content by asking visitors to submit images and artifacts.  But the information is hard to glean from the terrible formatting, and in some cases I'm not even sure it's reliable.  In the Timeline section, for example, there are plenty of events whose date is listed only as "???" - which is not just unhelpful but also unprofessional.

I admire the creators of the Online Museum of Checkers History for their dedication to rebuilding a physical museum into a new format, and for soliciting the expertise of their fellow players in creating content.  Their effort, though, has produced a mish-mash of words, text, and dubious information.  I can imagine that a checkers enthusiast would enjoy this museum, but not many others could say the same.  So until this site makes some serious changes, I would recommend finding your checkers information somewhere else.


Online Musuem of Checkers History
Website:  www.online-museum-of-checkers-history.com

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Greener Pastures: The Environmental Art Museum

I know what the environment is, and I know what art is, but it was hard for me to picture what those two words together mean.  Does an environmental artist have to work solely in recycled materials?  Do they create their art in nature?  Are there carbon offsets involved?  It turns out the the term "environmental art" covers a wide range of projects, and the Environmental Art Museum showcases an interesting selection of examples.

According to the museum's page of definitions, environmental art "is art that helps us improve our relationship with the natural world".  That seems like it could cover a lot of the art that's been made throughout human history, doesn't it?  The definition continues, explaining that environmental art is often "ephemeral", site-specific, and involves partnerships with non-artists.  That narrows it down a little bit, but it's still a pretty broad definition - which explains why the art featured here is so diverse.

There is, for example, a disc which claims that the column of air extending above as independent from any nation.  There's also a lace canopy that serves as an irrigation system for the grass seeds planted within it, and a landfill that was made into colorful crop circles.  For each of these works you can read about the artist and their explanation for each piece, and there are many links to the artist's website and to external information.  You can also view images of the art at different sizes, which really helps in getting a sense of location and context for these pieces.

If you're interested in more information about environmental art in general, there are in-depth guides for how you can this art to a classroom, a park and your community.  There's also a well-written section on the working methods of environmental art, so that you could (in theory, at least) create your own piece.  If you're searching for a more academic take on environmental art, there are several essays written by the museum's volunteers, though I found them a little too long and dry for popular consumption.

The only thing I wish I could change about this museum is the way the artists and art are presented.  There are a few featured artists strewn around the homepage, but otherwise you have a navigate through a sidebar listing all the artists alphabetically.  Maybe it's because I think in categories, but I wish these artists has been grouped in some sort of logical way - perhaps by medium or working location.  Scrolling through a list and hoping to come across something you find interesting is not the best way explore a new form of art.
In some sense, I wonder whether this website is contradictory to the terms of environmental art.  After all, if environmental art is about location-specific work subject to the ravages of nature, why is it being preserved on the internet?  Although viewing images on a screen does take something away from each piece, it is interesting to see and learn about art you may never get to experience in person.  I would recommend poking around at the Environmental Art Museum, but keep in mind as you browse that you're only seeing a part of the whole.


Environmental Art Museum
Mission:  Our goal is to inform, inspire and connect people through environmental art and encourage the creation of new work that serves communities and ecosystems.
Website:  www.greenmuseum.org

Sunday, February 19, 2012

From the Great Beyond: The Museum of Talking Boards

And what, you're probably asking, is a talking board?  It's a category of games that includes Ouija Boards and all other game boards that purport to answer any question we ask of them.  As a child I was told that these types of games were tools of the devil, so I know next to nothing about them.  And while I maintain a healthy skepticism about the power of these games, it was interesting to learn about them, even from an obviously biased source.

The introductory screen of the Museum of Talking Boards is rather off-putting, because it consists of a large block of text with only one link to the museum's content.  You have to navigate through the museum's site map to find everything on the website, and many of the sections here are also word-dense.  You might not want to read everything, but you can glean plenty of interesting nuggets of information.  There's Ouija Board lore, for example, as well as a history of talking boards in the movies and a description of their "therapeutic" uses.

The best section of the museum is the gallery of boards.  Here you can find images of dozens of boards from the past, each with information on when it was made and the company that manufactured it.  For some of the boards you can view larger images along with a more detailed description.  This section is nice because it not only illustrates the museum's content but also places these boards in a historical context.

I wish, though, that the museum was more objective.  I guess it's almost inevitable that a museum devoted to Ouija Boards would slant in favor of their supposed powers, and indeed this one believes in them so much that there it includes information on how to use and care for talking boards.  The only nod to disbelief is an article on automatism (the idea that unconscious hand motions control the board's message indicator) and how it stacks up to the ideas of spiritualists.

So although the Museum of Talking Boards is quite interesting and can help answer some questions for those of use who are unfamiliar with talking boards, I wouldn't recommend it for those seeking concrete answers.  Psychologists have addressed automatism and its relation to our subconscious in countless research studies.  Those might make a nice companion to viewing this museum, bringing together a history of modern spiritualism with a rational explanation of how talking boards work.

Museum of Talking Boards
Wensite:  www.museumoftalkingboards.com

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Chips and Wafers: The Intel Online Exhibits

It seems that many online exhibits (or at least, many of the ones I've encountered so far) center around technology.  Whether these museums are about cameras or computers or software, they are likely to be awash in jargon and technical drawings.  This is no doubt due to the nature of these museums' subjects - if you enjoy putting together computers or designing new image capture programs, you're probably more inclined to also work on a virtual exhibition.  The Intel Online Exhibits are another entry in this virtual exhibit genre, although this may be the one case where I wish there was more information.

There are four virtual exhibits you can explore at Intel's website:  From Sand to Circuits (which explains how silicon chips are made), a biography of co-founder Robert Noyce, an explanation of Moore's Law, and a presentation on the 4004, Intel's first proto-computer.  From Sand to Circuits was probably the best exhibit, because it has several different layers you canto engage with.  The opening screen provides a layman's description of how computer chips are made.  You can also choose to look at the Fun Facts section, which is an even briefer explanation, or download a PDF that contains everything you could ever want to know about Intel's chips.  It's nice that all this information isn't crammed together but is instead presented in a way that allows you to choose how much you want to learn.

The Robert Noyce biography is rather on the short side, and I wish they had concentrated on his legacy and his posthumous contributions to the field of informal science (though I might be biased in that case). There are photos and videos of him included in this exhibit, but I could go to Wikipedia and get almost the same experience.

The Intel 4004 section is more comprehensive than any of the other exhibits, but it's short on practical information.  Here you can view photos and historical documents (like technical drawings and manuals), which I suppose can appeal to historical computer nerds.  In terms of explanation for the rest of us, though, this exhibit could use some help.  It took a lot of searching and reading to figure out just what was special about the 4004, and I'm still not entirely clear on its role in the computer pantheon.

I was excited to see there was a section on Gordon Moore, because I'm actually familiar with the prediction he's most famous for.  The essence of Moore's Law is that computers will get faster, smaller and less expensive as time goes on, and this has been exactly what's happened to technology in the 47 years since Moore first made this prediction.  But that's not how Intel explains it - instead, they quote Moore directly and then fail to really explain what this law means.  It would help to have some kind of discussion of the implication of Moore's Law - for example, how has this law driven industry?  And can we expect it to continue on indefinitely, or is there a limit?

I guess if there is one thing the Intel Online Exhibits taught me, it's that I do have some underlying curiosity about technology.  I actually would like to know more about the 4004, the life of Robert Noyce, and what Moore's Law tells us about the future.  From Sand to Circuits points out the way to answer these questions for visitors:  construct exhibits as layers of information, and let us choose what we want to explore.  This, I think, could be an excellent way to bring computer expertise to the masses and break down the barriers to knowledge about technology.


Intel Online Exhibits
Website:  www.intel.com/about/companyinfo/museum/exhibits