In the time of a global pandemic and forced quarantine, many of us turn to history for comfort. (Okay, a lot of us will do that regardless of the situation.) Said quarantine has forced all of us to stay inside and flatten the curve, though. It is time to get creative and think outside the box! As someone who lives in the middle of Canada, I’m used to having to think around things to access the history I’m interested in. And you can benefit, too… So, today I’m going to share the best online history resources available to us all!
As an historian who is rather geographically isolated, there are countless sites that I can’t visit and exhibitions that I’ve missed. However, the benefit is that I’ve been forced to be creative in order to see everything possible. And the historical and heritage community have obliged me in the last few weeks and made even more things available. Hopefully you enjoy this list of online history resources, to get you through these trying days!
1. An Historian About Town… Moi!
I’m going to be that person, and plug my own blog first. I write posts on pretty much every historical site and event that I attend. I’ve got quite a bit of royal history, Jane Austen-related history, fashion history, ballet history, and UK historical sites. If you pop up to the right hand part of my header, you can click on “History” to see all of my history posts. (If you drop down in my “Culture” menu, you can also see my book posts, my ballet posts, and more!) These are a few of my favourite posts, but you can find hundreds more on the blog!
Royal History
The Queen’s Apartments at Kensington Palace– Visit Queen Anne and Queen Mary II’s apartments at Kensington Palace
Victoria Revealed: The Tiaras– Some of Queen Victoria and her granddaughter’s tiaras!
Monarch of the Month: Queen Anne– A look at one of Britain’s most fascinating monarchs
Dr. Kate Strasdin’s Inside the Royal Wardrobe– A look at the royal wardrobe of Queen Alexandra
Russia, Royalty, and the Romanovs Exhibition– Queen’s Gallery exhibition looking at the relationship between the UK and Russian royal families
Jane Austen
Jane Austen Centre– A visit to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath (she spent quite a bit of time in Bath, and both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are set in Bath)
The Bath Assembly Rooms– The Upper Rooms in Bath, where Jane Austen and her friends and family would have danced, gambled, and chatted!
No 1 Royal Crescent– Visit a Regency era townhouse on the Royal Crescent in Bath
Walking Jane Austen’s Bath– Follow me as we walk through Bath to different Austen locations!
New! 5 More Books for the Jane Austen Reader– If you love Jane Austen, dive into her Regency world a little bit more!
Fashion History
Dior: Designer of Dreams, Pt 1– The New Look that started it all, Princess Margaret’s birthday dress, and Dior in Britain
Dior: Designer of Dreams, Pt 2– Historicism (of course), Travels, and the Garden
Dior: Designer of Dreams, Pt 3– Dior Designers and the Atelier
Dior: Designer of Dreams, Pt 4– The Ballroom
New! Dior Designer of Dreams Highlights– My favourite highlights that weren’t in my original posts!
Bata Shoe Museum Highlights– Some of the most gorgeous and interesting shoes at BSM!
Ballet History
History of Ballet: Origins– The courtly beginnings of ballet
History of Ballet: A New Star and Different Schools of Ballet– Marie Taglioni appears, while different methods of ballet begin to emerge
History of Ballet: Russia– In the nineteenth century, a new country begins to dominate ballet…
History of La Bayadere– A history of one of ballet’s most infamous productions…
UK History
Royal Opera House Tour– Visiting the historic and gorgeous Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, home to the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera
900 Years of History at Southwark Cathedral– Southwark Cathedral is one of London’s oldest cathedrals, and has nearly 1,000 years of history behind it (including Shakespeare…)
Walking Tour of Bath– A walking tour of Bath, including medieval and Regency Bath!
The Quirks of Covent Garden– Covent Garden is one of London’s oldest flower markets, and is still alive and bustling! (Well, when there isn’t a pandemic…)
Punting in Cambridge– See historic Cambridge right from the River Cam!
New! My London History Wishlist– Some of London’s most interesting historical sites, to visit when we are all allowed to travel again!
2. Online Exhibitions
There are some museums who regularly do online exhibitions, like the Museum at FIT (see my review of their online Ballerina exhibition here). However, many other museums and sites are sharing more of their exhibitions now! Here are some of the exhibitions that I’ve discovered so far:
Google Arts and Culture: This isn’t new, but you can find several different museums and collections available online through Google!
British Museum– A virtual tour of the BM!
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum– Tour the museum in New York!
Rijksmuseum– Discover Dutch artwork, Asian artefacts, and more in the Netherlands!
Musée d’Orsay– Tour the Paris museum, and take interactive tours of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Galleries!
Uffizi Gallery– Visit the Uffizi Gallery in Florence for some of the most incredible Renaissance art!
Museum at FIT– You can tour the Ballerina, Power Mode, and Eleanor Lambert exhibitions online! And you can watch talks from the symposium as well, now!
Updated Online Exhibitions
Victoria and Albert Museum– The V&A has made several different exhibitions available on Google Arts and Culture including: “Balenciaga: Master Craftsman”, “Schiaparelli and Surrealism”, and their Gallery of Fashion. They are the largest textile museum in the world, this is massive!!
Bata Shoe Museum– The BSM is keeping online visitors busy throughout the week! Mondays are a featured exhibition, Tuesday has Ask a Curator, Wednesday is a shoe-themed jigsaw puzzle (I love them), Thursday is trivia on Instagram, and Friday is for a new colouring page. Options for everyone!
3. Look Up London Tours
I was lucky enough to do one Katie’s tours when I was in the UK in 2019, but she is currently posting online tours of different London neighbourhoods. She looks at London through an entirely different lens, and truly brings history alive! You can watch them both on her Facebook page and on her Instagram account.
4. Future Learn Courses
I’ve chatted about Future Learn courses before, but now is a wonderful time to take an online course from Future Learn. I’ve done the Royal Fashion course, which is being restarted today, the Royal Eating course, as well as a course on Jane Austen’s popularity. There are courses are history, languages, literature, science, business, and pretty much any subject area. And you can retake courses, which would mean that you have a whole new group of people to discuss things with. And it is completely free!
5. Online Collections
If you are content to look at individual items/pieces, I would recommend diving into museum collections. (Online history resources at its best!) It isn’t an entire exhibition, but you can learn a lot about pieces when you look at them individually. (You also might consider them in different ways, if they aren’t presented in a specific context.) The V&A has their collections online, as does the Met Museum in New York. Smaller museums might not have their entire collections online, but many have pieces of them. And if you are doing research, now is the time with more online than ever! (Also, some museums/archives do have a skeleton staff in. It may not be a full team and it might take a while, but some are working to keep staff employed for as long as possible!)
I hope that you can use these online history resources, and please send any to me that I’ve forgotten!
Cheers,
The Historian
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Great post! You’ve listed sooo many resources, super helpful! 🙂
Oh, thank you, Amy!! I’m glad these can help! 🙂