British Museum image by From Modern Art to Medicine: Exploring Museum Blogs
With International Museum Day approaching on May 18, let’s browse the blogs of some museums on WordPress.com — from premier art institutions to science and natural history organizations.
Unframed
At Unframed, the blog of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), curators, program directors, and other staff discuss the museum’s collections and raise awareness around the art scene of Southern California. You’ll read details on new acquisitions and personal takes on exhibitions.
The head of the Chinese and Korean art department, for example, offers a curator’s perspective on the Chinese Paintings from Japanese Collections exhibit, running through July 6. We also enjoy the behind-the-scenes posts complementing the work at LACMA, like this Q&A with teens on a Glenn Ligon exhibit.
National Media Museum
The National Media Museum in West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom focuses on the science, technology, and art of the still and moving image. On the blog, writers cover exhibitions and events and offer a glimpse into the museum’s massive archive of objects in its photography, cinematography, and television collections.
From commentary on early war photography in Crimea to the history of the Vest Pocket Kodak camera to a discussion of the decline of black-and-white television, the site examines and celebrates the history and impact of photography and media.
Circulating Now
This companion to the US National Library of Medicine explores the historical collections of the world’s largest biomedical library. History, science, and medicine converge on this blog, where historical documents accompany timely tales and staff writers recount personal stories from the field. Circulating Now is worth a peek for those interested in public health, research, and medical history.
Canadian Museum of Nature
Located in Ottawa, Canada, the Canadian Museum of Nature is a premier place of research for the natural sciences and holds more than 10 million specimens, covering four billion years of earth’s history. On the blog, you’ll find posts on museum education efforts, supplementary discussions to exhibits and the NatureTalks series, and perspectives from museum staff on various topics, from thinking plants to flashlight fish.
Interested in (virtually) exploring other museums? More blogs to browse:
- Virtual Curation Museum: An extension of the Virtual Curation Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University, these 3D animations highlight the research of the lab’s director and undergraduates. (Hat-tip to Paul Mullins, who wrote about this curious display of digital artifacts last month.)
- Zygoma: Zygoma is the personal blog of Paolo Viscardi, the natural history curator at the Horniman Museum in London, England. Paolo deals with fossils and bones, and we love how he engages with readers with Friday mystery objects. His blog offers an insider’s look into life as a curator, in and out of the museum.
- The Buffalo History Museum: This blog for the Buffalo History Museum in Western New York celebrates the Niagara Frontier. From behind-the-scenes commentary on collections to posts on personal histories and artifacts, the site shares the rich history of this region.
- May 16, 2014
- Community, WordPress.com
WordPress.com News 
Thanks very much for all of the excellent ideas about places to visit and links to online resources! I am, at heart, insatiably curious, and I love learning. I would love to travel around the country one day (and eventually, the world) and see what I can see! 🙂
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Thank you for bringing up this awareness. Went to National museum in Calabar here yesterday not knowing that such event is close by. A historical place as the first story building in this part of the world and incidentaly was colonial residency built around 1840. I will celebrate the World Museum Day in my own little way with collection of shots i got starting from 17th. Kudo to WordPress.
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I had no idea there was an International Museum Day! I certainly have my work cut out for myself. I miss going to museums; did lots of that when living in New York. Thanks for all these links. Good job!
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Absolutely LOVE this photo, love the angles, the curves, everything.
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Thanks for adding new-to-me museum sites to explore. I’d like to add one more, The British Museum blog. A good portion of my uni years was spent in the physical space, so it’s lovely to be able to keep up virtually.
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Hear! Hear! As a young lad just after WW2 my greatest joy was each Saturday to vsit the science museum in South Kensington, London. Today aged 78yrs I couldn’t face all the travelling and walkng involved in museum visits and so I’m delighted if you are offering us all virtual reality museum visits. At my age I suspect I might end up as an exhibit in the natural history museum.
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Thanks! The Buffalo History Museum led me to Teaching Children About the Underground Railroad, a fascinating post that mentioned a book by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson called Almost to Freedom, told from the point of view of a young girl’s rag doll, which led me to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I loved the journey.
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We’re in the process of our project, but the Miniature Natural History Museum and Laboratory will be totally done by next Spring. You can see our progress here on our WordPress blog: a real 1:12 scale miniature museum. http://theminiaturenaturalhistorymuseumandlaboratory.com/
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This is an interesting panorama. I like how many museums show an out-of-the-box exposition as the Immigration Museum in Buenos Aires or the Torture Museum in Prague.
Great article.
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The Black Diamond Heritage Centre Museum in Bulli, Australia is also on WordPress – http://blackdiamondheritagecentrebulli.wordpress.com/about/ – I’ve found that WordPress is a nice format for a Museum blog.
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well having had no idea there was museum day, I’m pretty darn glad that I managed to fit 2 museums in in one day recently. The Victoria and Albert and the British Science Museum 🙂
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Thank you for that! I always wanted to visit museums on other continents … and this seemes like a relatively cheap wy of doing so!
Just recently, I went to the museum of natural history in Berlin. Right when you enter there are 3 dinosaurs stretching through parts of the walls and greeting you in the prehistoric era. Worth a visit!
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