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Virtual Tours of our Capitol & Museums

March 31, 2020
Blog Post

As parents and students across Pennsylvania's 11th District and the United States are staying home to help protect against the spread of COVID-19, let's work hard to keep the whole family occupied with educational activities! You can explore so much in the comfort of your own homes. Below is a list of virtual tours for you and your family to "visit" our nation's capital.

U.S. Capitol Building:

https://capitol.gov/ click on Explore to view the history of the U.S. Capitol building and the surrounding campus. This virtual tour of the whole U.S. Capitol grounds gives historical insight to the Capitol building, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the Supreme Court.

For a video virtual tour provided by the Architect of the Capitol click here.

For exercises to keep your students busy and put their knowledge to the test click here.

White House:

The White House Historical Association released an App with virtual tours and information for students and kids to "tour" the White House. For more information on how to download the App click here.

Smithsonian Museums:

For more activities from the Smithsonian Institute for your students click here.

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum:

For the virtual tour click here. For Activities and games click here.

National Museum of Natural History: Click here.

Library of Congress - view these great educational opportunities for students below!

Student Discovery Sets: Puts primary sources in student's hands by bringing together historical artifacts and documents on a wide range of topics. The Student Discovery Sets are free on iBooks.

Current Exhibitions: The Library has several current exhibitions available online, including ones on Rosa Parks, the Nineteenth Amendment, comic art and more.

Digital Collections: Over 400 digital collections are available online, featuring content from U.S. Presidents, musicians, inventors, historic newspapers and more.

By the People: A crowdsourcing initiative that allows anyone to volunteer to improve access to history by transcribing, reviewing and tagging Library of Congress documents.

Classic children's books: Available for free online via the Library website.

The Library of Congress' YouTube channel: Contains a wide range of author programming, as well as content from scholars and musicians.

Ask a Librarian: The tool remains available to the public, with Librarians available to answer questions and provide research assistance.

The Library's National Screening Room: Showcases the Library's vast moving image collection. It is designed to make otherwise unavailable movies, both copyrighted and in the public domain, freely accessible to viewers worldwide.