How to Virtually Explore Top Philadelphia Area Attractions

Learn more about burrowing owls, follow along as scientists discover a new species of fish and take a tour of Philadelphia’s natural history museum through The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University’s Google Arts & Culture site. The digital destination features a handful of storybook-like experiences, as well as close-up photos and descriptions of many of the species and fossils featured in the attraction’s Center City building. The collection of diatom photos gives virtual visitors a whole new appreciation for algae. (No small task!)

Get closer than ever to the colorful murals at the American Swedish Historical Museum with the attraction’s virtual guide. Start with the ceiling mural created by portraitist Christian von Schneidau before diving into 140 smaller murals representing Swedish and Swedish-American history. The museum tells the story of the New Sweden colonists who settled the Greater Philadelphia area in the mid-1600s even before William Penn arrived.

The endlessly impressive permanent collection at the Barnes Foundation — featuring 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes and 59 Matisses, along with works by Manet, Degas, Seurat, Prendergrast, Titian and Picasso — is all available online. Website visitors can sort by colors, lines, light and more (an homage to Dr. Albert C. Barnes’ mission to connect art and intellectual stimulation), and test out a neat slider tool that shows visually similar and surprising works side by side. Pro tip: Don’t miss the African ceremonial masks, part of Barnes’ private collection curated in the early 1920s.

Take 3D tours of more than 30 cultural and historical sites throughout Bucks County, all accessible through Visit Bucks County’s website. Step inside the Michener Art Museum to view an incredible collection of works by Pennsylvania impressionist painters and stroll the trails of Core Creek Park to explore more of what the county has to offer. One not-to-miss highlight: the architecturally fascinating Fonthill Castle, home to Gothic doorways, 32 sudden stairways, dead ends and 44 rooms — each in a different shape.

It’s easy to experience Old City’s ceramic sanctuary online, thanks to a robust digital catalogue of its permanent collection highlighting more than 700 clay objects. Pottery lovers can also find a series of how-to clay tutorial videos, as well as live-streaming conversations with education assistant Shannon Jones (every Friday at 2 p.m.) on The Clay Studio’s YouTube channel.

Check in on popular Elmwood Park Zoo residents like the giraffe, zebra and eagles with EPZoo2U. The online programming is a central hub for the cameras that let virtual visitors see what the animals are up to. Plus, kids can play games and watch videos in the Bubby’s Cub education space and watch live weekday broadcasts featuring educational animal content.

The only museum of its kind in the world, this contemporary art institution is dedicated to the presentation and creation of innovative art. Explore its ambitious permanent collection of sculptures, drawings, paintings and hand screen-printed fabric textiles online, then dive into the work of the museum’s current and former artists-in-residence.

Want to see some club moss get set on fire? Science fans — as well as fans of (always safe!) explosions — have lots of virtual options to enjoy courtesy of one of the oldest and most beloved science institutions in the country. The Franklin Institute’s #SparkOfScience series highlights fascinating experiments like the ones conducted for visitors at the attraction, while interactive activities explore the depths of the human mind. And always be on the lookout for insightful videos and Q&As with Chief Astronomer Derrick Pitts and Chief Bioscientist Dr. Jayatri Das on the museum’s social channels.

The digital resources of the Free Library of Philadelphia are as vast as the archives of the institution’s citywide branches. A few clicks and a library card unleash access to ebooks, audio books, movies, TV shows and electronic editions of publications like The New York Times. Plus, more than 100 searchable academic, research, media and visual databases provide access to full-text articles and citations. Not sure where to start? Try TumbleBooks’ animated talking picture books for kids or the Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries, which offers more than 35,000 streaming music tracks by American artists.

Several of the historical sites in Germantown offer online resources and video experiences for visitors to enjoy from home. Cliveden’s activity sheets — coloring, word searches, crossword puzzles and more — encourage creativity while teaching kids about the American Revolution; Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion’s online resources dive into topics like the Emancipation Proclamation and how to write messages in Morse code; and Stenton’s History Hunters virtual classroom is full of engaging and educational videos and lessons about Pennsylvania history.

Philadelphia’s maritime heritage museum has an expansive digital collection, including nearly 700 maps and charts documenting waterway changes and the city’s contribution to naval history, as well as other works and artifacts that explore the Delaware River’s role in the African American journey through the Middle Passage, enslavement, emancipation, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement.

Get an inside look at Independence Hall from home with this narrated video tour presented by the National Park Service. Along the tour, check out the rooms where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were signed, the long gallery where British troops held American prisoners during the Revolutionary War and more. Want to do more exploring? Tours of other destinations within Independence National Historical Park (INHP) are available on the park’s YouTube page.

Take a virtual tour of the Museum of the American Revolution’s 118,000-square-foot attraction in Old City for an up-close look at museum highlights like George Washington’s Headquarters Tent, the replica Boston Liberty Tree and nearly 500 artifacts from the earliest days of America’s independence. Educators and caregivers can also download the Beyond the Battlefield classroom kit for young students who want a virtual field trip with Lauren Tarshis, author of the children’s novel series I Survived…

The National Constitution Center – dedicated to the four most powerful pages in America’s history — hosts weekly podcast episodes and videos that visitors can enjoy from anywhere. Discussions and lessons explore important historical moments like women’s suffrage and the Vietnam War, as well as current U.S. Supreme Court cases — all through the lens of the United States Constitution. Additionally, the Interactive Constitution space offers insight from constitutional experts and a deep-dive into drafts of the historical document.

On Easter Sunday in April 1939, Marian Anderson — truly one of the world’s greatest contraltos — overcame racial barriers to give a command performance at the Lincoln Memorial. In 2020, the National Marian Anderson Museum will live stream a tribute to that historic concert the weekend of Easter Sunday, on Saturday, April 11. Learn more about the great singer’s history and home on the museum’s website anytime and be sure to watch the video archive of live concerts in the Performance Corner.

The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History posts all its videos to its Facebook page, including a speech by 2019 exhibit muse Ruth Bader Ginsburg, interactive experiences from the Jewish New Media Festival and thought-provoking discussions on historical and current topics like anti-Semitism.

Set aside time to travel through time — thousands of years, give or take — in the digital archives of the Penn Museum, home to a million objects and artifacts from around the globe. Start your online exploration with the anthropology and archeology museum’s collection highlights, like the 25,000-pound, 3,000-year-old Sphinx of Ramses. Virtual visitors can also take a close look at pieces from Mexico, Central America, Africa and other parts of the world as they learn about ancient civilizations, economies and colonization and watch fascinating videos that include archival footage of early 20th-century native life in the Phillippines and the excavation of royal tombs in southern Iraq.

Take to the internet to peruse the stunning and varied collection of historic, modern and contemporary American art that lives at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), and see works by masters like Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, Alice Neel, Andy Warhol, and Kehinde Wiley. PAFA’s YouTube channel features a wealth of videos — past artist talks, discussions with curators and lectures — for your viewing pleasure as well, and don’t miss the live online events and conversations. There’s a 360-degree virtual tour of the Historic Landmark Building and Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building available online, too.

Take in artist Isaiah Zagar’s mosaicked masterpiece on South Street online via a virtual 360-degree tour. The attraction’s captivating tiled passages — weaving both over- and underground — inspire creativity from every angle. Downloadable activity pages invite virtual visitors to make a mosaic at home, complete a Magic Gardens maze and color some cool illustrations.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the largest art museums in the country — and an absolute must-see on the city’s cultural circuit. A major bonus: The institution hosts much of its stellar collection online. Search by artist to find masterworks from Mary Cassatt, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and more, or search by collector to learn which types of works some of the museum’s benefactors favored. For a real highlight, go on an in-depth, guided tour of the attraction’s entire collection of South Asian Art, with detailed looks at the museum’s epic Pillared Temple Hall as well as guided looks at architecture, paint and more.

Explore America’s first zoo in entirely new ways during the attraction’s Philly Zoo at 2 video series. Broadcasting five days a week on Facebook, Philly Zoo at 2 takes viewers behind the scenes to get up close with some of the attraction’s more than 1,300 animals as well as to hear fun facts from the zoo’s animal experts. Viewers can look forward to Breezy the Goat’s Birthday Celebration as well as glimpses of outrageously adorable baby animals (hello, little sloth bear!) that have yet to be introduced to the public.