Issaquah Historical Society [WA]

Description

The Issaquah Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Issaquah, Washington and its immediate surroundings. The society operates two museums, the Gilman Town Hall Museum, which focuses on Issaquah history, and the Issaquah Depot Museum, which displays local railway history. The Gilman Town Hall Museum includes the 1914 town jail cells; research center; and a wide selection of artifacts, including an early water pipe, a Native American fur trade knife, and historical graffiti. The structure started as the town hall in the 1890s. The depot museum collections include a vintage caboose, railroad cars, and historical photographs; and is housed in an 1888 railway depot.

The Gilman Town Hall Museum offers exhibits and guided tours by appointment. The Issaquah Depot Museum offers exhibits and guided tours by appointment. A corresponding depot activity booklet can be downloaded from the website. The society offers educational kits for elementary education, which include appropriate lesson plans.

Nichols House Museum [MA]

Description

The Nichols House Museum presents life in Boston's Historic Beacon Hill circa 1900 via the 1804 Federal style townhouse of Rose Standish Nichols. Collections include portraiture, 17th through 19th century wooden furniture, art from Europe and Asia, oriental rugs, Flemish tapestries, and works by renowned 19th-century sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907). Ms. Nichols herself, born in 1872, is also of note. As an unmarried and self-supporting landscape gardener and an accomplished woodworker, she was a life-long proponent of women's rights.

The museum offers period rooms.

The Oliver House Museum [NY]

Description

The Oliver House Museum is a historic house museum, focusing on the years 1852 through 1942. The 1852 Italianate structure contains artifacts from the family who resided in the home, as well as from the Yates County Genealogical & Historical Society collections. Topics covered by exhibits include Jemima Wilkinson (1752-1819), the first U.S. woman to found a religious movement (the Universal Friends), and Native Americans.

The museum offers guided tours and unguided exploration, period rooms, and exhibits.

Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site [TX]

Description

Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site features the modest two-story frame house in the railroad town of Denison where Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in 1890. Eisenhower's father worked for the railroad and the birthplace contains family possessions and period antiques demonstrating the lifestyle of a late 19th-century working family. The site includes six acres of scenic woods and creek bottomland intersected by an abandoned rail track turned into a hiking path. The visitor center is a historic structure filled with hundreds of items relating to Eisenhower and his role in U.S. and world history.

The site offers exhibits and tours.

Stumptown Historical Society [MT]

Description

The Stumptown Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of the Flathead Valley and Whitefish, Montana. The society operates a museum, housed within a working railway depot, built 1927. Collections include railroad and community artifacts.

The museum offers exhibits, and the website contains a number of historical photographs.

Cahokia Courthouse State Historic Site

Description

This 1740 building is historically significant as the oldest courthouse in Illinois and the only one remaining from the state’s territorial period (1787–1818). It is architecturally significant as an example of the French Colonial vertical log poteaux-sur-solle ("post-on-sill") construction technique. Inside are three exhibit rooms and another furnished to represent the courtroom in the 1790s. Exhibits in the Courthouse depict issues that came before the court around 1800 and a history of the structure as it was moved in the early 20th century to St. Louis and Chicago before its eventual return to Cahokia.

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

Hose No. 5 Fire Museum [ME]

Description

The Hose No. 5 Fire Museum presents firefighting history via artifacts. Collection highlights include a 1930 McCann pumper, a 1946 Jeep Willys outfitted for fighting forest fires, and a 1917 Garford pumper—one of three Garford fire engines still in existence. The museum is housed in a 1897 fire station. The station remained in use for nearly a century.

The museum offers exhibits.