British Museum (the main historical and archaeological Museum UK) has opened access to more than half of the objects in its collection (4.5 million units), which can now be found on the Internet. Of these, 1.9 million images available under Creative Commons license 4.0.
Virtual visitors now have the opportunity not only to view the galleries, but to use their content at their discretion for non-commercial purposes. About 280 000 photos published for the first time. You can zoom, move and translate in panorama mode, so as not to miss a single detail.
Among others are already available for viewing such unique artifacts as the Rosetta stone and a battle helmet from a burial site at Sutton hoo. Other interesting exhibits: the lost painting preraphaelitism artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, pendant century bronze and sculpture from Easter island (which, by the way, the inhabitants of Easter island want to regain).
The digital collection, of course, can not completely replace the experience of living experience valuable relics. But it at least guarantees that many people will now be able to meet a larger part of the repertoire of the Museum, before life goes back to normal. Such a move, in the end, will be able to help the gallery to reach a much broader audience, not to mention the real assistance to the teachers and students in their research.
Source — British Museum