virtual field trips for history

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10 Virtual History Museums and Experiences to Explore From Home

By: Missy Sullivan

Updated: June 1, 2023 | Original: March 26, 2020

The need for social distancing may have forced museums and historic sites around the world to close their doors for now, but many have made their spaces, exhibits and collections available to anyone with a digital device and a decent web connection. Some offer 360-degree tours, like the one that takes you into every nook and cranny of George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. Others present virtual exhibits or browsable online archives, such as the dozens on Google Arts & Culture’s site, where partner museums share treasures like the Rosetta Stone and ancient Egyptian artifacts ( The British Museum , London)...iconic 20th century photos (the LIFE Magazine archive)...or troves of sports history (the Olympic Museum , Lausanne, Switzerland). Here are 10 standout virtual history sites worth exploring:

Xi'an Warriors

It was one of the most stunning archaeological finds of the 20th century. In 1974, farmers digging a well stumbled across a life-sized clay figure that, government archaeologists later discovered, belonged to a vast army of terra cotta soldiers created to protect China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the afterlife. The massive mausoleum, created around 210 B.C., houses some 8,000 warriors, along with hundreds of chariots and horses—all arranged in battle formation. In 2017, a Chinese company, inspired by Google Street View, created an awe-inspiring virtual experience that lets visitors swoop down into the tomb and “walk” among the soldiers, viewing their unique facial expressions and traces of their original colorful paint at close range. You don’t need to read Chinese to appreciate the enormity of it all.

Click  HERE for the experience.

READ MORE: 5 Things You May Not Know About the Terra Cotta Army

Smithsonian Museum of American History

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History bills itself as the greatest single collection of U.S. history in the world, home to more than 1.8 million objects that each, in some fundamental way, defines the American experience. The museum offers about 100 online exhibits from its encyclopedic collections, each with a mix of photos, video, graphics and text on topics ranging from the life of Abe Lincoln (yep, they’ve got the stovepipe hat) to the development of the first artificial heart to the evolution of voting machines and even an array of vintage lunch boxes. 

READ MORE: 9 of the Most Collectible School Lunch Boxes, 1935 to Now

The Museum of Flight

War planes. Spy planes. Spacecraft. Gliders. Kit planes. Eccentric contraptions. This sprawling museum, adjacent to the Boeing complex south of Seattle, Washington, is considered one of the world’s largest and best air and space museums, with more than 150 aircraft, 25,000-plus aviation-related artifacts and a huge array of exhibits that collectively chronicle man's quest to take to the skies. Flight geeks could easily get lost in its vast searchable and browsable database of those collections while 360-degree tours let you step inside a dozen iconic aircraft—including the Boeing 747, the Concorde and the museum’s full-scale model of the space shuttle orbiter used for training astronauts.

Click HERE for the experience.

READ MORE: Who Was the First President to Fly on Air Force One?

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 Women’s 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 nation’s defense production.

READ MORE: Women’s History Milestones: A Timeline

Anne Frank House

Anne Frank ’s diary, chronicling her life in hiding during World War II, remains one of the most powerful testimonies to the horrors of the Holocaust. If a trip to Amsterdam to visit the Anne Frank House isn’t in the cards, AnneFrank.org offers the next best thing. In addition to tons of informative content about the teen, her diary and the war, there are bells and whistles galore: an interactive timeline, videos about her life, a 360-degree tour of the house, a virtual reality tour of the secret annex where she and her family hid for 761 days, and a companion exhibit on Google Arts & Culture.

READ MORE: How Anne Frank’s Private Diary Became an International Sensation

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

FDR , America’s only four-term president , presided over the nation during two of its most trying ordeals: the Great Depression and World War II . This online experience walks users room by room through the exhibits in his extensive presidential library and museum in Hyde Park, New York, drawing together a wealth of original documents, artifacts, videos, 360-degree tours and more. Together, they illustrate everything from FDR’s little-known assassination attempt to his New Deal policies and wartime decisions to Eleanor ’s significant role. It’s easy to lose track of time clicking through all the fascinating letters, whether it’s from a constituent exhorting him to “discontinue being a smiling, wasteful and fickle prima donna politician” to one from Albert Einstein strenuously detailing his objections to the atomic bomb.

READ MORE: How FDR Became the First—and Only—President to Serve Four Terms

Calling all space geeks: Report to the NASA site for ultimate fun in the final frontier. Get the full scoop on all the key NASA programs past and present, from the Hubble Telescope to the Mars Rover to the upcoming Parker Solar Probe. Check out the History hub to dive deep into photos, videos and articles about all their historic missions. Enjoy a motherlode of space images with the cache of ultra-high-def videos taken from various missions—like the virtual tour of the moon in 4K, enabled by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Spacecraft. For astronaut wannabes, virtual tours abound of NASA’s various research and training facilities—putting users right inside a supersonic wind tunnel, a zero-gravity lab, flight simulators, a space environments complex and much more.

READ MORE: The Space Race

American Battlefield Trust Virtual Battlefield Tours

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. ABT’s 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 stops—no walking required—each of which features clickable icons with granular detail about all the whos, whats and whys. And when you’re done touring, be sure to explore the site’s other robust resources, from battle summaries to generals’ biographies.

READ MORE: 7 Important Civil War Battles

National Museum of African American History and Culture

While there are plenty of current and past exhibits to explore online here, the real draw is the collections. In the site’s Collections Stories area, museum staff members share objects that resonate for them historically or culturally, whether it’s Muhammad Ali’s training gear...the dress Carlotta Walls, one of the so-called Little Rock Nine , wore when she walked the gauntlet of angry mobs on her first day integrating Little Rock Central High School ...or shards of stained glass from the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four little girls. And if you’ve got lots of time to explore, browse the museum’s vast open-source collections, brimming with letters, documents, photos and artifacts. They convey the wide-ranging African American experience—from a slave ship manifest to a poster of Sidney Poitier’s film To Sir, With Love . 

READ MORE: One of the Last Slave Ship Survivors Describes His Ordeal in a 1930s Interview

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. presents powerful online exhibits brimming with resources such as videos, timelines, glossaries and image galleries rich with potent original artifacts. Themes include Collaboration & Complicity, Nazi Propaganda, Americans and the Holocaust, Racial Health Policies and more. Elsewhere on the museum’s site: a deep archive of survivor interviews , moving artifacts like a gallery of 600 ID cards of Holocaust victims and a place to browse the museum’s huge, sobering collections.

READ MORE: American Response to the Holocaust

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32 Virtual Field Trips for American History

• Apr 11, 2017

When we venture out on field trips, our kids get first hand experiences that a book can never mimic. At the same time, homeschool field trips can be stressful, time consuming, and sometimes expensive. Weather is an added factor to consider with outdoor events such as a Civil War re-enactment. 

One alternative to packing snacks, loading the van, and buying tickets is the virtual field trip. These online explorations can awaken your child’s love of American history. Besides supplementing your American history curriculum , virtual field trips also provide a way for your child to explore places that may be inaccessible.

If you want to spice up your study of American history , look at these 32 virtual trips and a list of easy ways to enhance them.

Life in Early America and Cowboys

• Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trips
• Explore an 1860’s farm
• National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
• George Washington’s Mount Vernon
• Hudson River Museum
• Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
• Tour the house of Betsy Ross
• Historic Philadelphia Virtual Tour
• Monticello – Home of Thomas Jefferson
• Virtual Jamestown

Native Americans

• Oglala Lakota Nation Pow Wow
• Virtual trip to Georgia Indian Mounds

American Revolutionary War

• Revolutionary war battlefield sites

Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail

• Lewis and Clark journey (Google Earth)
• Oregon Trail

American Civil War

• Ford’s Theatre the place of Lincoln’s assassination
• Virtual Gettysburg
• Andersonville Prison also known as Sumter Prison, a large Confederate prison

Immigration, World War II, and Modern American History

• Virtual field trip to Ellis Island
• Museum of World War II
• The Attack on Pearl Harbor: A Map-based Exhibition
• Tour the Statue of Liberty
• Virtual Capitol
• Mount Rushmore
• On Board Air Force One
• Virtual field trip to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home in Georgia (Warm Springs)
• Supreme Court Virtual Tour

American Transportation

• EAA Aviation Museum
• Strasburg Railroad
• USS Constitution
• USS Pampanito

Ways to Enhance a Virtual Field Trip

Virtual field trips can be just as enriching and interactive as a physical one as long as you plan ahead. For example, print out a notebooking page or prepare a scavenger hunt for kids to fill out. Many websites provide these kinds of helps in the educational resources section of the domain. Do a little hunting prior to your virtual visit to make the most of any freebies the site offers. Some children may like to work as they explore while others will want to totally immerse themselves in the experience and make notes only after the field trip is over. 

To make sure your virtual field trip doesn't become a passive affair, incorporate a hands-on activity before or after . BookShark has Lap Book Kits for both American History Year 1 and Year 2 that could work as field trip follow up in many cases!

Your field trip will likely offer you plenty of ideas for further exploration. What do your kids seem enamored by? What do they keep asking about? Those are areas for interest-led research.

Your project may lead to questions which are answered by the virtual field trip. Or your virtual field trip may lead to fascination that is satisfied by making hands-on models or reading additional books.

• Before you tour the 1860s farm, make butter in a jar or beeswax candles.

Print out a copy of a ship or submarine and have your children label the parts. Learn about early navigation and how sailors navigated without modern tracking equipment. Make an easy homemade compass.

If you’re viewing the Supreme Court field trip, your children can memorize and recite the Miranda Warning or review the steps of how a bill is passed.

After viewing Plimoth plantation, have your children make a craft of the Mayflower and create a diary that looks vintage.

After viewing Mount Rushmore, your children can carve the faces in soap or playdough.

Make a cookie dough map of the Oregon Trail or Lewis and Clark Trail.

Make a timeline of the events of the American Revolutionary War. It’s been said that George Washington was an excellent dancer. Learn his favorite dance, the Minuet.

Learn about early American cattle drives.

Listen to American Civil War music or read letters written during that time period.

Preserve plants in a nature notebook while learning about Lewis and Clark.

Research the physics behind dropping a bomb before viewing Pearl Harbor. Make vegetable soup and learn about rationing after viewing the World War II museum.

Experiencing virtual field trips has become an essential part of our home education journey; the internet opens up dozens of ways to approach American history . Take the extra time to organize activities along with virtual field trip, and you’ll reap the benefits for years to come.

About the Author

Posted in Homeschooling

• Homeschooling
• Middle School
• High School

• Revolutionizing Education: A Comprehensive Review of HistoryView VR
• Exploring the Past with a New Lens: Virtual Reality in History Education
• Matterport Launches Social Impact Program to Help Nonprofits and Public Education Institutions
• Bringing History to Life with Virtual Field Trips on HistoryView.org
• Enhance Your Virtual Field Trip Experience with Histora: ChatGPT AI Teacher Assistant, Historian, and Tour Guide on HistoryView
• Exploring the Benefits for Museums, Art Galleries, Historical Sites, and Educators

HistoryView

Free Educational Virtual Tour Platform of Museums, Art Galleries, National Parks and Historic Sites

Virtual Library

Welcome to the enhanced experience of historyview.org’s virtual tours.

Embark on a thrilling journey through time with HistoryView.org’s immersive 3D virtual field trips! Marvel at the beauty of world-class museums, art galleries, and historic treasures, all from the comfort of your home or classroom. Our cutting-edge Matterport 3D technology whisks you away, placing you in the midst of history’s greatest wonders. Feel the excitement of strolling through captivating exhibits and admiring breathtaking art as if you were there.

Meet Histora, your AI-powered companion, enhancing your adventure with engaging, personalized stories and facts at every turn. Dive into the past with us at HistoryView.org, where history isn’t just learned, it’s experienced. Join our mission to make history an accessible, lively adventure, vital for understanding our world. History is not just a subject, it’s a journey — and with us, it’s a journey you won’t forget.

Please use this clickable table of contents to explore museums, art galleries, historic heritage sites, zoos, and aquariums across different regions and topics:

Our virtual tours work well for classrooms and individual exploration. They create an immersive experience that brings history alive. With Matterport 3D virtual tours, you can:

• Visit famous landmarks and historic sites from around the world.
• Zoom in to see details and read descriptions.
• Learn about each location’s history and significance.
• Go at your own pace, which suits different learning styles.

Our virtual tours are completely free, making them accessible to all, no matter where you are or what your financial situation is. Whether you’re a student, educator, or just curious, our virtual tours are a great way to uncover the stories behind iconic landmarks. Start exploring now and join us on a journey through history!

Please note that all conversations are recorded (DO NOT GIVE PERSONAL INFO)

9 Virtual Field Trips That Make History Come Alive

Don't have time to travel to historic locations? Visit these fascinating sites from the comfort of your living room.

Are you tired of studying facts and memorizing dates of historical events? What if you could be there, right where it happened? Whether you are a student or a history buff, you can enjoy visiting worldwide museums and historical attractions right from your living room.

So if you’ve got a thing for history, why not virtually visit one of these museums or historic sites today?

1. Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre  (Whistler, British Columbia, Canada)

This is a museum tour, but it’s a must-see if you’re interested in the history of Canadian Indigenous people. In this beautiful virtual tour, you can walk through the exhibits as if you are there.

Learn about the lives, history, and culture of the Squamish and Lil’wat people in western Canada. Click on points of interest to bring up video guides along the way.

On the website, you’ll also find audio tours filled with First Nations storytelling, music, and cultural information. You can even learn crafts with video demonstrations and watch interviews with community influencers.

2. The Acropolis  (Athens, Greece)

The Greek word "acropolis" refers to a citadel or a complex built on a high hill. At this famous Greek landmark, you’ll find the ruins of many structures built nearly 2,400 years ago. Whether you are drawn to the Acropolis by an interest in religion, philosophy, mythology, or architecture, you’ll be captivated by this online photographic tour.

Enter through the Propylaia (entrance gate), and click through high-resolution images to explore the famous temples: Athena Nike, Erechtheion, and the Parthenon.

Stop wherever you like, turn 360 degrees, and enjoy the panoramic views of Athens from the top of the hill. The best part is you can walk through all the ancient structures without having to climb any stairs.

3. Mount Rushmore National Memorial  (Keystone, South Dakota, USA)

If you’ve never been able to visit Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills National Forest, now’s the time to do it from your computer.

Mount Rushmore is a sculptor’s interpretation of the most influential people in American history. It took over 14 years to carve, and it attracts about 3 million tourists every year.

View this incredible historic site from all angles on this tour powered by Google Earth. Stroll down the Avenue of Flags, hike the Presidential Trail, and peek inside sculptor Gutzon Borglum’s studio.

Don't forget to check out the National Park Service's  informative video to see how the carvings were scanned for digitization. Meanwhile, there are many other ways to learn about American history if you'd like to know more.

4. Google Anne Frank House  (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

If you’re interested in World War II and Holocaust history, but can’t get to Amsterdam, you can still visit the Anne Frank house online.

Here, you can explore the secret rooms where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis for two years during the German invasion of the Netherlands.

See where Anne wrote her diary, and click on notes as you move through each room. Explore the outside of the building and the neighborhood, and find stories from Anne’s life on the Google Arts and Culture website .

5. The Great Wall of China  (Northern China)

Construction of the Great Wall of China began as early as the 5th century B.C., and continued through several Chinese dynasties, possibly through the 17th century A.D. It is made primarily of earth and stone and continues for more than 13,000 miles altogether.

Take in the natural beauty surrounding the Great Wall without the crowds. Click on the arrows to move through the mountains in this beautiful 360-degree tour. Make sure to wear VR googles for the best viewing experience, but if you don’t have them, the videos still provide a stunning experience.

For a small fee, you can also book a shared or private guided virtual tour to explore the spectacular scenery, discover the 2,000 years of history, and ask questions along the way.

6. The Colosseum  (Rome, Italy)

Like our modern stadiums, the Colosseum was designed to put on entertainment events for up to 50,000 spectators. In its 400 years of use, the arena hosted gladiator contests, wild animal hunts, and even mock naval battles.

On the Colosseum site, you can explore the history and architecture of several ancient and modern Roman attractions, including the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Pantheon.

Watch narrated video tours on the site, or purchase a ticket to a live guided tour. You can even sign up for a live pasta-making class to get an authentic Italian food experience.

7. The Tomb of Queen Meresankh III  (Giza, Egypt)

While the tomb of Queen Meresankh III isn’t one of the more famous Egyptian pyramids, it is considered one of the most beautiful, and you can visit by way of a 3D virtual tour.

This is one of several tours presented by Harvard University’s Giza Project that allow you to experience Egyptian historical sites, almost as if you were visiting in person. Most notable is the colorful bas-relief artwork that is surprisingly well-preserved.

Since the tomb is empty now, the creators have made an accompanying video of Meresankh , guiding you through the reconstructed tomb as it might have looked 4,600 years ago.

Zoom in and out, turn to view the rooms from all directions, and click on the floor circles to move through the attraction. You can also click on the wall circles to get more information about the artifacts you are viewing. Best of all, you can see it up close and without anyone infringing on your personal space.

Related: The 7 Best Virtual Museums You Can Tour Without Leaving Home

8. The Terra Cotta Warriors  (Shaanxi province, China)

At this archeological site, which was only uncovered in the 1970s, you can view the exhibit which houses nearly 8,000 statues that are more than 2,000 years old. The emperor Qin Shi Huang (also responsible for the Great Wall of China) may have employed up to 700,000 laborers for 30 to 40 years to create the terra cotta army.

On this virtual tour, you can walk amongst the soldiers, getting much closer than you would if you were visiting the archaeologic site in person. Unfortunately, the subtitles are not in English, but the warriors and the traditional military music will keep your attention.

9. Machu Picchu  (Couzco Region, Peru)

Built in the 1400s, this site was probably a palace for an Incan ruler. It was abandoned in the 1500s and not discovered again until 1911.

This virtual tour features stunning 360-degree views from several lookout points at the attraction. The narration is filled with geographic information about the location, as well as historical and cultural facts about the Incan people.

Embark on a Virtual Journey

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a teacher or a student; a homebody or a world traveler, at least one of these tours will inspire you to dig deeper into history and learn about famous sites all around the world.

When you can't travel, don't worry. With these virtual tours, you can visit all the historic sites you've ever wanted to see, without worrying about the cost, the journey, or the crowds.

Online Field Trips

The National History Academy has partnerships with historic sites across the United States. Through the virtual field trips program, teachers can work with the NHA to virtually bring one of these important places in U.S. history to their classroom. From Montpelier, to Ellis Island, to Little Rock Central High School, the sites offered tell a diverse story of the nation’s history. Our team can help you choose the best fit for your class and arrange a program that can help show students the power of place, no matter where they’re located. 

How it works: 

The first step for teachers is to fill out a Virtual Field Trip Interest Form . The sites currently available will be listed and the teacher chooses which ones they are most interested in. We will also need to know:

• the subject, grade level, and number of students attending
• multiple dates and times that would work to schedule the virtual program
• any technology limitations

After filling out this form, a member of our team will reach out to you to arrange the best site visit possible for your students. While different sites have different capabilities, each program will offer some sort of live or pre-recorded tour, or a presentation that highlights the historical significance of the site and closely emulates what one would experience if visiting the site in person. The program will end with a Q&A session between your students and either a National Park Ranger or an expert guide. 

Once a date and time have been arranged with a site, we will arrange the Zoom link for the program and provide the teacher with a curriculum they can use in the classroom as well. The curriculum will include pre- and post-visit questions, assessment options, and a Google Slides presentation that can be used to prepare your students for the visit. There is no cost to the teachers or students for these field trips, and the National History Academy will be there to assist you every step of the way!

Below you will find the form and list of sites that are offered with a brief description of what the site has to offer. Some sites will vary what they can offer on certain days depending on staffing and other issues – more specific details will be shared once your visit is arranged. 

• Live tour of the site
• Presentation and possible live tour of the site
• Virtual tour covering 19th amendment, Alice Paul, and National Women’s Party
• Virtual program
• Virtual program, Lincoln’s Toughest Decisions
• Multiple live program options
• Virtual presentation
• Virtual presentation and community-based program 
• Pre-recorded tours of the museum featuring the steel industry and turn of the 20th-century labor 
• Henry Ford Museum
• Pre-recorded tour
• Virtual program at Manhattan Project site
• Live tour of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church
• Virtual, interactive program
• Virtual program on-site
• Virtual presentation, tells the story of JFK’s Assassination
• Live tour of the museum

*Is there a site you are interested in that isn’t listed? Email [email protected] to explore more possibilities!

The Holocaust: History and Memory

Virtual tour.

Suitable for classroom use or by families and individuals, this virtual tour, hosted on Google Arts & Culture , allows visitors to explore nine interactive galleries at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The experience offers a chronological narrative of the Holocaust through encounters with historical artifacts and photographs. Visitors will also see one of the Museum’s conservation labs, allowing them to examine how staff preserve and present Holocaust history.

Preview scenes from the virtual tour

360 view of the Hall of Witness

360 view of a railcar used for deportations to killing centers

Historical photo: the Lodz ghetto

Artifact: Desecrated Torah scrolls

Artifact: a young boy's stuffed bear in one of the Museum's conservation labs

Lesson Plan

Lesson length: One to two class periods

In this lesson , students examine how the Museum uses artifacts and photographs from its collections to present the history of the Holocaust and memorialize its victims—including artifacts and photographs that illustrate important aspects of Holocaust history such as Torah scrolls rescued during Kristallnacht, a train car, prisoner barracks from Auschwitz, and a gas chamber model. Students also tour the Museum's architecture and discuss what makes the Museum a living memorial. Through their exploration of the Museum's exhibitions, students gain a greater understanding of key events and topics related to the Holocaust and are able to explain the systematic nature, scope, and consequences of the Holocaust.

Lesson Plan (PDF)

Worksheet (PDF)

This virtual field trip and lesson were adapted from an activity created in conjunction with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

A previous version of this virtual field trip hosted on Google Expeditions is no longer supported.

This Section

Explore lesson plans and training materials organized by theme to use in your classroom.

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• Virtual Field Trips

Bring history to life anywhere! The Maryland Center for History and Culture offers live, interactive, and fun Virtual Field Trips for students of all ages and grades, as well as adult learners. By exploring and discussing original historical evidence, including documents, images, artifacts, and audio and video clips, participants draw conclusions on compelling questions about the nation’s past.

Virtual Field Trip lessons cover the timeline of American history. From the early Native Americans to the civil rights movement, lessons use Maryland sources to tell stories of national importance. All of our lessons are designed to meet Common Core, C3, and Maryland State History standards.

How it works: A webcam, speakers, screen, and Wi-Fi connection are needed to connect with the Virtual Field Trip studio at MCHC. Webcams and speakers are available to rent. The cost is $30 for the equipment to be mailed, or $10 for it to be picked up at MCHC.

Questions? Contact Tyler Osborne, Digital Learning Manager, at 410-685-3750, ext. 378, or email [email protected] .

Support for VFTs is generously provided by the Charles T. Bauer Charitable Foundation.

Virtual Field Trips: K-12

View a list of Virtual Field Trip offerings for students and schedule a VFT for your class.

Virtual Field Trips: Adults

View a list of Virtual Field Trip offerings for adult learners and schedule a VFT for groups of at least 10 people.

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Virtual Field Trips

Our field trip programs are fully booked for this school year. we are excited to have you join us for virtual field trips during the 2024-2025 school year .

How have women used their power to create change? Explore the stories of women throughout U.S. history that have fought for their rights and changed their communities. Participants will learn more about women’s history through an interactive virtual experience with expert museum educators. 

The Basics:

• You must register at least 3 weeks in advance for a virtual field trip using our registration form linked below.
• Virtual Field Trips typically last 45 minutes .
• Virtual Field Trips are free for schools, home school groups, and other youth education groups such as summer camps and scout troops. 
• Virtual Field trips are designed for 5th-12th grade audiences . 
• To book a field trip, you must have a minimum of 10 participants and at least 1 adult chaperone .

To register for a fieldtrip, please email [email protected]  with 3 dates and times that work for your schedule. If we can accommodate your request, we will be in touch!

Field trips are available 12-4pm EST Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in September through November and February through April. We may be able to accommodate other weekdays and times on a case by case basis.

Looking to schedule a talk for an adult audiences? Click here!

Current Virtual Field Trips:

African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement

In the 20th century, African American women formed the backbone of the modern Civil Rights Movement. This program explores women’s critical roles in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Little Rock’s Central High School integration, and the women behind the scenes of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The Beginnings of the Women’s Suffrage Movement 1776-1872

The fight for women’s right to vote goes back to the founding of the United States of America. This program will explore the early factors in the suffrage movement including key women such as Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Susan B. Anthony. Learn about the early women's rights movement in the United States and the legislation that was put in place to halt the movement.  

Women’s Suffrage and Protest at the White House 1872-1920

By the early 20 th  century, women were fighting nation-wide for the right to vote. A group of women, adopting radical tactics from their British counterparts, brought their protests to Washington, DC and to the very door of the White House. Learn how Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) drew public attention to their cause and were an example of public protest in the United States.

The Second Wave of Feminism and Lesbian Feminists

This program explores lesbian feminist movements and their relationships to the larger women’s rights movement during the second wave of feminism. During this program, participants will explore two feminist lesbian organizations, the Radicalesbians and the Combahee River Collective, using primary sources and examination of their statements during the 1970s. 

Questions before you register? Email us at [email protected]

National Museum of Natural History Virtual Tours

Access the tours.

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.

Virtual Tour Tips

• To navigate between adjoining rooms in the tours, click on the blue arrow links on the floor or use the navigation map in the upper right of the presentation screen.
• Look for the camera icon which gives you a close-up view of a particular object or exhibit panel.
• Try zooming in as some of the images are stitched together from individual pictures in order to create very high resolution gigapixel images.

Please note: This tour and these presentations have been tested and should work on all common devices, browsers, and operating systems (using a desktop computer with Windows, Mac, Linux or a mobile device such as an iPhone, iPad, or Android). Functionality and appearance may vary as it will adjust automatically to accommodate the most visitors. While the virtual tour has no advertising, ad blocking software or browser settings that block JavaScript and/or XML may interfere with the functionality of the virtual tour. Please let us know what you think of the tour and how the experience can be improved. Send your feedback to the NMNH Web Team .

Site Credit: Imagery and coding by Loren Ybarrondo

Equipment Used: Professional Nikon digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera bodies and lenses. The photography is typically done using rectilinear lenses with minimized distortion and shooting equirectangular panoramas at 22K pixels on the long side.

Software Used: No authoring software is used. The tours are hand-coded in HTML5 and JavaScript using the krpano graphics library.

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32 Virtual Field Trips for American History

Have you ever spent the time and money to meticulously plan and organize an amazing field trip for your learner only to be rained out of any learning to be had? We have all been there. Nothing beats the educational experience of learning through a hands-on field trip, but sometimes life just does not align for these trips to happen.

Virtual field trips are an alternative to packing snacks, checking the weather, loading the van and buying tickets to go somewhere. Bookshark offers a list of these experiences particularly for those looking to enhance their learning of American history. Besides supplementing your American history curriculum, virtual field trips also provide a way for your child to explore places that may be inaccessible. Happy exploring!

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Virtual Field Trips

Why history colorado.

History education has the power to transform lives and strengthen communities. Our virtual field trips remove distance as a barrier, enabling students and teachers to explore four different museums from across Colorado, each with their own stories and educational experiences. Each field trip will bring the past to life. Through the power of their own inquiry, students will uncover the legacies of their communities that have shaped—and continue to influence—our Centennial State. 

Cost: $2 per student; teaching staff free;  Title I discounts are available. Duration: 40-45 minutes Times: Tuesday-Thursday at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Registration required 2 weeks in advance. Space is limited. 

Register Here

Program descriptions: .

Jr. Archaeologist  In this program, students look at the traces left behind by early Colorado people through the lens of an archaeologist and have the opportunity to learn the importance of heritage conservation. (2nd-6th grades.) 

Bison Box Explore the many uses of a bison in Ute culture with objects and stories. (2nd-4th grades.)  

1918 Take your students back in time to 1918 Denver when World War I, the Spanish Flu, and Women’s Suffrage dominated the newspaper headlines. In the 1918 field trip, students explore these themes and everyday life in 1918 Denver with our historically preserved house museum. Students navigate historic spaces with inquiry-based exploration, investigate related primary sources, see demonstrations of everyday hands-on artifacts and learn about the biographies of the historic residents. While this program is designed for students in grades 2nd through 5th, 1918 can be tailored for students of all ages.  

Written on the Land: Ute Science How have Ute people used science, technology, engineering and math to thrive in Colorado? Students explore the Written on the Land: Ute Voices, Ute History exhibit to see Ute structures, beadwork, and baskets, then test materials to see how Ute people solved problems in the past and still do today. (3rd-5th grades)

Thriving and Striving: Mesa Verde  Where did Ancestral Pueblo people find water in the desert? Students tour the Mesa Verde exhibit to search for natural resources that they used to thrive in the southwestern corner of Colorado. (3rd-5th grades)

Homesteading and the Dust Bowl Why did people move to places like Keota and Baca County? Students explore the Keota exhibit to discover how life in the 1920s was different from today--and what life was like during the Dust Bowl years for homesteaders on the Eastern Plains. (3rd-5th grades)

Japanese Internment in Colorado What was life like for Japanese Americans who were forced to live at Amache? Students tour the barracks replica and examine objects that could have belonged to a family who was interned there to learn about the lived experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II. (3rd-5th grades.)

Refuge from Racism: Lincoln Hills What did African Americans do at the resort town of Lincoln Hills? Students visit the Lincoln Hills exhibit to learn about why African Americans established this mountain haven in the 1920s as an escape from racism and a place for recreation. (3rd-5th grades)

Mining Industry: Silverton Mine How did people find silver in the San Juan Mountains? Students visit the Sunnyside Mine to learn about the challenging tasks miners faced and the specialized equipment they used during the 1880s. (3rd-5th grades)

Fur Trade: Bent’s Fort Who came to Bent’s Fort? Students explore the goods and services that people brought to trade at this trading post in the 1830s and 1840s. (3rd-5th grades)

Research Center Virtual Field Trip Research Center staff present the resources available through History Colorado and explain how we can help with students’ research projects.   

Virtual Field Trips

Welcome to the Natural History Museum of Utah! The Museum is an active research institution and one of our state’s top visitor attractions. Each year the Museum hosts approximately 300,000 guests from around the world, including 40,000 students visiting on free field trips.

We are proud to share our Virtual Field Trips with you. Listed below, you'll find virtual experiences developed and led by our own expert scientists and educators. Here, you can visit our permanent exhibits, our current special exhibition, and our past special exhibitions.

We are happy to provide students and lifelong learners with a taste of all the Natural History Museum of Utah offers—billions of years of natural history. 

Come explore with us by selecting an exhibition below.

We look forward to hosting you in person soon!

Our Backyard

Our Backyard is an intimate, discovery-based environment designed for younger museum visitors to experience natural history first hand. Entering the exhibit, guests will come face to face with live animals and insects native to Utah, explore an underground crawl area, and get their hands wet in the stream play area. 

Past Worlds

Walking through the Past Worlds exhibition, guests will journey through millions of years of Utah’s ancient environments and their changing life forms. Stories of long lost ecosystems and animal diversity, as well as those highlighting the work of Museum paleontologists can be found along the way.

Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake exhibition is a remnant of the once-massive Lake Bonneville, which stretched 300+ miles end to end. Learn about how the Great Salt Lake and surrounding area have evolved over time and meet the diverse creatures that now make it their home.

First Peoples

The First Peoples exhibition allows guests to explore the stories of the Great Basin’s prehistoric peoples, as well as today’s archaeologists studying how those people survived and thrived in this desert landscape.

Utah is a geological wonderland and the Land exhibition introduces guests to the three physiographic regions that formed over millions of years: the Middle Rocky Mountains, Basin and Range, and Colorado Plateau.

The web of life is illustrated in the Life exhibition, exploring complexity from DNA to Ecosystems, with a focus on Utah’s extraordinary biological diversity. This exhibition is rich with images, sounds of the landscape, hands-on experiences, live animals, and research stories.

Native Voices

The Native Voices exhibition features the traditions of Utah’s native people. Designed in consultation with Utah’s Indian community, this exhibition depicts Native American art and culture and interprets the deep memory and contemporary presence of Utah’s indigenous people.

Past Special Exhibitions

Nature all around us.

A homegrown special exhibition, Nature All Around Us introduced guests to the wild plants and animals that share our communities throughout Utah. Guests discovered hidden worlds in familiar places, from backyards to city streets, and learned just how intertwined our lives are with nature. This exhibit is now touring.

Antarctic Dinosaurs

Embark on an adventure to uncover never-before-seen dinosaur fossils from one of the most isolated environments on Earth! Antarctic Dinosaurs , hosted at NHMU from October 2020 to April 2021, was an immersive experience that transported visitors back 200 million years to discover what life was like in prehistoric Antarctica.

INTERACTIVE

Virtual field trip revisiting history.

Dive into this Virtual Field Trip with National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts as she searches the wrecks of ships that once carried enslaved Africans.

Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography, Social Studies, U.S. History, World History, Storytelling

Watch full screen here .

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February 8, 2024

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Glacier National Park virtual field trips with Lindsay Brandt ’17 featured by Daily Inter Lake

Brandt studied history and medieval and renaissance studies at Carleton.

Lindsay Brandt ’17 was featured for the virtual field trips she runs for Glacier National Park in a Daily Inter Lake piece titled, “Glacier National Park virtual field trips hope to inspire connection with nature.”

Read the full story.

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