Abstract: A computer-based system for curating disparate data sets for a museum-level user experience includes at least one computer server and a relational database residing at least in part thereon. The relational database includes a plurality of types of data building blocks each representing a respective data set. Each of the types of data building blocks includes a plurality of data elements, and each of the data elements represents a type of data and having a plurality of data points. The data building blocks are linkable by shared data in their respective of the data elements, with at least one of the data elements appearing in more than one of the data building blocks. Software resides at least partially on at least one user computing device which includes a user interface enabling a user to interact with the relational database. Multiple building blocks can be combined to form a data feature.