Bellamy Mansion Museum [NC]

Description

The Bellamy Mansion Museum is one of North Carolina's most spectacular examples of antebellum architecture. Built just before the Civil War for physician, plantar, and business leader John Bellamy, the mansion was built using both free and slave labor. Today, the mansion stands as a historic house museum, and focuses on the history of design art and preservation.

The museum offers guided tours, exhibits on design and preservation, and special events. The website offers visitor information and a history of the home.

Monteith House Museum [OR]

Description

The Monteith House Museum stands as a monument to the early Oregon settlers. The Monteith brothers traveled to Oregon in 1847, and started the town of Albany, which is located in the heart of the Williamette valley in Oregon. The home served as much more than a simple home. The Monteith family allowed the home to be used for community meetings of all kinds during the early days of Albany. Today, the home is listed on the national register of historic places.

The house offers guided tours and exhibits that showcase Oregon's early history. The website offers a brief history of the home along with visitor information.

Arkansas Post Museum

Description

Early travelers used the Arkansas River as a highway. Just north of the waterway lay a land of tall grasses filled with elk, buffalo, and deer. Explorers such as Audubon, Schoolcraft, and Washington Irving were startled at the expanse of land in this region. Visitors can stroll through this museum's complex of five buildings and explore life on the Arkansas Grand Prairie.

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

Fort Ross State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Fort Ross was a thriving Russian-American Company settlement from 1812 to 1841. This commercial company chartered by Russia's tsarist government controlled all Russian exploration, trade, and settlement in the North Pacific, and established permanent settlements in Alaska and California. Fort Ross was the southernmost settlement in the Russian colonization of the North American continent, and was established as an agricultural base to supply Alaska. Fort Ross was a successfully functioning multicultural settlement for some 30 years. Settlers included Russians, Native Alaskans and Californians, and Creoles (individuals of mixed Russian and native ancestry.) Along with the chapel, the structure of most historical interest at Fort Ross is the Rotchev House, an existing building renovated about 1836 for Alexander Rotchev, the last manager of Ross. It is the only surviving structure. Several other buildings have been reconstructed: the first Russian Orthodox chapel south of Alaska; the stockade; and four other buildings called the Kuskov House, the Officials Barracks, and two corner blockhouses.

The park offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, research library access, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Historic Latta Plantation [NC]

Description

Historic Latta Plantation is a historic cotton plantation, dating to circa 1800, and living history farm.

The plantation offers a 15-minute introductory video, guided house tours, self-guided grounds tours, educational programs, traveling trunks, home school programs, and summer camps. The website offers a teacher resource guides, suggested reading, historic games, instructions for making historic toys, and a virtual tour.

Berea Historical Society [OH]

Description

The Berea Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Berea and Middleburg Township, Ohio. To this end, the society sponsors the Mahler Museum & History Center, housed within an 1854 sandstone residence. The History Center includes exhibits and the historical Gray's Candy Kitchen, while the museum focuses on period rooms. The history of Berea is largely dependent on the discovery of area sandstone veins.

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, guided tours, and an archival resource room.

Greater Portland Landmarks [ME]

Description

Greater Portland Landmarks is primarily a historical preservation advocacy organization for Portland, Maine. However, it offers library access to collections which include local 1924 tax assessment photographs, historic maps, and historic research on a variety of Portland structures. The society also operates the 1807 Portland Observatory, the only remaining historic maritime signal tower in the United States. The interpretive focus of the tower is maritime history.

The society offers a library and guided tours, three of which—the Portland Observatory, Eastern Cemetery, and Congress Street—are available specifically tailored to the needs of school groups. The observatory offers guided tours. The observatory website offers a webcam and historic photos.

Worcester Historical Museum [MA]

Description

The Worcester Historical Museum shares the history of Worcestor, Massachusetts via a collection of artifacts including the decorative arts, fine arts, documents, and photographs. Worcester was the setting for the invention of the monkey wrench, barbed wire, space suit, and smiley face. The museum also operates the Salisbury Mansion, a house and hardware store built in 1772. The mansion has been restored to its 1830s appearance.

The museum offers hands-on interpretive programs, music, lectures, workshops, and tours. The mansion offers exhibits and tours.

Ashfield Historical Society Museum [MA]

Description

The Ashfield Historical Society Museum presents the history of Ashfield, Massachusetts via a document and artifact collection. Collection highlights include
music books from the Congregationalist Church Singing School of 1799; peddler's trunks from the mid 19th century; the "thunderbolt log splitter," a splitting wedge, powered by powder and locally invented in the 1930s; over 23,000 glass plate negatives of New England circa 1800; and local pottery. The museum also includes a farming equipment exhibit housed in a barn, an 1800s grocery store display, and a circa-1850 recreated shopkeeper's apartment. The museum is located within an 1830s structure, which originally served as a store.

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, and archival tours. Appointments are required for all visitors. The website offers a virtual tour, historic photographs, cemetery records, and a local history timeline.

Northern Indiana Center for History [IN]

Description

The Northern Indiana Center for History includes a 38-room Victorian mansion and gardens, a cottage interpreted with 1930s interiors, a children's museum, and galleries covering local and Notre Dame history. The mansion, known as Copshaholm, was owned by J.D. Oliver, president of Oliver Chilled Plow Works. Built in 1895-96, the architecture is Romanesque Queen Anne in style, and the interior furnishings are original. Highlights include works by Bartolozzi (1725-1815), famed Italian engraver, and American sculptor Lorado Taft (1860-1936). The Dom Robotnika, erected in the 1870s, is an example of quarters like those in which factory workers from the Oliver Chilled Plow Works might have lived. Other offerings include archives, the Kidsfirst Children's Museum, the Ernestine M. Raclin Gallery of Notre Dame History, and the Voyages Gallery of Local History.

Copshaholm offers an introductory video and guided tours. The society also offers a variety of themed educational programs, covering the fur trade, Civil War, and cabin life in the 1830s. Tours are also available in the Dom Robotnika, the Worker's Home; the Kidsfirst Children's Museum; Voyages: Exploring the History of the St. Joseph River Valley; and the Ernestine M. Raclin Gallery of Notre Dame History. School programs and tours meet state educational standards.