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

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