Meeting Old Masters, Rowing With Vikings — in Augmented Reality
Walk through the doors of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City these days and it’s possible to travel back more than 100 years.
Visitors can walk up to the original front doors no longer easily visible from outside the museum on East 36th Street, view a hidden staircase in its book-lined library that ascends to its upper tiers, and even meet Belle da Costa Greene, who died in 1950, having been the longtime librarian of the museum’s collector, J. Pierpont Morgan, and the museum’s first director, appointed by Morgan’s son in 1924.
Colin B. Bailey, director of the Morgan Library & Museum, said he loved that the museum’s new A.R. tour lets visitors “actually decode” the early 20th century decorative ceiling in its library by the muralist Henry Siddons Mowbray and get a close-up look at the 16th century tapestry over its grand fireplace.
Mr. Bailey said there was “no way” the Morgan could provide a written explanation of this decoration that visitors could read while simultaneously looking at it. The A.R. tour, he added, “is a wonderful way of imparting information about the history of the room, what the symbols mean.”
Referring to the museum’s entire A.R. experience, which makes 12 stops in the original, early 20th century library building, he added, “Nothing impedes the visual pleasure of stepping into these spaces.”
See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/arts/augmented-reality-app-exhibits.html