Looking to visit a world-class museum today? The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has an excellent selection of items from their exhibits and collections online. It’s all photo spheres that you can pan around in the browser or view in VR. This makes it only suitable for sitting/standing still, but at least they’re high-quality images. They have a pretty amazing amount of content, including narrated tours (although these are non-VR flat videos). If you want to thoroughly explore all of the rooms and exhibits, plan on at least an hour if not more. Unfortunately, the only information content comes from the actual in-museum signage which isn’t always completely readable in the images. It’s still well worth a visit though. If you can’t make it to the real place soon, check it out!
From the site:
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History virtual tours allow visitors to take self-guided, room-by-room tours of select exhibits and areas within the museum from their desktop or mobile device. Visitors can also access select collections and research areas at our satellite support and research stations as well as past exhibits no longer on display.
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour
- Permanent Exhibits
- Insect Zoo
- Special Exhibit: Egypt
- Geology: Gems and Minerals
- Partners in Evolution: Butterflies
- Mammal Hall
- Fossilab
- Human Origins: New Tools
- Current Exhibits
- African Bush Elephant and Rotunda
- African Voices
- Bone Hall
- Butterfly Pavilion
- David H Koch Hall of Fossils – Deep Time
- David H Koch Hall of Human Origins
- Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt
- Garden Lounge
- Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals
- Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals
- O. Orkin Insect Zoo
- Objects of Wonder
- Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World
- Q?rius, the Coralyn W. Whitney Science Education Center
- Sant Ocean Hall
- Sea Monsters Unearther: Life in Angola’s Ancient Seas
- Birds of DC/Ground Floor
- Museum Grounds
- Past Exhibits
- Against all Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine
- Cyprus: Crossroads of Civilization
- Dig it! Secrets of the Soil
- Evolving Universe
- Former Fossil Hall
- Genome
- Iceland Revealed
- Last American Dinosaurs
- Mud Masons of Mali
- Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legent
- National Geographics: Into Africa
- Nature’s Best Photography Exhibits
- Orchid Exhibits
- Q?rius Jr.
- Western Cultures
- Wilderness 50
- Written in Bone
- Museum Support Center
- Antlers
- Wet Specimens
- Whale Bones
- Other
- Smithsonian Marine Station
- Smithsonian Marine Ecosystems Exhibit
- Other Smithsonian Tours
- Smithsonian Castle
- Hirshhorn
- Narrated Virtual Tours (non-VR videos)
- Tour the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils – Deep Time
- Tour the Objects of Wonder Exhibit
- Tour the Sant Ocean Hall
- Tour the Hall of Human Origins