A painting (Grand Canyon Scene at Eastern End of Canyon) by Thomas Moran. 1920 / NPS

If you find yourself homebound for one reason or other this winter, there are two websites worth exploring for a quick national park fix: the National Park Service’s Treasured Landscapes site (which showcases art collections telling America’s stories) and the Open Parks Network (“350,000 cultural heritage objects and 1.5 million pages of gray literature...”). That’s a lot of information.

Treasured Landscapes

Click on the link for the Treasured Landscapes site and enter a virtual museum of artworks that captures the beautiful landscapes from more than 50 of our national parks. Be prepared to spend more than a little time on this site, as it includes: “(S)tunning paintings, watercolors, sketches, and works on paper from National Park Service museum collections…”

The site is divided into three central themes: Treasured Landscapes (by such artists as Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt), landscape art displayed in the homes of eminent Americans, and the American experience, which, “document(s) experiences that have molded America’s character.”

One nifty feature lets you place your cursor over a painting, zoom in and out, and move the image right and left. You can spend more than a little time exploring this site, searching for your favorite artists, your favorite park landscapes, or your favorite period of American history.

Whether you’re curious about Carl Sandburg’s goats, or early explorations of Mammoth Cave, you can find materials relating to them on the Open Parks Network.

Open Parks Network

The Open Parks Network, a collaboration between Clemson University and the National Park Service, was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

On this site you’ll find: “100,000 high-resolution digital scans of photographs and 200,000 images in all, including more galleries of building plans, maps, and illustrations."

What are you likely to see? How about one link to photographs of Carl Sandburg’s goats, whose North Carolina home is now a national historic site.

There are photo collections from all over, from a Yellowstone National Park photo collection and Jimmy Carter Memorabilia to Civil War era maps and newspaper illustrations, and Mammoth Cave Glass Plate Negatives. Plus, you not only can view thousands of images and documents, but download them as well.