Conestoga Area Historical Society [PA]

Description

The Conestoga Area Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of the Penn Manor Area, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. To this end, the society operates the circa 1850 Harnish House; an outdoor oven; a local history museum, housed in a 19th-century tobacco barn; and a working blacksmith shop. The Harnish House contains a selection of reproduction furniture, and addresses the life of the Harnish family. Society highlights include a Conestoga wagon and a tobacco stripping display.

The society offers exhibits and demonstrations.

Historic Halifax State Historic Site [NC]

Description

Located on the Roanoke River, the town of Halifax developed into a commercial and political center at the time of the American Revolution. North Carolina's Fourth Provincial Congress met in Halifax in the spring of 1776. On April 12 that body unanimously adopted a document later called the "Halifax Resolves," which was the first official action by an entire colony recommending independence from England. A guided walking tour takes visitors into several authentically restored and furnished buildings. These include the 1760 home of a merchant, the house and law office of a 19th-century attorney, and the 1808 home of a wealthy landowner. The 1833 clerk's office, a jail, Eagle Tavern, and a unique archaeological exhibit are also featured on the tour.

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

Amasa Day House [CT]

Description

Colonel Julius Chapman created a symbol of rural gentility by building this Federal-style house in 1816 on the Moodus Green. It was subsequently purchased by Amasa Day, a local banker, in whose family the house remained until 1967. The house is furnished largely with objects owned by members of the Day family, including toys and locally produced ceramics and silver, and still features the original floor and stair stenciling applied to mimic carpeting. Also on display are a selection of photographs from among the thousands taken by pioneering American Pictorialist art photographer Dr. Amasa Day Chaffee between 1890 and 1925.

The house offers exhibits and tours.

Columbia State Historic Park [CA]

Description

The town's old Gold Rush-era business district has been preserved, with shops, restaurants, and two hotels. Visitors have the chance to time-travel to the 1850s, imagining life when gold miners rubbed shoulders with businessmen and the other residents in Columbia. Visitors can experience a bygone era watching proprietors in period clothing conduct business in the style of yesterday. There are opportunities to ride a 100 year-old stagecoach, pan for gold, or tour an active gold mine.

The park offers exhibits, tours, living history events, educational programs, and educational and recreational events.

James K. Polk Home [TN]

Description

Built in 1816 for James K. Polk's father, Samuel, this Federal-style house is the only surviving home of America's 11th President. James K. Polk lived here with his parents from 1818 to 1824, when he began his legal and political career. His rise to national prominence included serving as governor of Tennessee from 1839 to 1841, and culminated in 1844, when he was elected as a "darkhorse" Democratic candidate for the Presidency. He died of cholera in Nashville at age 53 on June 15, 1849, three months after stepping down from the White House. Today, the James K. Polk ancestral home is a Presidential historic site that displays original Polk belongings, such as furnishings, documents, White House artifacts, and political memorabilia. The site also features the adjacent Sisters' House museum, a reconstructed 19th-century kitchen building, and formal gardens.

A second website for the home can be found here.

The home offers a short film, exhibits, tours, lectures, educational programs, and demonstrations.

The Herndon Home [GA]

Description

The 1910 Beaux Arts Classical Herndon Home was once the residence of Alonzo Herndon (1858-1927), one of the most successful African American businessmen of his time. Herndon survived slavery, sharecropping, and Jim Crow laws during his life to become the founder of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company and a prominent barber. Alonzo's first wife, Adrienne McNeil, served as the head of dramatics at Atlanta University. The interior is furnished to period with pieces which belonged to the Herndons and others purchased by their son, Norris.

The home offers period rooms.

Kent Plantation House [LA]

Description

The Kent Plantation House, completed in 1800, presents a typical Creole working plantation home of the colonial period. More broadly, the site is used to discuss Central Louisianan history between 1795 and 1855. The site includes the main residence, milk house, open hearth kitchen, slave cabin, carriage house, barn, blacksmith shop, gardens, and a sugar mill.

The house offers period rooms, exhibits, guided tours, group tours, customizable student tours, demonstrations, summer camps, and a traveling trunk. Reservations are required for group tours and open hearth cooking. The website offers an educational packet on the Yellow Fever.

Baranov Museum [AK]

Description

The Baranov Museum, located in southwest Alaska, focuses on Alaska's Russian era (1741-1867) and early American era (1867-1912). It is housed in the historic 1808 Russian American Magazin, also known as the Erskine House.

School groups (including home school groups) are welcome to tour the museum, and tours guides are willing to work with teachers to tailor their tours to any grade level and curriculum. The museum also offers a variety of hands-on educational programs for students. Outreach programs for grades 2-6 are also available. Other offerings include lectures, classes for children and adults, and after-school arts programs.

Sarah Orne Jewett House

Description

Writer Sarah Orne Jewett spent much of her life in this stately Georgian residence, owned by her family since 1819. The view from her desk in the second-floor hall surveys the town's major intersection and provided her with material for her books, such as The Country of the Pointed Firs, which describe the character of the Maine countryside and seacoast with accuracy and affection. In decorating the house for their own use, Miss Jewett and her sister expressed both a pride in their family's past and their own independent, sophisticated tastes. The result is an eclectic blend of 18th-century architecture, antiques, and old wallpapers with furnishings showing the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement.

The house offers tours and educational and recreational programs.

Fort Clatsop National Memorial [OR]

Description

The Fort Clatsop National Memorial preserves the 1805 through 1806 winter encampment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. During their 106 day stay, it rained all but 12 days. The men spent the time hunting, taking care of their gear, and trading with and learning the cultures of the Clatsop and Chinook. The Lewis and Clark National Historical Park's education center is located at the Fort Clatsop National Memorial.

The memorial offers an introductory film, exhibits, guided and self-guided educational programs for students, traveling trunks, videos for loan, Junior Ranger activities, and costumed programs. The costumed programs are available mid-June through Labor Day. The website offers an educator's guide and suggested reading for teachers.