The Village Green Heritage Center [CA] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:36
Description

The Village Green Heritage Center presents the history of the Palm Springs area, California. The center is located in two historic structures. The 1884 McCallum Adobe, built for the area's first permanent settler of European descent, houses vernacular items, textiles, Native American artifacts, artworks, and photographs. The 1893 Little House, built of used railroad ties, is set to period.

The center offers period rooms and exhibits.

Big Springs Historical Society and Museum [NY]

Description

The Big Springs Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of the Caledonia-Mumford community, New York. To this end, the society operates a museum. Museum collections include Caledonia’s Seth Green Fish Hatchery artifacts, costumes and textiles, military artifacts, religious artifacts, educational artifacts, natural history samples, fine and decorative arts, and Native American artifacts.

The society offers exhibits and on site research assistance.

Spartansburg County Historical Association and Museums [SC]

Description

The Spartansburg County Historical Association seeks to preserve and share the history of Spartansburg County, South Carolina. To this end, the society operates three historical sites and a regional museum. The Seay House began as a Scots-Irish one-story log home, built before 1850. This residence is most like the dwelling of an average early inhabitant of the Spartansburg area. Interpretation focuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century women's lives. The circa 1795 Price House grounds also include a kitchen building and double-pen slave cabin. The home served as a residence and bed and breakfast. Interpretation focuses on the original owners, Thomas and Anne Price. The circa 1765 Walnut Grove Plantation includes a plantation home, Rocky Spring Academy, a forge, a meat house, a kitchen building, a well house, a barn, and the reconstructed office of the region's earliest physician to have received collegiate training. The site depicts area life prior to 1805. The Regional History Museum's permanent exhibits address an chronological overview of Spartansburg area developments, textiles, military history, and locally made furniture.

The Seay House offers period rooms, interpretive signage, and school tours. The Price House offers period rooms and guided tours. Walnut Grove Plantation offers guided tours of the home, kitchen, and Rocky Spring Academy; self-guided grounds tours; a nature trail; and the Moore family cemetery. The Regional History Museum offers student tours, curriculum-based programs for students, exhibits, traveling trunks, and summer camps. Reservations are required for school tours to the Seay House and for groups of 10 or more visiting the Price House and/or Walnut Grove Plantation. Visitors to the cemetery are asked to remain on the trail.

Hancock Shaker Village [MA]

Description

The 20-acre Hancock Shaker Village was once a thriving Shaker community, but is now an outdoors museum which presents the history and culture of the Shakers. Collections include 20 historic buildings and more than 22,200 artifacts including furniture, tools, vernacular equipment, household objects, art, textiles, graphics, and archival documents. Shaker beliefs included using dance as a communal form of communication with God, equality of the sexes, group ownership, and celibacy.

The village offers self-guided tours; docents; exhibits; animal encounters; traditional craft demonstrations; a program on Shaker music; a children's discovery room; 19th-century-style lessons in a historic schoolhouse; guided tours of the 1830s Brick Dwelling, 1826 Round Stone Barn, and Laundry/Machine Shop; specialty guided tours; curriculum-based tour outlines for teachers; heirloom gardens; heritage livestock; research library access; a hiking trail; cafe; and a picnic area. Guided tours are only available between late November and mid April. During that time, self-guided tours are unavailable. Appointments are required for research library access.

Hubbard County Historical Museum [MN]

Description

The Hubbard County Historical Museum presents the history of Hubbard County, Minnesota. Permanent exhibits include Native American life, farming, logging, quilts, and rooms depicting a pioneer cabin and a one-room schoolhouse. Collection strengths include Civil War artifacts and textiles.

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, group programs, and tours.

Onondaga Historical Association Museum and Research Center [NY]

Description

The Onondaga Historical Association Museum and Research Center presents the history of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York. Museum permanent exhibits cover the Franklin Automobile; historic brewing; pottery manufacturing; the Underground Railroad; and county trades, transportation, architecture, settlement, and immigration. Collections include textiles, artwork, decorative arts, Native American artifacts, toys, and locally made commercial products.

The museum offers exhibits, research center access, research assistance, outreach presentations, and educational programs. Note that both research center usage and research assistance require payment. The website offers featured artifact information, a research library catalog, videos on topics of historical interest, children's activities, and an image database. The society also offers educator workshops.

Sandwich Historical Society and Museums [NH]

Description

The Sandwich Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Sandwich, New Hampshire. To this end, the society operates the 1825 Lower Corner School, open to the public during special events; the 19th-century Quimby Barn, which houses a transportation museum; and the circa 1850 Elisha Marston House, home to the society headquarters and a local history museum. Society collections include historical everyday items previously used in Sandwich. Collection strengths include furnishings, tools, and textiles. Artistic highlights include works by Albert Gallatin Hoit (1809-1856), portrait and landscape artist; Fred G. Quimby (1863-1923); and E. Wood Perry (1831-1915).

The society offers a Junior Historical Society, a non-circulating reference library.

Slater Mill Historic Site [RI]

Description

Slater Mill is a museum complex dedicated to bringing one of the most exciting and significant periods of American history to life. Visitors to the site experience a time when an America of small farmers and craftsmen was poised to become the industrial leader of the world. In the Slater Mill itself, visitors are surrounded by vintage textile machinery bathed in the light of large windows. With expert commentary from costumed interpreters they can imagine the lives of the people—many of them children—who made the early mills come alive.

In the nearby Wilkinson Mill they can feel the throb of the great 16,000-pound mill wheel, a replica of the original wheel that harnessed the power of the Blackstone River to make the era's finest tools. Children get up close and personal with early production processes as they provide the power and operate miniature machinery in the Apprentice Alcove. In the Sylvanus Brown House they can look back to a time when spinning, weaving, cooking, and quilting were the stuff of everyday life.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, demonstrations, workshops, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Farmers' Museum [NY]

Description

The Farmer's Museum is an outdoor historical museum which presents the rural heritage of the U.S. Key features include an 1840s village, heritage gardens, and the Lippitt Farmstead. The farm site includes heritage breeds of sheep, turkeys, and cattle, as well as a farmhouse, barns, a granary, a hop house, a smokehouse, and a poultry house. An interactive 1910 county fair is on the grounds on a seasonal basis. Collections consist of over 23,000 artifacts including wallpaper, textiles, and a particularly strong showing of historical woodworking tools.

The museum offers period rooms, gardens, hands-on activities, demonstrations, historic skill workshops, lectures, educational children's programs, a children's interpretation program, and guided tours for groups. Two weeks advance notice is required for group tours. The website offers a museum blog.