Accessing History in Lockdown

By Dan Miller

Whilst lockdown may be easing with some venues reopening, restrictions are still in place and so it remains a challenge to visit many of our favourite places and the activities we enjoy.

However if you know where to look there is plenty you can still enjoy right from the comfort of your home! Of course it will never be the same as spending time outdoors, but these virtual experiences are a great way of keeping busy in what are still challenging and unusual times.

Thanks to Google Arts & Culture, (which can be accessed either onlineor via the app), you can continue to access the resources that many museums and heritage sites have to offer and the fascinating stories behind them. In fact Google has teamed up with over 2,500 venues worldwide, so there is certainly plenty to keep you entertained.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have always had a passion for history and have enjoyed visiting many different museums and heritage sites and would like to share some my favourites and how you can access them from home.

Durham Cathedral

Constructed between 1093-1133 to house the shrine of St. Cuthbert, and one of the first places to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage site it was great to discover that one of my favourite historic sites, Durham Cathedral, can be accessed virtually through both it’s website and Google Maps, as well as various videos.

The Cathedral’s location and construction always amazes and inspires me. Therefore it is no surprise that it has featured in many films, most recently in the Asgard scenes in Avengers: Endgame (2013).

However the cathedral is most famous for featuring in the Harry Potter film series. For Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) the cloister became the snow-covered quadrangle, where Harry sets his owl flying.

While in the Chamber of Secrets (2002), the chapter house was the setting for Professor McGonagall’s classroom when she teaches the wizards and witches how to turn animals into water goblets.

So thanks to Google Maps you can explore a virtual tour of Durham Cathedral. Simply go online or download the Google Street View App, then search for Durham Cathedral and drag the person icon onto the map.

In addition, if you want to learn more about the Cathedral itself there are also some great videos that you can watch.

Beamish Museum

If you have read my previous post I mentioned that since 2012 I have been volunteering at Beamish Museum.

Unfortunately due to the Covid-19 outbreak the Museum is currently closed to visitors. Fortunately the venue can still be accessed online. On the Museum website the ‘People’s Collection’ enables visitors to view the photographs, oral histories, and objects from the Museum’s vast collections. Whilst on thanks to Google maps you can virtually explore the Museum site.

Colosseum

In addition to the north-east one my other favourite historical places is Rome in Italy.

I have been fortunate enough to visit Rome on many occasions and have always found both the range of history on offer and the fact that it is so well preserved amazing.

From both an archeological and historical point of view, one of my favourite places in Rome has got to be the Colosseum.

Commissioned around AD 70-72 by the Emperor Vespasian, and opened in AD 80, the Colosseum was built to host sporting events and games, including gladiator combats, animal hunts, and believe it or not, ship naval battles!

In fact the Colosseum is the largest amphitheatre in the world measuring 50m in height (the same as a 12 storey building), with a capacity of around 80,000.

This amazing piece of heritage, which has survived earthquakes and even bombings during WWII, can be accessed online through both virtual tours and videos, some of which even include reconstructions of how it might have looked in Roman times.

You can also view and learn about many other sites across Italy, including Pompeii, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Venice Canals, and the Pantheon.

In fact if you want to learn more about the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Pantheon I written posts about them on my AccessibleHeritage blog.

HistoryHit

I have also been furthering my historical knowledge through an online resource called HistoryHit which aims to bring the fascinating stories that have shaped our past to life in new and imaginative ways through a variety of videos, podcasts, articles and quizzes.

HistoryHit have run a weekly podcast for the last three years, and in 2018 launched a new online-channel full of documentaries, interviews, and short films.

To find out more visit HistoryHit or download the HistoryHit App. I have found it enjoyable during lockdown, so would certainly recommend taking a look.

Paying a subscription fee is required to access all aspects of HistoryHit, however some aspects of the site can be accessed without for free. This includes history talks hosted by historian Dan Snow on the YouTube page, Timeline, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

It has been fun discovering a whole range of different ways to access historical sites.

I hope you find them a useful means of overcoming the frustrations of being stuck at home until we can once again access such venues for real.