Now you can peruse rock history in the comfort of your own home or office (when the boss isn’t looking), when you visit Hard Rock International’s collection of rock artifacts at memorabilia.hardrock.com.

You’re going to need Microsoft’s Silverlight 2 with Deep Zoom browser plug-in to see the exhibits. But there’s no need to bother the computer nerd in your family to install the plug-in. There’s a link on the collection’s home page providing easy installation. Once installed, Silverlight allows you to zoom in on those lyrics, those guitars, those … corsets, to your heart’s content.

In fact, Hard Rock International is trumpeting the fact that their memorabilia site is the first live site powered by Silverlight, saying the plug-in gives visitors the opportunity to “experience iconic music memorabilia in tremendous depth and quality, capturing a level of detail unseen at even the real-life artifact display.”

Other exhibits include Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for “Imagine,” and the TV tuner knob Bo Diddley used for his first hand-built guitar.

“Hard Rock’s memorabilia is extremely valuable and must be handled with extreme care, so we wanted to find a more practical way to bring the collection to a broader audience,” said Sean Dee, Hard Rock International’s VP and chief marketing officer. “With Silverlight, we were able to build an application that allows us to make our collection accessible and highly interactive for millions of fans worldwide.”