LibGuides: Open Education: Find Open Museum and Cultural Heritage Resources

The resources and items available through the sites on this page may not have been shared in consultation with or the permission of the original creators or communities, such as First Nations peoples or other cultural minorities. In most cases, these resources have been shared publicly for educational purposes to increase accessibility to these collections.

We encourage users to approach these materials with respect and sensitivity, recognizing the cultural significance and heritage they represent and being aware that copyright is a colonial structure of knowledge ownership.

Exploring the rich tapestry of human history and culture has never been easier, thanks to the growing number of open museum and cultural heritage resources available online. Many countries and organizations are now sharing their vast collections of artifacts, artworks, and historical documents through open-access repositories. These platforms provide unparalleled access to cultural treasures from around the world, allowing you to engage with and learn from these materials in new and exciting ways.

Canadian Archival Collections

Heritage This link opens in a new window
Archival collections from Library and Archives Canada covering genealogy materials, aboriginal history, government departments, military history, and papers of prominent Canadians.

OurOntario
OurOntario.ca makes it easy to find audio, video, text, images and collections about Ontario or from Ontario organizations. The site brings together content from organizations using the VITA Digital Collections Toolkit as well as content from other collections sites.

Points to the Past This link opens in a new window
Historic primary source materials and newspapers available to all British Columbia residents.
Freely available to all BC residents.

International Archival Collections

DigitalNZ
DigitalNZ is the search site for all things New Zealand. We connect you to reliable digital collections from our content partners, including: libraries, museums, galleries, government departments, the media, and community groups.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
DPLA is an all-digital library that aggregates metadata from libraries, museums and institutions around the USA.
Europeana
Display digital cultural heritage from over 2000 different European institutions. A network of aggregators collects their items and related data, checks it thoroughly, and enriches it with information like geo-location, or links it to other material or datasets through associated people, places, or topics.
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands. They tell the story of 800 years of Dutch history, from 1200 to now.
Trove
Explore amazing collections from Australian libraries, universities, museums, galleries and archives. Everything you would find on a visit to a library or museum can be found in Trove. Search for digital copies of newspapers, Government Gazettes, maps, magazines and newsletters, books, pictures, photographs, archived websites, music and interviews.
Smithsonian Open Access
Download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s 2D and 3D digital items from their collections. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

KPU's Open Archive

KORA is Kwantlen Polytechnic University's institutional repository for collecting, preserving, and providing online access to scholarly and creative materials created by the Kwantlen community, as well as important documents related to the university's history.

Content is openly available to anyone online. You will find articles, working papers, honours theses, conference papers, video recordings, and more within the repository.

The goals of KORA are to:

Enhance the visibility and reach of Kwantlen's scholarship
Provide free, open and timely access to KPU scholarship
Preserve and provide long-term access to this digital content
Encourage scholarly collaboration within KPU and with others

KORA is managed by the Kwantlen Library in collaboration with the Office of Research & Scholarship and with guidance from the Senate Standing Committee on the University Library.

Learn more about KORA

KPU Library

Open Education

Canadian Archival Collections

International Archival Collections

KPU's Open Archive