Part of the Smithsonian Institution since 1967, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York was founded in 1897 by Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt as part of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Today the museum is one of the largest design museums in the world, with a total catalog of more than 250,000 objects. The site is full of helpful material, ranging from the...

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has compiled a selection of resources for the study of Texas artists, on its mobile-friendly website. One such resource is a searchable joint digital collection, Texas Artists: Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper. Partially funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the database includes contributions from Southern Methodist University, the...

Boston Museum of Science's Engineering is Elementary (EIE) has created this remarkable set of resources designed for young children with an interest in engineering and technological literacy. The focus of this work is to reach young people who are underserved or underrepresented in STEM fields while also improving educators' ability to teach engineering and technology. On this site, visitors can...

Museums have been gravitating to the web for over a decade in order to educate the public about their collections, and in recent years, they have also used the web to form online communities for themselves. Museums and the Web is one of the ways that museum specialists can gather together to learn more about each others work, and also to engage in online discussion and research activities....

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), founded in 1799, America's oldest continuously operating museum, has a new building and a new website. The PEM site has all the features virtual visitors have come to expect at a museum site: attractive design with lots pictures, links to library and archival resources, information on current and future exhibitions, and "microsites" featuring highlights of past...

Formed in 1946, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) is a non-governmental organization that maintains formal relations with UNESCO and that is "committed to the conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible." To that end, the ICOM has developed this website which pays close attention to the...

Perhaps you, gentle user, are looking for an insightful and contemplative 45-minute talk on Beethoven? Maybe you would like to learn more about the nature of Cold War realpolitik? Fortunately, the Library of Congress’s Webcasts website has these topics well covered, along with 301 like-minded talks. Over the past six years, the Library of Congress has documented several hundred of the talks,...

With some of the most exquisite frescoes in Europe, the Vatican created this Web site that highlights some of their remarkable holdings, many of which are situated within the various rooms of the Apostolic Palace. As many travelers may be unable to wait in the seemingly endless lines that are a hallmark of visiting the Vatican, the site offers a nice overview of some of the works that have been...