smithsonian black history museum virtual tour

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

It's now possible to visit the Smithsonian's African American history museum virtually

Elliot C. Williams

The NMAAHC launched a "Searchable Museum" this week, translating its archives and stories into an interactive digital experience. Alan Karchmer/Courtesy of the Smithsonian hide caption

Anyone who's been to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture will speak of its elevator ride through time, which takes visitors from the present day to the 15th century and kicks off the first exhibit, Slavery & Freedom . With the launch of a new virtual platform, visitors can now travel on the elevator down to that exhibit without ever leaving their homes.

The Searchable Museum , launched Thursday, transforms the artifacts, stories, and interactive experiences of the physical exhibit into a digital platform where museumgoers can take it in at their own pace.

Eventually, the museum plans to bring all of its exhibits online. The next exhibit, Making a Way Out of No Way , will go online this spring.

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived — but if faced with courage, need not be lived again, " echoes Angelou's voice as a video plays, showing images from the past 600 years of Black history.

While nothing quite matches seeing or touching certain artifacts in person, the digital museum will provide an inside look into some previously off-limits areas. Visitors can, for the first time, go inside the Point of Pines Slave Cabin, one of two remaining slave cabins on Edisto Island, South Carolina, with a 3-D virtual tour.

Unlike other Smithsonian museums, the NMAAHC has required timed-entry passes to enter the site almost exclusively since it opened in 2016. Though these timed tickets are still free of charge, they can be snapped up pretty quickly: Many tickets for December have already been claimed. (During the pandemic, plenty of Smithsonians have followed suit, requiring timed entry passes to avoid overcrowding.)

The virtual project has new elements, like videos, podcasts, and behind-the-scenes looks at the research behind the exhibits. One section, called " Lesser-Known Stories ," captures stories that have been largely ignored throughout history — like the story of Nathan "Nearest" Green , the first known Black master distiller, who taught Jack Daniel how to make Tennessee whiskey; or the story of the largest known mass suicide of enslaved people, an act of resistance at Igbo Landing.

"This ongoing project provides a chance for Americans to realize our shared past, bringing the unique museum experience to their homes and on their phones," Kevin Young, the museum's director said in a press release. "Allowing the public to virtually revisit the originating struggle for American freedom in the 'Slavery and Freedom' exhibition reminds us of the centrality of the African American journey to the American experience—a story of triumph, resilience and joy over the centuries."

The site will also include links to related content elsewhere online, like a time-lapsed video of more than 31,000 slave ships during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, between 1514 and 1860.

"This is just the start," Young told The Washington Post . "We're looking right now at phase two and stories we can tell next."

This story is from DCist.com , the local news site of WAMU.

© 2024 WAMU

Questions or comments about the story?

WAMU values your feedback.

• Contact the station

National Museum of African American History & Culture

• Museum Delayed Opening and Closing
• Museum Visitor Health Check Questionnaire
• Group Visits

Frequently Asked Questions

• Accessibility Options
• Sweet Home Café
• Museum Store
• Museum Maps
• Our Mobile App
• Search the Collection
• Initiatives
• Museum Centers
• Publications
• Digital Resource Guide
• The Searchable Museum
• Exhibitions
• Freedmen's Bureau Search Portal
• Early Childhood
• Talking About Race
• Digital Learning
• Strategic Partnerships
• Ways to Give
• Internships & Fellowships
• Today at the Museum

Upcoming Events

• Ongoing Tours & Activities
• Past Events
• Host an Event at NMAAHC
• About the Museum
• The Building
• Meet Our Curators
• Founding Donors
• Corporate Leadership Councils
• NMAAHC Annual Reports

Plan Your Visit

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is open daily to the public. Free timed-entry passes are required for entry.

Rhimes Family Foundation Visual Arts Gallery Closed for Renovation

The Rhimes Family Foundation Visual Arts Gallery  will be closed for renovation from May 13, 2024, to May 30, 2024. It will reopen on May 31, 2024, with a new space devoted to contemporary Black designers called “Reclaiming My Time.” We invite you to learn more about the exhibition: nmaahc.si.edu/reclaiming .

Monday          12:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Tuesday          10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Wednesday    10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Thursday        10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Friday              10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Saturday         10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Sunday            10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

Our museum opens at 10:00 a.m. on Mondays observed as Federal Holidays and is closed on December 25. Last entry for all visitors, including groups, is 4:00 p.m.

Free Timed-Entry Passes

Reserve Passes

• All visitors, regardless of age, must have a timed-entry pass to enter the museum.
• A limited number of timed-entry passes are available. 
• Visitors can reserve timed-entry passes up to 30 days in advance on a rolling basis. 
• Advanced timed-entry passes are released daily beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST.  
• Same-day timed-entry passes are released online only at 8:15 a.m. EST daily.
• Timed-entry passes may not be sold or transferred and are for personal use only.
• Individuals can reserve up to nine free timed-entry passes for their visit. For groups of 10 or more, please  reserve group passes . 
• We are honored to welcome veterans, active-duty personnel, and first responders with one guest to the museum. Upon arrival, please show a military or work ID badge, and register for entry using a QR code.

Please note: museum entry is subject to building capacity; weekends and holidays are peak visitation times. If the museum is at or near capacity, all visitors standing in line will be asked to wait until the museum has room to accommodate them. 

Additional Information  

• All children (under the age of 18) must be accompanied by an adult chaperone. When accompanying children, one (1) adult can chaperone up to a maximum of ten (10) children.   
• Timed-entry passes are valid only for the issued date. Passes are void if altered. 
• Visitors can print timed-entry passes at home or present them on a mobile device. All passes will be scanned prior to entering the museum on Madison Drive or Constitution Ave.
• If you cannot visit the museum on your scheduled date, please email [email protected] to return or exchange your passes.

Safety Measures

The following safety measures are in place to protect the health of our visitors, staff and volunteers based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local governments. We ask that all visitors, including those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, follow these safety measures to protect everyone’s health. Visitors are not required* to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. 

Please note that we may adjust our safety guidelines based on changing CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. We encourage visitors to regularly check our  website  before their visit for the latest guidelines. During this time, we are implementing the following safety measures: 

If Sick, Stay Home    We are asking all visitors who are sick or feel unwell to please stay home. Visitors are encouraged to wash and sanitize hands frequently during their visit. Hand-sanitizing stations will be available throughout our facilities.

Face Coverings As of March 11, 2022, face coverings are not required to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture. While it will not be required, all visitors who feel more comfortable wearing a face mask during their visit are encouraged to do so.

We encourage visitors to maintain a safe social distance of six feet or more between households and groups when possible, but our museum becomes crowded, especially during peak visitation times. Visitors who wish to avoid crowds are encouraged to plan their visit during weekdays.

* Special events  and some after-hours programming may require guests to provide proof of vaccination.

Touring the Museum

Please be aware that touring the History Galleries in their entirety will take approximately 2 hours, and will require about 1 mile of walking.

Our highest visitation is from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Friday through Sunday. During this timeframe, there may be long lines to access the History Galleries.

We encourage visitors to eat and hydrate before entering the History Galleries, especially if they have special healthcare needs. 

Museum Maps 

Visitor Pathways

Are you looking for ways to experience and learn history throughout our museum with your group or loved ones? We have done the planning for you!    

Whether it’s your first or tenth visit, NMAAHC has planned special experiences designed for families, friend groups and couples visiting our museum.

Follow a special pathway through our exhibitions and gallery spaces.

 Visitor Pathways 

Entering & Exiting the Museum

• Please do not arrive before the entry time on your timed-entry pass.
• Timed-entry passes will be scanned at the visitor entrances on Madison Drive or Constitution Avenue, NW.
• Visitors with timed-entry passes will be able to enter the museum from the time on their pass until 4:00 p.m. For group passholders, there is a 2-hour grace period from the entry time on the pass. After this timeframe, entrance is not guaranteed and is based on capacity.
• For everyone’s safety, all visitors are required to pass through screening at the entrance to the museum. Please see a  list of prohibited items  in the museum before planning your visit.
• Limiting the items you bring will increase your speed through security checkpoints, helping us all maintain a safe social distance. 
• Visitors are required to exit on Constitution Avenue, NW.

Dining & Shopping

The museum store is open daily, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m, with the exception of Mondays (12:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.). Hand sanitizer stations are available for use upon entry and exit of the museum store.

The Sweet Home Café is open daily, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with a limited menu, with the exception of Mondays (12:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.).

NMAAHC offers a limited number of Dine and Shop passes to access only the Museum Store and Sweet Home Café between 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. during regular operating hours. Passes are released 7 days in advance at 8:00 a.m. EST on a rolling basis. Visitors can reserve up to 4 Dine and Shop passes per day.

Dine and Shop Passes 

Review our Frequently Asked Questions for more information about planning your visit and what to expect when you arrive at the museum.

Tours & Programs

Please check our upcoming events for specific dates and details. 

Download Our Mobile App

Connect to our free WiFi network, "SI-Visitor" and download our mobile app as a complement to your museum visit and as a way to more easily discover the many additional stories in our collection.  

Download the Mobile App

Subtitle here for the credits modal.

Welcome to the Searchable Museum

A place to explore history and culture through an African American lens

Kevin Young, Andrew W. Mellon Director Of The Smithsonian's National Museum Of African American History And Culture

Make Good the Promise

Learn about Reconstruction and its legacies. Explore the African American experience after the end of slavery.

Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism represents an expressive outlet dedicated to exploring concepts of Black identity, agency, & freedom through creative, intellectual, & artistic work.

Constellations

Artifacts and topics illuminating connections to history

Lesser-Known Stories

Shining a new light on the African American past and its people.

Atlanta Washerwomen Strike

In 1881, washerwomen in Atlanta formed a union and went on strike to demand better wages. Learn about the harsh conditions they faced and how they won.

George Henry White

George Henry White was the last African American congressman of the 1800s. Learn about his life before and after Congress and his commitment to justice.

The Remarkable Rollin Sisters

The Rollin sisters shaped the politics of Reconstruction-era South Carolina. Learn how they challenged society’s views of Black women and fought for equality.

Octavius V. Catto

Octavius Catto was a civil rights activist in Pennsylvania. Learn about his life and impact in Philadelphia’s Black community during Reconstruction.

Present to Past

Current events and issues from a historical perspective

African Americans continue the fight for social justice and equal treatment under the law.

Structural racism and racist beliefs about African Americans shape access to care and health outcomes.

African Americans established schools for their communities and have taken innovative approaches to education while challenging segregation and discrimination.

While serving the nation, African Americans continued to fight for justice and their own freedom

How We Know What We Know

Methods, tools, and sources used to study African American history and culture

Visit the Museum

Site Navigation

National museum of african american history and culture hosts first interactive virtual tour.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) celebrated the Juneteenth holiday with its first interactive virtual tour led by the museum’s founding director, Lonnie G. Bunch III. The virtual tour was hosted on the museum’s Facebook page Monday, June 19, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time at www.facebook.com/nmaahc . Following the tour, visitors asked Bunch questions on Facebook Live.  

Juneteenth is the oldest-known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. This inaugural interactive tour is another example of how NMAAHC is redefining the modern museum experience and making the museum’s exhibitions available to people anywhere in the world.

This marks the first time the museum has offered an interactive digital tour of the exhibition. Bunch led viewers on a virtual walking tour through the history galleries highlighting the story of the international slave trade, emancipation and the period of resistance that followed.

Virtual-tour participants saw and heard the stories behind some of the museum’s most popular objects, including Nat Turner’s bible, freedom papers of formerly enslaved people and the Sibley tent that housed African American soldiers that fought for the Union. The goal of this tour was to highlight this culturally important holiday that commemorates the end of slavery.

About the National Museum of African American History and Culture

The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened Sept. 24, 2016, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Occupying a prominent location next to the Washington Monument, the nearly 400,000-square-foot museum is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive cultural destination devoted exclusively to exploring, documenting and showcasing the African American story and its impact on American and world history. For more information about the museum, visit nmaahc.si.edu , follow @NMAAHC on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat—or call Smithsonian information at (202) 633-1000.

SI-360-2017

• News Releases
• Media Contacts
• Photos and Video
• Fact Sheets
• Visitor Stats
• Secretary and Admin Bios
• Filming Requests

Newsdesk RSS Research News RSS

clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

Smithsonian African American museum launches online interactive access

The new ‘Searchable Museum’ will bring a trove of artifacts, stories and images to the Internet

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture launched a sophisticated digital platform Thursday that brings a trove of interactive stories, images and video about the Black experience out of the museum and onto the Internet.

Called the Searchable Museum , it is designed to present the treasures of the five-year-old landmark on the National Mall in Washington to a broader audience, said museum director Kevin Young. The museum, which opened to the public on Sept. 24, 2016, has 40,000 artifacts.

“I used to talk about the digital future, but it’s really the digital present,” Young said. “We’re bringing the museum beyond its four walls. … It’s like a museum in your pocket.”

“The goal was really to think about how we could bring history in your hands,” he said Wednesday. “I really think the experience of going to the museum … is transformative. And … what we wanted out of the site is something transformative as well.”

Young said the digital access will allow the public to view exhibits at their own pace and in their own time. “I really see it as an incredible resource for visitors … who really want to either experience the museum for the first time or return again and again online,” he said.

“And there’s things you can see [virtually] that you can’t see in person,” he said.

For example, a meticulously preserved slave cabin from Edisto Island, S.C., is on display in the museum. “What you can’t do in the museum is go inside it,” Young said. But now you can, digitally.

The visitor can also take a grim 3-D virtual tour of the slave ship L’Aurore, for which a complete set of building plans survives.

Haunting relics from a slave ship headed for African American museum

In 1784, the ship, specifically designed to transport enslaved people, carried 600 captives from West Africa to what is now Haiti to work on sugar and coffee plantations, according to the museum.

There’s also a time-lapse video showing the movement of 31,042 slave ships that carried millions of captive people from Africa to Europe, the Caribbean, and North and South America between 1514 and 1860.

Also, a chilling video depicts the toll the sea voyage took on the enslaved. Tens of thousands perished on the journey.

In 1704, the French slave ship Badine , sailing out of La Rochelle, took on 700 captives in Whydah, in modern-day Benin.

When the ship arrived at the slave port of Cartagena, now in Colombia, only 14 of the captives had survived.

“Every morning, perhaps more instances than one are found of the living and the dead … fastened together,” recalled John Newton, an English slave ship captain who later became an abolitionist and wrote the words to “Amazing Grace.”

The cruelty was unimaginable. The enslaved were beaten, branded and kept shackled. One image shows an English slave trader tasting an enslaved man’s sweat to detect disease.

Another story is told of a group of captured Africans, members of the Ibo people, who in 1803 overpowered the crew of their slave ship, and then, still chained together, drowned themselves at a place in southeast Georgia now called Ibo Landing.

Digital visitors can see the shawl given by Britain’s Queen Victoria to the famous underground railroad conductor Harriet Tubman, as well as a simple straw hat owned by the civil rights and bus boycott leader Rosa Parks.

Harriet Tubman’s lost Maryland home found, archaeologist say

There is a pocket version of the Emancipation Proclamation carried during the Civil War by Union soldiers to inform the enslaved in rebel states that they were free, and a striking photo of an African American laundress.

She wears an American flag attached to her dress and is believed to have worked for soldiers in the Union Army.

Another image shows Queen Nzingha, who in the 1600s ruled the Mbundu people in the state of Ndongo, located in Kongo, the exhibition says.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo was an educated Muslim slave trader who was captured in 1731 and enslaved on a tobacco plantation in Annapolis. He was eventually freed, returned to Gambia, and ransomed fellow Muslims who were enslaved.

The exhibition is “searchable within the museum but also searchable expanding across the Smithsonian and further out,” said Mary Elliott, the curator of the museum’s first digital exhibition, called “Slavery and Freedom.”

Other stories abound — like that of Ellen and William Craft , whose escape from slavery involved a daring racial and gender masquerade.

Ellen Craft, a light-skinned enslaved woman, disguised herself as a frail White man who was traveling with his servant, portrayed by Craft’s dark-skinned enslaved husband, William.

In December 1848, in Macon, Ga., the couple planned to cross hundreds of miles of hostile, slaveholding country to reach the safety of Philadelphia. (Slavery had been outlawed in Pennsylvania the year before.)

But they knew that a White woman would not customarily travel with an enslaved male servant. So Ellen had to become a man.

William cut his wife’s hair short. She put on a top hat, and pretended she was deaf. She bandaged her face to hide the absence of a beard, and put her arm in a sling, so she wouldn’t have to sign anything. Neither Ellen nor William could then read or write.

“When the time had arrived for us to start, we blew out the lights, knelt down and prayed to our Heavenly Father mercifully to assist us as he did his people of old to escape from cruel bondage,” the couple wrote in a book years later.

“I took my wife by the hand, stepped softly to the door … [and] whispered …‘Come my dear. Let us make a desperate leap for liberty,’ ” William said, in their account.

With hair-raising close calls, they traveled to Richmond, Washington and Baltimore and reached Philadelphia and freedom on Christmas Day, 1848.

“That’s one of those stories that should be better known,” Young said. “It’s a powerful story. … It also thinks about race, gender and class.”

“People now, for many reasons, are talking about ‘passing,’ ” for White, he said. “And that story talks about that.”

The project, more than a year in the making, has been made possible through the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the museum said.

Other digital exhibitions are planned after “Slavery and Freedom.”

“This is just the start,” Young said. “We’re looking right now at phase two and stories we can tell next.”

“This is African American history, which is central to American history,” he said. “To understand American history, we have to understand this. We have to understand the impact of slavery on life today. This is true for everyone.”

The exhibition opens with words from the late African American poet Maya Angelou: “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived; but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Washington, United States

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is a museum that seeks to understand American history through the lens of the African American experience. The only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture, it was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th museum of the Smithsonian Institution. The Museum is a public institution open to all, where anyone is welcome to participate, collaborate, and learn more about African American history and culture. In the words of Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the Museum, “there are few things as powerful and as important as a people, as a nation that is steeped in its history.”

A Look at the Black Fashion Museum Collection and Designer Peter Davy

Smithsonian national museum of african american history and culture, emancipation and educating the newly freed, the historical legacy of juneteenth, celebrating the smithsonian national museum of african american history and culture, celebrating african american history and culture, seven changemakers you should know, hip-hop @ nmaahc, lt. james l. mccullin jr.: a memorial to a fallen hero, sites of black resistance, celebrating jackie, in this collection, united states, 1,047 items, what's on.

Virtual Travel

A Smithsonian magazine special report

Celebrate Black History Month With These Free Virtual Events

From online exhibitions to panel discussions, here are more than a dozen events hosted by museums and other cultural institutions

Jennifer Nalewicki

Travel Correspondent

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, many museums and cultural institutions around the country are opting to shift their Black History Month line-ups for the month of February from in-person to online-only affairs. The result is a creative curation of art exhibitions, concerts, panel discussions and other events designed to celebrate, but safely through virtual means. Here are more than a dozen (free!) events to mark on your calendar.

Exhibitions

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., is hosting a comprehensive exhibition focused on the life of Pauli Murray, a Civil Rights activist who was also the first African American woman ordained into the Episcopalian priesthood. “Pauli Murray’s Proud Shoes” takes a genealogical look at her family history, from the 1834 bill of sale for her great-grandmother to details about her grandfather, a soldier who fought in the Civil War.

Across the country in the Bay Area, the Oakland Museum of California examines the Black power movements in California with “Black Power,” a show comprised of photographs, posters and other artifacts beginning with rallies led by the Black Panthers in the 1960s to more modern-day Black Lives Matter demonstrations. In keeping with the theme of activism, the African American Museum of Philadelphia plays host to “Through His Eyes,” a collection of black-and-white photographs of local youth activists who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. Meanwhile, the American Writers Museum in Chicago has uploaded its popular “Frederick Douglass: Agitator” exhibition as an online show that explores the lifetime of the esteemed abolitionist, writer and statesman through handwritten manuscripts, portraiture and more.

The National Afro American Museum and Cultural Center near Dayton, Ohio, is offering curator-led video tours of two of its current exhibitions. The first, “ Queens of the Heartland ,” looks at 30 influential black women in Ohio history, including Fanny Jackson Coppin, a missionary and educator, and Mary Church Terrell, a suffragist and writer. The second is “ The Art of Soul! ,” a national juried art show featuring works by more than 20 contemporary black artists that focuses on the impact humans have on one another, a particularly pertinent subject during the current rise of racial unrest. And lastly, Casa Afro , an art gallery in Puerto Rico, has created a 3-D tour of its latest exhibition, “NEGRO/A/X,” which features contemporary pieces of art that tell the story of the many different African influences around the island.

Speaker and Panel Discussions

Throughout the month of February, the National Archives in Washington, D.C., will be offering a full schedule of talks and panel discussions for Black History Month. One event in particular that’s worth noting is “ The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity ” (February 25, 7 p.m. ET) which will focus on black family life throughout history, literature, the arts and social policy. Hosted by Ida E. Jones, an archivist at Morgan State University, the event will include panelists Alison Parker, author of Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell , and Darius Young, author of Robert R. Church Jr. and the African American Political Struggle .

On February 23, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City is hosting a panel of curators discussing the 20-year career of the late fashion designer Willi Smith, who was known for his affordable yet avant-garde designs. New York's Museum of Food and Drink has a menu of events on the African diaspora on tap, including “Growing Rice: A Migration Story from Seed to Plant” on February 16 and “Coastal Roots: Tracing the History of Ancestral Farming and Cooking in Georgia” on February 23.

On February 18, the California African American Museum in Los Angeles presents “In Conversation: Quincy Troupe and Erin Aubry Kaplan on Miles Davis,” a deep dive discussion on the famed jazz trumpeter. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama will also be presenting a slate of events, from an interactive town hall discussion about systemic redlining on February 18 to a genealogy 101 lesson with experts on February 22. And lastly, on February 19, Chicago’s Field Museum presents a rare examination of its famed “Africa” exhibition with a panel featuring curators and designers who launched it in 1993.

Two separate Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon events will be focusing on boosting recognition for black American artists and STEM professionals alike. The former will be hosted by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the latter by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and blackcomputHER.org.

Museums aren’t the only cultural institutions shifting their Black History Month offerings to virtual events though. Now in its 35th year, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City is hosting its annual “Brooklyn Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.,” an hour-long concert featuring songs, poems and spoken-word tributes dedicated to the much-lauded Civil Rights activist and Baptist minister available through February 28. Performers include Sing Harlem! and Grammy-winning musician PJ Morton. The Chicago Children’s Choir is also celebrating Black History Month through song with its annual concert, but this time on a digital stage: Facebook Live. The one-time event takes place on February 25 and will include performances by youth singers as well as Grammy-award winning artists Lisa Fischer and musical ensemble Ranky Tanky.

Back in New York City, Village Preservation will be hosting a different multimedia event on February 23 when tour guides Derrick Edwards and Eric Chase embark on “ Black Bohemia: a Virtual Village Walking Tour ,” which will take viewers through the city’s popular Village neighborhood by following in the footsteps of famous black artists who called the area home, including writers Alex Haley and Audre Lorde, playwright Lorraine Hansberry and novelist James Baldwin.

Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

Jennifer Nalewicki | | READ MORE

Jennifer Nalewicki is a Brooklyn-based journalist. Her articles have been published in The New York Times , Scientific American , Popular Mechanics , United Hemispheres and more. You can find more of her work at her website .

• Metropolitan

Detroit Art Museum Van Gogh

Latest posts, grand rapids children’s museum hours, how long to spend at field museum, buffalo bill museum cody wy, air and space museum parking, african american history museum virtual tour, safety measures and guidelines.

We ask that all visitors, including those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, follow these safety measures to protect everyones health. Visitors who do not adhere to safety policies and guidelines may be asked to leave.

COVID-19 GUIDELINES AT THE DuSABLE MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

We look forward to your visit to the DuSable Museum of African American History! The health and safety of our visitors, staff and volunteers is our top priority. Effective immediately all visitors ages five and up will be required to provide proof of vaccination, or a negative PCR Antigen test within 48 hours before entering The DuSable Museum.

Visitors ages 12 and older must be fully vaccinated showing that they have at least two doses of an FDA authorized vaccine or one dose of the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine. International visitors must provide proof of vaccination from the vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization.

Children ages 5 11 years must provide proof of at least one vaccination dose. Guests under the age of 5 are not required to show proof of vaccination but must be accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult.

Proof of vaccination may include:

CDC Vaccination Card

Digital record or phone app

Printed documentation from your vaccine provider

Visitors 18 and older must provide ID with the same identifying information as proof of vaccination such as:

Drivers License

American Battlefield Trust Virtual Battlefield Tours

The State of Pennsylvania Monument is the largest memorial at the Gettysburg battlefield, commemorating the tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who fought there.

Most on-site battlefield tours require a leap of imagination: the ability to walk around a perfectly peaceful open field and overlay a mental movie of smoke and combat and fallen warriors, all the while considering the military strategy and broader political stakes. ABTs website may not offer the sunshine on your back, but it marries the setting, action and context far more seamlessly, with its 360-degree virtual tours of more than 20 American Revolution and Civil War battlefields. In the Gettysburg tour alone, there are 15 different stopsno walking requiredeach of which features clickable icons with granular detail about all the whos, whats and whys. And when youre done touring, be sure to explore the sites other robust resources, from battle summaries to generals biographies.

Click HERE for the experience.

READ MORE: 7 Important Civil War Battles

Tour D’alexandria Spring Ride: Resilience

Volunteers are needed for the Tour d Alexandria bike ride in . The theme for this ride is resilience and will feature points of interest that reflect the resilience of Alexandria communities past and present, the growth of diverse neighborhoods, and to include the commemoration of the lynching of Joseph McCoy.

The Alexandria Black History Museum is currently closed for renovation. This page has admission information and directions to assist in planning your visit once the museum reopens.

Recommended Reading: Florida Museum Of Photographic Arts

Connect To Inspiring Authentic Representations Of Life In The 18th And 19th Centuries In A Unique Place Where Black Communities Organized And Advanced The Cause Of Freedom

The African Meeting House, a registered National Historic Landmark, and Abiel Smith School on Beacon Hill were built in the early 1800s and are two of the museum’s most valuable assets. Located steps away from the Massachusetts State House.

Explore our Nantucket campus, which features two historic sites, the African Meeting House and the Florence Higginbotham House. These buildings were at the center of a thriving nineteenth-century African American community on the island.

Smithsonian Museum Virtual Tours

If youre interested in visiting some of the DCs iconic sites from home, the Smithsonian museum virtual tours are a great option, keep reading for our favorites!

Millions visit Washington, DC each year to explore and visit some of the countrys most iconic landmarks and world-class museums. While many places continue to reopen, some attractions like the Smithsonian Museums are still closed due to COVID.

Don’t Miss: Hotels By Field Museum Chicago

Google Arts And Culture Black History Month Collection

Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash

is a wonderful source of online learning opportunities! Check out the Black History Month collections on the Google Arts and Culture site which features videos, photo galleries, virtual tours of museums, and many other works that reflect Black history and culture.

These are some of the exhibits currently available to view:

A Virtual Museum Tour

On September 24, 2016, President Barack Obama 83CC opened the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture an institution, he said, that seeks to reaffirm that African-American history is not somehow separate from our larger American story. Its not the underside of the American story. It is central to the American story. The four-hundred-thousand square-foot museum, designed by David Adjaye, displays more than three thousand artifacts. Mabel O. Wilson 91GSAPP, a professor at Columbias Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and a scholar of African-American studies, wrote the official companion book to the museum. Here she highlights some of the buildings most meaningful architectural features.

DISTINCT FAÇADE The building has a triple-tiered corona, a decorative façade that gives it a very distinct shape. It is particularly striking on the National Mall, which is dominated by classical architecture. The tiers are meant to recall hands raised in celebration, and also the West African caryatid, a ceremonial sculpture from Yorubaland, in what is now Nigeria.

OPEN SPACES Most museums have a cloistered, enclosed interior. This museum opens into a huge space with vast floor-to-ceiling windows. You feel suspended between the inside and the outside. The space evokes the clearing field the middle of an open field of crops which was the only community gathering space for many slaves.

Related Stories

Don’t Miss: Parking Near Philadelphia Art Museum

How Did The Revolution Survive Its Darkest Hour

Americans would soon learn that it was one thing to declare independence, and quite another to secure it. The Battle for New York, during the fall of 1776, tested Commander-in-Chief General George Washington and his Continental Army. Travel virtually through the American retreat from New York through the Battles of Long Island, White Plains, and Fort Washington, as 1776 came to a close and American troop numbers and morale began to dwindle.

Exhibit Highlight: Winter at Valley Forge

After the British’s triumphal seizure of Philadelphia, the Continental Army withdrew to Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78. Read about the common soldiers and families who endured the harsh winter at Valley Forge.

Find the prominently displayed painting and zoom in on the details depicted by William Trego in 1883 as the hardened veterans of the army limped into their winter encampment at Valley Forge. Their bare and bandaged feet leaving trails of blood on the cold ground.

It’s Now Possible To Visit The Smithsonian’s African American History Museum Virtually

The NMAAHC launched a “Searchable Museum” this week, translating its archives and stories into an interactive digital experience. Alan Karchmer/Courtesy of the Smithsonian hide caption

toggle caption

Anyone who’s been to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will speak of its elevator ride through time, which takes visitors from the present day to the 15th century and kicks off the first exhibit, Slavery & Freedom . With the launch of a new virtual platform, visitors can now travel on the elevator down to that exhibit without ever leaving their homes.

The Searchable Museum , launched Thursday, transforms the artifacts, stories, and interactive experiences of the physical exhibit into a digital platform where museumgoers can take it in at their own pace.

Eventually, the museum plans to bring all of its exhibits online. The next exhibit, Making a Way Out of No Way , will go online this spring.

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived but if faced with courage, need not be lived again, ” echoes Angelou’s voice as a video plays, showing images from the past 600 years of Black history.

Unlike other Smithsonian museums, the NMAAHC has required timed-entry passes to enter the site almost exclusively since it opened in 2016. Though these timed tickets are still free of charge, they can be snapped up pretty quickly: Many tickets for December have already been claimed.

Read Also: Museum Of Modern Art Christmas Tree

National Museum Of African American History And Culture

Long Road to Hard Truth: The 100-Year Mission to Create the National Museum of African American History and Culture

American History TV presented live coverage from the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall . read more

American History TV presented live coverage from the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall . They showed exhibits chronicling the African American story from slavery through the inauguration of the first African American president. This featured a selection of artifacts, including a South Carolina slave cabin, Harriet Tubman s hymnal, and a segregated railroad passenger car. Museum curators and William Pretzer , and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Robert Wilkins also responded to viewer comments and questions. Judge Wilkins is the author of Long Road to Hard Truth: The 100-Year Mission to Create the National Museum of African American History and Culture . close

National Museum Of African Art Virtual Tour

The National Museum of African Art has a collection that includes 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from Sub-Saharan and Arab North Africa.

The institution was first founded in 1964, with a collection focused on traditional African art. It joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1979 and became the National Museum of African Art two years later.

As the Smithsonian Institutions African art museum, it was the first institution dedicated to African art in the United States.

Today the collection is exhibited in a mostly underground museum building that was completed in 1987, just off the National Mall and adjacent to other Smithsonian museums.

The National Museum of African Art collects traditional and contemporary works of historical importance.

The collection ranges from 15th-century sculptures and masks to multi-media contemporary art and includes 300,000 photographs with significant contributions from photojournalists covered major 20th-century events.

The museums library has over 50,000 volumes in visual arts, anthropology, cooking, history, religion, and travel especially works published in Africa.

The Smithsonians National Museum of African Art

Also Check: Museum Of The Bible Admission

Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle Peabody Essex Museum Salem Massachusetts

From 1954 through 1956, while the civil rights movement was unfolding right before him, the late artist Jacob Lawrence created a series of paintings called Struggle: From the History of the American People. Now, for the first time in more than 60 years, 30 panels from the original collection have been reunited for an exhibition titled Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle at the Peabody Essex Museum. Beginning with the American Revolution and working its way through 1817, Lawrence directed his attention on such important events as the Boston Tea Party, examining the struggles of a young nation getting its footing from the perspectives of African Americans, Native Americans, women and anyone else whose stories are rarely told in history class. His works are interspersed with those of other contemporary artists, including Derrick Adams and Bethany Collins . Take this virtual tour of the exhibit. On view through August 9.

Portraits Of African Americans National Portrait Gallery Washington Dc

From former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama to poet Langston Hughes to entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker, the National Portrait Gallery’s comprehensive exhibit , “Portraits of African Americans,” serves as a whos-who of both well-known and lesser-known history makers. The museum holds, after all, more than 1,000 portraits of African American notables who have made significant contributions to science, the arts, politics and sports. Each portrait includes biographical information about each individual and their importance in history. On view now .

You May Like: Virtual Art Museum Tours Online

The National Women’s History Museum Standing Up For Change

The National Womens History Museum launched an online photo exhibition in 2016 documenting the role of Black women during the civil rights movement as leaders, organizers and faces of movements titled Standing up for Change .

The online exhibit features art and documents dating from easily anti-abolition efforts to the mid-20th century. The exhibit states that African American women were the critical mass, the grassroots leaders challenging America to embrace justice and equality for all and that is something that we can definitely stand behind.

History Of The Alexandria Black History Museum

Alexandria Black History Museum incorporates the Robert H. Robinson Library as one of two exhibition galleries. The Robinson Library was originally constructed in 1940 following a sit-in at the segregated Alexandria Library. Learn more about the Sit-Down Strike, the Parker-Gray School and the Alexandria Black History Research Center.

Recommended Reading: Hotel Near Dali Museum St Petersburg

National Women’s History Museum

Come for the deep well of biographies and digital classroom resources , stay for the wide array of virtual exhibits , many of which are enabled by Google Arts & Culture. For two decades, the National Womens History Museum has been the largest online cultural institution telling the stories of women who helped transform the U.S. Heavy with slide shows and graphics, the virtual exhibits document women making waves in politics, sports, civil rights, science and technology and more. Check out its collection of oral histories from the American Rosie Movement, relaying women’s contributions to the nations defense production.

READ MORE: Womens History Milestones: A Timeline

African American Heritage Sites

Over the course of four centuries, Columbias black community transformed itself from that of a predominately enslaved population to a society whose members overcame the restrictions of Jim Crow and charted the course of the Civil Rights era. The story of this journey remains today within the home places, workplaces, and resting places of Columbias African American community.

You May Like: Eglin Air Force Base Museum

Smithsonian Launches Virtual African American Museum

The NMAAHC recently launched a “Searchable Museum,” translating its archives and stories into an interactive digital experience.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture takes visitors on a tour of the past from the present day back to the 15th century.

A new virtual platform allows visitors to take the journey without leaving their homes. The museum’s artifacts, stories, and interactive experiences can now be explored through the website’s new digital platform known as the Searchable Museum .

“Welcome to the Searchable Museum,” the website states. “A place to explore history and culture through an African American lens.”

The first exhibit titled Slavery & Freedom is available now. The next online exhibit coming in the spring of 2022 is Making a Way Out of No Way.

Poet Maya Angelou narrates the digital experience while visitors see a succession of images from the past 600 years of Black history. The NMAAHC opened in 2016 using a system of timed entry passes that are both free of charge and in high demand.

The digital museum offers visitors a look at some artifacts previously closed to the public, including a 3D virtual tour of the Point of Pines Slave Cabin in Edisto Island, South Carolina. The cabin is one of two remaining on the island. Both are closed to the public.

This article contains information from National Public Radio. To read the story at www.npr.org click HERE .

Mission And Objectives Of The Jim Crow Museum

The mission of the Jim Crow Museum is to use objects of intolerance to teach tolerance and promote social justice.

The Museum’s mission is achieved through the following objectives:

• Collect, exhibit and preserve objects and collections related to racial segregation, anti-black caricatures, civil rights, and African American achievement.
• Promote the scholarly examination of historical and contemporary expressions of racism.
• Serve as a teaching resource for Ferris State University courses which deal, directly or indirectly, with the issues of race and ethnicity.
• Serve as an educational resource for scholars and teachers at the state, national and international levels.
• Promote racial understanding and healing.
• Serve as a resource for civil rights and human rights organizations.

You May Like: Star Wars Museum Los Angeles

How Did People Become Revolutionaries

The rumblings of the American Revolution began more than a decade before the shot heard round the world ignited Americas War for Independence. Discover through seven galleries how the American Colonistsmost of them content and even proud British subjectsbecame Revolutionaries as the roots of rebellion took hold.

Learn how the words of the Declaration of Independence immediately helped fuel the aspirations for personal liberty of ordinary Americans. Explore the story of Elizabeth Freeman, an enslaved woman who sued for her freedom on the basis that she was entitled to natural rights. Explore what the Declarations promise of equality meant for all people, including women, enslaved people, and laboring men.

National Museum Of African American History & Culture Virtual Tour

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is one of the many Smithsonian Institute museums located in Washington, DC. Nearly 5 million people have visited the NMAAHC since it opened in September 2016, which makes it one of the most popular museums in DC. So, now is a great time to check out the museum virtually.

There are a number of collections available for viewing on the museums website. The site also features a Learning Lab for children ages 0-8, which could be a great addition to your distance learning curriculum. The NMAAHC is one of a number of African American History museums you can explore from home.

Recommended Reading: Children’s Museum Cape Girardeau

RELATED ARTICLES

Lyndon baines johnson library and museum, fort smith museum of history, national museum of puerto rican arts & culture, american swedish historical museum wedding, montgomery museum of fine arts, sioux city children’s museum, is dallas museum of art free, african american museum washington dc tickets, 1 hermann museum circle drive, popular articles, best museums in rome italy, whitney museum of american art nyc, boston museum of fine arts shop, boston tea party museum military discount, indianapolis museum of contemporary art, museum of fine arts store, st louis art museum tickets, national wwii museum new orleans hours, national museum of the american indian washington dc, national september 11 memorial and museum, national comedy museum jamestown ny, national railroad museum green bay wi, museum of modern art catalog, museum of modern art website, cleveland museum of modern art, museum of modern art sweatshirt, museum of modern art new york store, milton j rubenstein museum of science and technology, museum of life and science hours, academy of motion picture arts and sciences museum, st paul mn science museum, san francisco science museum hours, stay in touch.

To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.

Momma Wanderlust - Curating Cultural Travels for Families

12 Black History Museums You Can Explore from Home

Looking for Black History Museums you can explore from home?  The Black experience is so vast and varied that there’s no end to what can be learned about it.  This is why when I travel, I visit local African-American History Museums to get a better feel for a new destination. On a trip to Georgia, my family and I visited the Jack Hadley Black History Museum and learned first-hand what it was like for the museum’s curator, Mr. Hadley, to grow up on a plantation.

But you don’t have to travel to explore some of the best exhibits in the country.  Thanks to technology, you can visit some of them virtually . If you’re interested in learning more about African American history and culture in the United States, there’s a bevy of museums and resources available online.

Google Arts & Culture and the United States Civil Rights Trail provide virtual tours, exhibits, and access to online archives that you can explore from home.

Here are some African American History and Civil Rights Museums that you can explore from home:

12 AFRICAN AMERICAN BLACK HISTORY MUSEUMS TO VISIT VIRTUALLY

National Museum of African American History & Culture Courtesy: bakdc/ Shutterstock

You can find a complete list of all the virtual tours offered by Google Arts & Culture here .

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, DC)

Since opening in 2016, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has become one of the most popular museums in Washington, DC. Visitors are educated about the Black experience by going on a trip through time. The journey starts in Africa with its history galleries that span from Slavery to Emancipation and then from Segregation to Today.  More than 3,500 exhibits are available online.

Archives of African American Music & Culture (Bloomington, Indiana)

The collections in the Archives of African American Music & Culture museum highlight African American music ranging from classical, and religious, to popular music including R&B and Hip Hop.

The Museum of African American Art (Los Angeles, California)

The Museum of African American Art interprets, promotes, and preserves art by or about people of African descent. It was founded in 1976 to increase public awareness of African American Art.

The Gordon Parks Foundation (Pleasantville, New York)

You can take a trip through time with the life work of famed African American photographer, Gordon Parks. The Gordon Parks Foundation showcases Parks’s career, which spans from the 1940s up until his death in 2006. Parks’ photographs focused on race relations, Civil Rights, and urban life.

Dance Theater of Harlem (New York, New York)

The Dance Theater of Harlem is the first Black classical ballet company and the first major ballet company to prioritize Black dancers. This school was founded more than 50 years ago. There are four online exhibits about the history of this world-famous dance company as well as some amazing photos of the company over the years.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum ( Kansas City, Missouri )

Watch a short film that provides an introduction to the Negro League Baseball League through the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum virtual tour. The film includes interviews with former Negro League players.

Frederick Douglass National Historic Site ( Washington, DC )

While many of the museums in Washington, DC have re-opened Cedar Hill, Frederick Douglass’s Historic home is still closed.  If you would like to learn more about Douglass, an ambassador, abolitionist, writer, and former slave you can explore his home virtually.  He purchased this stunning 21-room Victorian mansion in 1878. There are a number of rooms filled with artifacts that are viewable in the online tour.

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) – University Libraries [Online Exhibit: African Americans at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1892-1971] (Greensboro, NC)

The UNCG’s online exhibit offers a riveting look inside the lives of some African American employees who worked on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This exhibit features not only photos of the Black workers in the late 1800s but there are artifacts listing how much the University paid some of its African American employees.

The Black Archives of Mid-America (Kansas City, Missouri)

The Black Archives of Mid-America offers two online exhibits: one about famous dancer Alvin Ailey; and the other about the Historic 18 th and Vine Jazz District in Kansas City.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center) (Atlanta, Georgia)

The King Center is part of the memorial and childhood home of Dr. King. This online exhibit contains various letters and miscellaneous documents and artifacts.

DuSable Museum of African American History (Chicago, Illinois)

Created in 1961, the DuSable Museum of African American History is one of the oldest museums of African American history. Originally started as the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art, this institute was the largest caretaker of African American culture until the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture opened.

 Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field (Tuskegee, Alabama)

Take a virtual tour of the primary flight-training site for the Tuskeegee Airmen , the famed African American pilots of World War II.

SIX CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUMS TO VISIT VIRTUALLY

You can find a complete list of all the virtual tours and experiences offered by the United States Civil Rights Trail here .

• National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel ( Memphis, Tennessee ) The National Civil Rights Museum was built around the Lorraine Motel, the location where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968. The museum which traces the Civil Rights Movement in America is filled with some great gems. My favorite exhibits included: a replica of a Montgomery city bus in which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white passenger and a garbage truck to commemorate the “I Am A Man Sanitation Workers Strike.” This strike, which Dr. King helped organize, was for the improvement of working conditions for Memphis sanitation workers. 
• National Center for Civil and Human Rights (Atlanta, Georgia) The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is a multicultural center, and it highlights the Civil Rights Movement and the modern human rights movement. The museum has a Voice of the Voiceless gallery, which showcases the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection.
• International Civil Rights Center & Museum (Greensboro, North Carolina) The International Civil Rights Center & Museum is located in the original Woolworth’s building where the four North Carolina A&T State University students (also known as the Greensboro Four) staged a sit-in to challenge the “Whites Only” lunch counter. This museum commemorates the Greensboro Four’s role in launching the sit-in movement.
• Martin Luther King Birth Home The Martin Luther King Birth Home is the childhood home of Dr. King.  This museum which is part of the National Park Service, allows you to see where Dr. King spent the first 12 years of his life.
• Howard University Howard University is a historically Black university located in Washington, DC. The university, which was founded in 1867, is one of the premier Black institutions for higher learning in the country.  Take a 3D virtual tour of the university which is home to several buildings that have been designated as National Historic Landmarks. 
• Mississippi Civil Rights Museum The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum , which opened in 2017 is dedicated to educating visitors about the Civil Rights Movement.  It also provides more insight into the murders of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old teen that was visiting the state when he was brutally murdered, and Civil Rights Leader, Medgar Evers who was assassinated in front of his Mississippi home.

If you want to learn more about Black History, in addition to virtual tours Black History documentaries also provide some insight into the Black experience in America.  For more Black History inspiration follow us on Instagram .

National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel

For more articles on Black History in Travel:

• 10 Best US Cities to Learn About Black History
• Top 20 Best Black History Museums in the US to Visit
• 7 Best Sites to Learn about Black History in Washington, DC

If you enjoyed this post on Black History Museums You can Explore from Home, you might find the following family travel articles helpful.

Related Articles

How to Plan a Family Vacation: 7 Practical Tips

Top 15 Family Travel Hacks

How to Travel More With a Full Time Job: 6 Top Tips

How to Save Money on Your Family Vacation: 14 Top Tips and Tricks

Simple Family Road Trip Tips

Pin for later:.

Up Next For You

Historic hampton house in miami review, fun summer activities for kids, top 16 best wanderlust movies for kids, 10 best us cities to learn about black..., 7 best sites to learn about black history..., 22 best black history museums in the us..., smithsonian museum virtual tours, teaching kids manners with cricut, 7 easy personalized gifts to make with your..., mindfulness activities for children with cricut, 24 amazing spring break ideas for families in 2024, 7 places to learn about black history in atlanta.

[…] Go on a virtual field trip to the Smithsonian, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, or the Dance Theatre of Harlem (Find more here). […]

These are great!! Thank you

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Asian Pacific American History
• Women's History
• Collections

Girlhood: Virtual Gallery Tour

• Virtual Gallery Tour
• Explore Online

Can’t experience the  Girlhood  gallery in person? Explore it virtually with this 360-degree interactive tour! Use your mouse or keyboard to navigate within the gallery, and click on the linked hotspots to learn about the exhibition’s themes and objects. For the best experience, use the "View Fullscreen" control at the bottom right of the tour to enlarge the window.

If you are unable to access the self-guided tour or prefer a guided experience, enjoy this 10-minute video tour through the gallery space narrated by curator Kathy Franz.

African American History & Civil Rights Museums – Virtual Tours

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MUSEUMS

• Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, DC) Since opening in 2016, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has become one of the most popular museums in Washington, DC. This museum takes visitors on a trip through time starting with the Black Experience in America with its history Galleries that start from Slavery to Emancipation and then from Segregation to Today. There are also exhibits that focus on Black History in popular culture. You can explore more than 3,500 exhibits online.
• Archives of African American Music & Culture (Bloomington, IN) The collections in the Archives of African American Music & Culture museum highlight African American music ranging from classical, religious, and popular music to include R&B and hip hop.
• The Museum of African American Art (Los Angeles, CA) The Museum of African American Art interprets, promotes, and preserves art by or about people of African descent. It was founded in 1976 to increase public awareness of African American Art.
• The Gordon Parks Foundation (Pleasantville, NY) You can take a trip through time with the life work of famed African American photographer, Gordon Parks. The Gordon Parks Foundation showcases Parks’s career, which spans from the 1940s up until his death in 2006, Parks’ photographs focused on race relations, Civil Rights, and urban life.
• Dance Theater of Harlem (New York, NY) The Dance Theater of Harlem is the first Black classical ballet company and the first major ballet company to prioritize Black dancers. This school was founded more than 50 years ago. There are four online exhibits about the history of this world-famous dance company.
• Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (Kansas City, MO) You can take a virtual tour of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and there’s a short movie introduction into the Negro League Baseball that includes interviews with former Negro League players.
• Frederick Douglass National Historic Site (Washington, DC) Take a virtual tour of Cedar Hill, Frederick Douglass’s Historic home in Washington, DC. Douglass, an abolitionist, orator, writer, and former slave purchased this stunning 21-room Victorian mansion 1878. There are a number of rooms filled with artifacts that are viewable in the online tour.
• The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) – University Libraries [Online Exhibit: African Americans at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1892-1971] (Greensboro, NC) The UNCG’s online exhibit offers a riveting look inside of the life of some of the African American employees who worked on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This exhibit features not only photos of the Black workers in the late 1800s but there are artifacts listing how much the University paid some of its Black employees.
• The Black Archives of Mid-America (Kansas City, MO) The Black Archives of Mid-America there are two online exhibits available for viewing: one about famous dancer Alvin Ailey; and the other about the Historic 18 th and Vine Jazz District in Kansas City.
• The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center) (Atlanta, GA) The King Center is part of the memorial and childhood home of Dr. King. This online exhibit contains various letters and miscellaneous documents and artifacts.
• DuSable Museum of African American History (Chicago, IL) Created in 1961, the DuSable Museum of African American History is one of the oldest museums of African American history. Originally started as the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art, this museum was the home of the largest caretaker of African American culture until the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
•  Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field (Tuskegee, AL) Take a virtual tour of the primary flight-training site for the Tuskeegee Airmen , Black pilots of World War II.
• U.S. National Archives [Exhibit: Black College Life in the New Deal] (Washington, DC) This online exhibit features fascinating photos of Black Student’s lives on college campuses between January 1, 1933, and December 31, 1941.

CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUMS – You can find a complete list of all of the virtual tours and experiences offered by the United States Civil Rights Trail here .

• National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel The National Civil Rights Museum located in Memphis, TN and serves as not only a memorial but also as a museum. The museum was built around the Lorraine Motel, which was where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968. The museum traces the Black civil rights movement. It is filled with so many gems to include: a replica of the Montgomery city bus where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and a garbage truck to commemorate the “I Am A Man Sanitation Workers Strike,” which is the strike that brought Dr. King to Memphis.
• National Center for Civil and Human Rights The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. This museum is a multicultural center and it highlights the Civil Rights Movement and the modern human rights movement. The museum has a Voice of the Voiceless gallery, which showcases the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection.
• International Civil Rights Center & Museum The International Civil Rights Center & Museum , located in Greensboro, North Carolina in the original Woolworth’s building. This museum’s mission is to commemorate the A&T Four and its role in launching the sit-in movement.
• Martin Luther King Birth Home As part of the National Park Service, you can visit the Martin Luther King Birth Home and see where Dr. King spent the first 12 years of his life.
• Howard University Founded in 1867, Howard University is a historically Black university located in Washington, DC. The Founders Library holds the largest collection of African American documents, letters, and oral histories about the Black experience. Several buildings on the campus of this institution have been designated as National Historic Landmarks.
• Mississippi Civil Rights Museum The Mississippi Civil Rights Museu m, which opened in 2017 covers the entire Civil Rights Movement but it provides more insight into the murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers.

Virtual Tour

Visit our halls anytime..

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History virtual tours allow visitors to take self-guided, room-by-room tours of several 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. You can explore the virtual tours here.

Did you know?

The Museum virtual tour is composed of over 750,000 high definition images stitched together!

“Things to Do” 

• Watch narrated virtual tours of select halls.
• Explore teaching resources you can access virtually.
• Search our digital collections .

Experience More

• Smithsonian Institution
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Host an Event

Visit Planning

• Plan Your Visit
• Event Calendar
• Current Exhibitions
• Family Activities
• Guidelines and Policies

Access Programs

• Accessibility
• Dementia Programs
• Verbal Description Tours

Explore Art and Artists

Collection highlights.

• Search Artworks
• New Acquisitions
• Search Artists
• Search Women Artists

Something Fun

• Which Artist Shares Your Birthday?

Exhibitions

• Upcoming Exhibitions
• Traveling Exhibitions
• Past Exhibitions

Art Conservation

• Lunder Conservation Center

Research Resources

• Research and Scholars Center
• Nam June Paik Archive Collection
• Photograph Study Collection
• National Art Inventories Databases
• Save Outdoor Sculpture!
• Researching Your Art

Publications

• American Art Journal
• Toward Equity in Publishing
• Catalogs and Books
• Scholarly Symposia
• Publication Prizes

Fellows and Interns

• Fellowship Programs
• List of Fellows and Scholars
• Internship Programs

Featured Resource

• Support the Museum
• Corporate Patrons
• Gift Planning
• Donating Artworks
• Join the Director's Circle
• Join SAAM Creatives

Become a member

• Lectures & Discussions
• Webcasts & Online
• Exhibition Programs
• Featured Programs