From the Colonial Williamsburg: Past and Present Podcasts website—
"The American Revolution came from an old British tradition. Hear how the English were in the habit of rebelling in “A Very British Revolution,” a tour at The Colonial Williamsburg Art Museums led by Emma Ross."
Are you ready for September 17? The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is. This year, the NEH will celebrate Constitution Day by honoring the Constitution together with another pivotal document from U.S. history: the Emancipation Proclamation. With the Proclamation's 150th anniversary approaching, Constitution Day is the perfect time to compare and contrast the promises made in the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation.
From the NEH's Emancipation Resource Portal, you can access resources and learn more about planned events. Highlights include:
For more on the Emancipation Proclamation, check out materials highlighted here on Teachinghistory.org. Watch 8th-grade teacher Jason Fitzgerald introduce his students to the Proclamation using letters from Civil War soldiers. (Download the letters here as you listen to historian Chandra Manning analyze their contents.)
Or join historian John Buescher in this Ask a Historian as he considers what makes a document a founding document. Is it a document that stands for part of what the U.S. represents? A document from the country's founding?
As your students prepare for Constitution Day, the NEH's theme gives you the perfect chance to ask, "In what ways are the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation both founding documents?" Analyzing them together gives students a unique opportunity to explore the changing definition of "We the People."
Coastal Florida was a major field of conflict as European nations fought for control in the New World. As part of this struggle, Fort Matanzas guarded St. Augustine's southern river approach. The colonial wars are over, but the monument is still protecting—not just the historic fort, but also the wild barrier island and the plants and animals who survive there amidst a sea of modern development.
The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, demonstrations, educational programs, and recreational and educational events (including living history events).
Hot, smoky, noisy—these words describe how Hopewell Furnace looked from 1771 to 1883. Hopewell and other "iron plantations" laid the foundations for America's iron and steel industry. Today, the site stands as an example of America's development during the Industrial Revolution.
The site offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).
Visitors to this site can step back in time and experience life on a small farm in northern Virginia. Living history programs and demonstrations offer a glimpse of what life was like for a poor farm family, just before the Revolutionary War.
A second website for this site, maintained by the Friends of Claude Moore Colonial Farm, can be found here.
The site offers demonstrations, educational programs, workshops, and recreational and educational events (including living history events).
Piscataway Park is a scenic easement to preserve the view from Mount Vernon. There are many areas open to the public. Visitors can explore the National Colonial Farm, an 18th-century farm, maintained by the Accokeek Foundation, which depicts life for an ordinary tobacco planting family in Prince George's County in the 1770s.
A second website for the park, maintained by the Accokeek Foundation, can be found here.
The park and foundation offers workshops and occasional recreational and educational events; the farm offers demonstrations, workshops, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).
The Washington Monument is the most prominent, as well as one of the older, attractions in Washington, D.C. It was built in honor of George Washington, who led the country to independence, and then became its first President. The Monument is shaped like an Egyptian obelisk, 555' 5/8" high, and averages 30 to 40 miles visibility in clear weather. It was finished on December 6, 1884.
The monument offers elevator rides to its top.
Built between 179091 by Kamehameha I, Pu'ukohola Heiau displays the skill of chiefs, men, women, and children under the astute leadership of Kamehameha I. With the assistance of two stranded European sailors, John Young and Isaac Davis, Kamehameha I extended his reign over all Hawaiian Islands. The remains of John Young’s homestead may be toured at the site.
The site offers tours, exhibits, educational programs, demonstrations, and occasional recreational and educational events.
For over 400 years Ojibwe families of Grand Portage have tapped maples every spring on a ridge located just off Lake Superior. During the summer, Ojibwe fishermen harvest in the same areas their forefathers have. Before the United States and Canada existed, the trading of furs, ideas, and genes between the Ojibwe and French and English fur traders flourished. From 1778 until 1802, welcomed by the Grand Portage Ojibwe, the North West Company located their headquarters and western supply depot here for business and a summer rendezvous. Today, Grand Portage National Monument and Indian Reservation form a bridge between people, time and culture.
The site offers short films; tours; exhibits; educational programs; demonstrations; and educational and recreational events, including living history events.
Adams National Historical Park tells the story of four generations of the Adams family (from 1720 to 1927). The park has two main sites: the Birthplaces of 2nd U.S. President John Adams and 6th U.S. President John Quincy Adams, and Peacefield including the “Old House,” home to four generations of the Adams family, and the Stone Library which contains more than 14,000 historic volumes.
The site offers guided tours of the homes.