The Frick Art and Historical Center [PA]

Description

The Frick Art and Historical Center consists of the personal collections of Helen Clay Frick, daughter of Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919)—industrialist, steel tycoon, and major art connoisseur. The center includes the museum and Clayton, the Frick family's late Victorian home. The collection includes carriages, historic automobiles, and fine and decorative arts dating as far back as the Renaissance. Highlights include works by Jean-François Millet and an 1898 Panhard automobile.

The center offers themed tours of both the museum and Clayton, Act 48 educators' workshops, concerts, children's weekend workshops, summer camps, and more than 25 educational programs. The website offers lesson plans.

Ohio County Historical Society and Museum [IN]

Description

The Ohio County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Ohio County, Indiana. To this end, the society operates a museum, housed in a 19th-century plow factory. This museum focuses on local life in the 1800s and early 1900s. Collection highlights include a record-winning, early 20th-century race boat called the Hoosier Boy and an auto-harp.

The society offers exhibits.

Shoshone County Mining and Smelting Museum [ID]

Description

The Shoshone County Mining and Smelting Museum presents the local history of the Silver Valley, Idaho, with a particular emphasis on mining and smelting history. Exhibits cover mining, environmental history, smelting equipment, minerals, metallurgy, medicine, and electricity. Collection highlights include an 1899 Nordberg Air Compressor and scale models of the Bunker Hill and Sunshine Mines. Dating to 1906, the museum structure was built as the residence of Stanley A. Easton (died 1961), manager of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company.

The museum offers exhibits and a period sitting room.

Houston Fire Museum [TX]

Description

The Houston Fire Museum presents the history of U.S. firefighting. It is housed in the historic Fire Station No. 7, which was built in 1895. Collection highlights include a 19th-century pumper, an 1895 steamer, and a restored watch office. A new museum building is being added, and will emphasize fire safety.

The museum offers exhibits and guided tours. Reservations are required for group tours.

Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation [CA]

Description

The Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation operates the Tor House and Hawk Tower. The Tor House was built in 1918 through 1919 as the residence of poet Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) and his family. The property was modeled after English Tudor barns. Jeffers later built the 1924 Hawk Tower for his wife and children. Guests who visited the Jeffers on their land include Sinclair Lewis, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Langston Hughes, Charles Lindbergh, George Gershwin, and Charlie Chaplin. The site also includes an English-style garden. Jeffers's poetry often focused on the Californian coast, and today his work is highly lauded for its environmental consciousness.

The foundation offers tours.

Evergreen Museum and Library [MD]

Description

The Evergreen Museum and Library presents more than 50,000 objects once owned by Baltimore's railway royalty—the Garrett family. The collection, which includes manuscripts, decorative arts, artworks, and more than 8,000 rare books, is housed within the residence in which the Garretts lived between 1878 and 1942. Key artworks include those of Degas, Picasso, and a variety of post-Impressionists; and the museum boasts one of the largest privately held collections of both Japanese minor arts and Tiffany glass. Also within the house is the Bakst Theatre, decorated by Leon Bakst, costume and set designer of the Ballet Russes, a major visual influence of the early 1900s. A 28,600-volume library is available for use. The non-circulating collection's strength is 16th- and 17th-century English literature and history.

The museum offers guided tours, concerts, lectures, library access, and boxed lunches for group tours (at an additional price). Groups of 20 or more require advance registration.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum [MO]

Description

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum presents the history of African American baseball between the late 1800s and 1960s, when leagues were largely segregated. Exhibits include league information, historic photographs, information on African American businesses and period styles, and statues. The interior entrance emulates a period baseball stadium. The museum is located in Kansas City's 18th and Vine district, historically central to the city's African American population.

The museum offers multi-media exhibits; three films, including an eight-minute oral history interview presentation; and self-guided tours. Reservations are required for groups of over 25. These groups will be offered an introduction and, if possible, a guided tour.

Pabst Mansion [WI]

Description

The Pabst Mansion, a Flemish Renaissance Revival mansion completed in 1892, was home to Captain Frederick Pabst (1836-1904), best known as a beer baron. In addition to leading a successful brewing business, Pabst was also a sea captain and real estate developer. The interior shows a level of restraint unusual in homes of the era which belonged to the wealthy.

The mansion offers exhibits, period rooms, guided tours, self-guided tours, and outreach slide presentations and lectures. Tours can be arranged for special interests including art, architecture, and the German language; and still others are available specifically designed for students.

Brendan T. Byrne State Forest and Whitesbog Village [NJ]

Description

Whitesbog was an active 19th- and 20th-century cranberry- and blueberry-producing community. This company town was founded in the 1870s by Joseph J. White. The commercial high-bush blueberry was developed here by Elizabeth White. Once a thriving town and one of the largest cranberry farms in the state, the now silent village is an example of the changes in agriculture in this state.

A second website for the site, operated by the Whitesbog Preservation Trust, can be found here.

The site offers tours, lectures, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Harn Homestead [OK]

Description

The Harn Homestead shares the history of territorial Oklahoma. Historic structures include the 1904 Queen Anne main residence and the Shinn Barn.

The homestead offers hands-on activities; educational programs about the schoolhouse, farm, barn, and a re-enactment of the 1899 Land Run (in which the students participate); day camps; overnight programs; and tours of the residence and grounds. Reservations are required for large groups.