Historic Salisbury Foundation and Historic Structures [NC]

Description

The Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is preserving, protecting, and enhancing the special historic character of Salisbury and Rowan County through education, neighborhood revitalization, advocacy, and the preservation of historic landmarks. It also maintains and operates the Josephus W. Hall House, the Salisbury Station and the Grimes Mill. The 1820 Hall House contains the silver, china, and furniture of the Hall family, which owned the house beginning in 1859; the 1908 Salisbury Station has been restored and is tourable by appointment; and the 1896 Victorian roller mill, Grimes Mill, contains five floors of early mill machinery, and is tourable by appointment.

The foundation offers tours and occasional recreational and educational programs; the historic sites offer tours.

Dunsmuir House and Gardens

Description

Built in 1899, Oakland's Dunsmuir Historic Estate features a 37-room Neoclassical Revival mansion set upon 50 acres of landscaped grounds. The estate also includes a carriage house and a pavilion overlooking a pond and a gazebo, and plays host to a variety of educational, cultural, entertainment events throughout the year.

The house offers tours and educational and recreational events, including occasional living history events.

Virginia Air and Space Center

Description

The Virginia Air and Space Center serves as the visitor center for NASA Langley Research Center and Langley Air Force Base. Visitors' imaginations will soar as they launch a rocket, pilot a space shuttle, and come face-to-face with the Apollo 12 Command Module and a DC-9 passenger jet. They can also experience a 3D IMAX film in the Riverside IMAX Theater.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, IMAX film screenings, lectures, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Victorian Preservation Center and Cohen-Bray House [CA]

Description

The mission of the Center is to interpret the East Bay in the later 19th century. The Center seeks to accomplish this goal by promoting the study of material culture of the era and the social and economic life of Oakland, the East Bay, and the San Francisco Bay Area as represented by the Cohen Bray House. The uniqueness of this house is that it is still lived in by members of the original family. With the help of the friends and the professionals on the board, they have made the effort to preserve and protect the original interiors. Visitors will find the furniture; wallpaper; pictures; rugs; and personal items such as diaries, shopping lists and wedding presents are still in their places. Tours also include family stories of the neighborhood and what life was like since the house was built in 1884.

The house offers tours and educational programs.

National Automobile Museum [NV]

Description

The Museum presents displays recreating four authentic street scenes, representing each quarter of the 20th century, with autos, artifacts, and sounds from each era. Street scenes also display building facades and a timeline of events chronicling the history of the automobile. The Museum also presents changing exhibits.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, film screenings, symposiums, workshops, and educational and recreational events.

Louisville Fire History and Learning Center

Description

The center exists to educate the Louisville community in fire and home safety while preserving the city's rich history. The center's collection includes a rare 1892 Hale Water Tower, one of 12 chemically-raised water towers built in the United States by Hale; a working vintage communications system featuring the "Joker"; a photo collection illustrating the history of the nation's third oldest professional fire department; and memorabilia, including uniforms, helmets, badges, and tools of the profession.

The center offers exhibits.

Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center [OK]

Description

At noon on September 16, 1983, over 100,000 people raced into the Cherokee Outlet to claim a 160-acre homestead or town lot. The largest of the Oklahoma land runs, the Cherokee Outlet Land Run opened six million acres to settlement. By nightfall settlers’ camps dotted the prairie, and buildings were springing up in the newly settled towns. The new 24,000 sq. ft. Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, opening in the spring of 2011, will feature all new exhibits, a Temporary Exhibit Gallery to host traveling exhibits, a research center, a theater and a gift shop. Gracing the landscape of the building are replicas of the Phillips University columns and “The Homesteader” statute by the renowned western artist, H. Holden. The Heritage Center’s living history area, Humphrey Heritage Village, features a collection of four historically significant buildings including the only remaining 1893 U.S. Land Office, an 1896 school, a 1902 church and a 1905 home. The Center’s most prominent educational program is Turkey Creek School, providing 4th grade students from throughout the state the opportunity to experience a school day from 1910.

LeRoy Historical Society and Jell-O Gallery

Description

The Society operates the Jello-O Gallery, which presents exhibits related to the history of Jell-O, including a new exhibit that reflects Bill Cosby's influence over 30 years. Visitors can listen to entertainers Kate Smith, Jack Benny, and Lucile Ball as they promote the Jell-O product over the radio air waves and see television personalities Andy Griffith and Gomer Pyle along with Bill Cosby as they pitch Jell-O. The Gallery also houses an exhibit highlighting the evolution of transportation in the 20th century.

The gallery offers exhibits and tours.

John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Ca d'Zan, and Circus Museums [FL]

Description

Located on a 66-acre estate on Sarasota Bay, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was established in 1927 as the legacy of John Ringling (1866–1936) and his wife, Mable (1875–1929). Recognized as the official State Art Museum of Florida, the Museum of Art offers 21 galleries of European paintings as well as Cypriot antiquities, Asian art, American paintings, and contemporary art. The Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing hosts a variety of traveling exhibitions throughout the year. The estate features the spectacular Cà d'Zan ("House of John"), a waterfront mansion that was restored in 2002. The Circus Museums, including the Tibbals Learning Center, display the world's largest miniature circus, costumes, wagons, performance equipment, and other artifacts chronicling the history of the Circus. The estate also features Mable Ringling's Rose Garden, completed in 1913, and beautifully landscaped grounds overlooking Sarasota Bay.

The museums offer exhibits and tours; the Ca d'Zan offers tours; the museum complex as a whole offers performances, lectures, film screenings, educational programs, research library access, educational and recreational events.

Lompoc Valley Historical Society and Fabing-McKay Spanne House

Description

The Society was founded September 5, 1964, as an outgrowth of the Lompoc Pioneer Society. The mission of the society is to provide a repository for historical artifacts and documents pertinent to the history of the Lompoc Valley. The Society also owns and maintains the 1875 Fabing-McKay Spanne House.

The house offers tours; the society offers research library access.