Review by Erin Brereton, Common Sense Education | Updated May 2013
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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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History and art intersect on the Met's vast, reading-centric site

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • Arts
  • Social Studies
Skills
N/A
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
9–12
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (3 Reviews)
Price:  Free
Platforms:  Website

Take a look inside

5 images
The site is an online repository for the thousands of pieces of art housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Detailed information about each item is available to peruse.
You can read academic essays about a variety of time periods, media, and artists.
They make searching for a specific work of art pretty easy.
It's not totally kid-friendly, but there's a ton of information to be found on the site.

Pros: It provides a big-picture view of artistic influences and eras as well as detailed descriptions of nearly every art movement.

Cons: Reading is the main activity; without any bells and whistles to excite kids, they may get bored fast.

Bottom Line: This resource from the Metropolitan Museum of Art beautifully illustrates art's evolution and is great for research, but more interactivity would help balance out the text-heavy content.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Because it centers primarily on reading, you may find this site is best for individual use -- for homework assignments, research projects, etc. However, you can definitely share and discuss key pieces of art with your class on a whiteboard. The site's content provides a look at how key events and people affected art in different eras, which could work in a history class as well as for more art-focused subjects. You can show and compare artistic works that show influence from other periods or build on individual reading assignments with in-class work, like asking students to identify signature elements in Dali's paintings. 

The Met's main site also offers additional resources, including the online portion of its Thomas J. Watson research library. An educator section has nearly 100 elementary, middle school, and high school lesson plans; teachers can also purchase illustrated publications.

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Standards:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History highlights the New York-based museum's extensive collection, ranging from 8,000 B.C. to current-century fashion. Its content is written by Met curators, conservators, scientists, and educators and includes 930 essays and nearly 7,000 objects to view. 

You can locate artwork from a certain region by clicking on a world map; select an era on a timeline, or search for specific pieces by entering qualifications like name, artist, material, or technique. A Thematic Essays section features written background and slideshows of different styles, movements, artists, and time periods. You can also select a general category, department, geographical region, or time to find what you're looking for. For example, under the category American Art, you can find anything from "Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate in the Colonial Era" to the Bikini. An index also links to sections on artistic styles, regions, and other classifications.

The site's structure makes finding specific items fairly easy; it can also help you obtain a sense of how different eras, artists, and movements influenced each other. Weaving historical events into its written content, the site helps kids pick up some bonus social studies knowledge. Some sections -- such as Africans in Ancient Greek Art -- feature almost as much trading and population pattern background as art information.

Unfortunately, you won't find many options for interactivity here; the Heilbrunn Timeline involves a lot of reading. The site would have a better chance of engaging kids if it offered quizzes, videos, or other more dynamic elements. (Scrolling through pages of small text can overwhelm all but the most interested kids.) However, kids can use its well-written, comprehensive content for schoolwork-based research, to gain an understanding of how art has evolved over time, or they can just use the site to explore some really cool art movements and works.

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

The site offers an abundance of information for research or personal knowledge gain, but there's not much interactivity. You'll do a lot of reading and won't find many exercises to test learning or other absorbing activities.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Kids get detailed info on the factors behind artistic movements and can view some major works. Content is categorized by era, theme, and region to help kids understand how art, history, and different styles intersect.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Some items link to related Met publication articles. The museum's main site includes information on exhibitions, arranging a visit, and other topics. Teachers can also access its Thomas J. Watson research library.

Common Sense Reviewer
Erin Brereton
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Reading History/Social Studies

  • RH.9-10.5

    Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.

  • RH.9-10.7

    Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.

  • RH.9-10.3

    Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

  • RH.9-10.10

    By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

  • RH.11-12.7

    Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

  • RH.11-12.9

    Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

  • RH.11-12.3

    Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

  • RH.11-12.10

    By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 3 reviews) (3 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Chris H. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
User-friendly exploration of the world of fine art
There are many fine art resources on the web, and I find this to be a real stand out. The ease of use is key to its success. It makes a difference when it is easy to explore and find new things. That, coupled with just the right amount of information about the artist, the work itself, the movement perhaps, connections to like items, and the historical context makes the site a home run. The site is a great source of art for art's sake, but an efficient and thorough tool for any secondary classroom.
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