A Smithsonian Field Trip, Without the Drive

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History offers online virtual tours that let your family walk through its halls room by room from a computer, tablet, or phone. It is an easy way to plan a museum day at home.

Where to begin

Start on the museum’s official Virtual Tour page. From there, choose the Complete Tour of Permanent Exhibits. The tour opens in the Rotunda, beside the museum’s African bush elephant.

The tours work on desktop computers and on mobile devices. The museum notes that ad blockers or browser settings that block JavaScript may interfere with the tour, so try turning those off if a room does not load.

How to move around the tour

• Click the blue arrows on the floor to move into the next room.
• Use the map in the upper right corner to jump to another hall or floor.
• Look for the camera icon to see a close-up of an object or exhibit panel.
• Zoom in. Many images are stitched together at very high resolution, so small details are worth a closer look.

Suggested routes for your museum day

Dinosaurs and deep time

Visit the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils – Deep Time. This tour includes a navigation menu, fossil photos, mural images, videos, and the text of every exhibit label, which makes it a strong choice for independent readers.

Oceans and animals

Begin in the Sant Ocean Hall, continue to the Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals, and finish in the O. Orkin Insect Zoo.

Rocks, gems, and minerals

Explore the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals, home of the Hope Diamond.

People and cultures

Pair the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins with African Voices.

You can find each of these on the museum’s list of current exhibit tours.

Simple ways to make it a museum day

• Let each family member choose one hall to lead.
• Before you start, pick three things to find, such as a fossil, a gemstone, and an ocean animal.
• Keep a notebook nearby for sketches of favorite specimens.
• Read a few exhibit labels aloud and talk about what surprised you.
• Finish with a short museum report: a drawing, a list, or a few sentences about a favorite find.

More to explore

The museum also offers virtual tours of past exhibits, its Museum Support Center and research stations, and narrated tour videos.

Ready to go? Start your Smithsonian virtual tour.

Featured photo: the African bush elephant in the museum’s Rotunda. Photo by Syed07, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.