Thousands of artefacts from the British Museum’s priceless collections went online on Thursday in a partnership with Google that will allow web-users to take a virtual stroll through its galleries.
Thousands of artefacts from the British Museum’s priceless collections went online on Thursday in a partnership with Google that will allow web-users to take a virtual stroll through its galleries.
The deal with the Google Cultural Institute, which has 800 partners from over 60 countries, also allows objects to be scrutinised by researchers around the world thanks to high-definition Gigapixel technology. Among artefacts viewable online is the famous Rosetta Stone, which helped unlock the secret of Egyptian hieroglyphs, and sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens. “The world today has changed, the way we access information has been revolutionised by digital technology,” British Museum director Neil MacGregor said in a statement.
“It is now possible to make our collection accessible, explorable and enjoyable not just for those who physically visit, but to everybody with a computer or a mobile device. And this isn’t just about putting the collection ‘online’. Through our partnership with Google, we hope to give people new ways to experience and enjoy the museum, new ways to learn, and new ways to teach,” he said.
The museum already has a strong Internet presence and three million objects in the collection are already available to see online. But they mostly have an academic audience and it does not have the reach of the new partnership, said Chris Michaels, the museum’s digital head.
There are 4,859 objects available to look at in detail online. They include one of the museum’s most important Chinese scrolls — 4th-century Admoniti-ons scroll, which is only ever available to view for a few months of the year because it is so fragile. It is available to see in particular zoom detail after Google spent three days photographing it.
There will also be a “Museum of the World” accessible through the site — a way of viewing the artefacts mapped to a timeline to allow users to make connections between cultures around the world. Google and British Museum said in a statement that the collections would be “the largest space to be captured on indoor Street View”. Highlights from the museum’s temporary exhibitions will also be available online, including two currently running on the Celts and ancient Egyptian religions.
