Ogeechee Canal Museum & Nature Center

Description

The Ogeechee Canal Museum and Nature Center showcases a 19th century Southern canal built in 1930. The canal was an important mean of transporting lumber, cotton, rice, bricks, guano, naval stores, and peaches until the advent of the railroad in America.

The site offers guided trail walks that focus on canal history, ecology, or wildlife. Living history programs on canal workers or 19th century schooling are also offered. Two hands-on Outdoor Classroom programs are available that teach about canal archeology and construction.

Colonel Davenport Historical Foundation [IL]

Description

The Colonel Davenport Historical Foundation maintains the Federal-style 1833 house of George Davenport, a colonel in the US Army. The house was built as an outpost for the US government in the process of expanding and exploring the West. Davenport spent time as a fur-trader while living in the home and the site's interpretation reflects the home's settler history.

The museum offers guided tours by trained docents for school groups. The site also offers a travelling trunk filled with pre-visit activities for use a week before a field trip.

Dothan Landmarks Foundation [AL]

Description

The Landmark Park in Dothan, Alabama is an outdoor classroom that is designed to educate children about local history and nature. The site has a turn-of-the-century school house and farmstead, a general store, and an Interpretative Center. "Learning Labs" that focus on nature are also available in addition to the history labs.

The site offers history education programs for school groups that include a turn-of-the-century school lesson in the schoolhouse, visit the blacksmith shop and general store, and the Wiregrass farmstead where they will participate in 1900's farm chores and recreation.

North West Company Fur Post [MN]

Description

The North West Company Fur Post is a living history museum interpreting fur trading in the year 1804. That year, a trader from the North West Company erected a winter trading post on site. From there he conducted business with the Ojibwe before moving on again in late April. Topics addressed include Ojibwe culture, changes in Ojibwe culture which occurred after European contact, European barter systems, the fur trade and the global economy, trader life, women in the fur trade, communication between cultures, and archaeology. As the site is a reconstruction, it permits visitors a hands-on experience.

The post offers interactive exhibits, living history interpreters, period skill demonstrations, day camps, guided group tours, field trip programs, nature trails, interpretive signs, canoeing opportunities, and a picnic shelter. Field trips include a guided tour, an educational game, a fire making demonstration, and a craft activity. Canoes are not available on site. The website offers history articles.

Royal Arts Foundation- Belcourt Castle [RI]

Description

The Belcourt Castle was the home of built in 1894 by the famous American architect Richard Morris Hunt. It was designed as Louis XIII style hunting lodge to be a summer cottage during the Gilded Age. The mansion contains historical furnishings and memorabilia.

The Castle offers guided group tours for students that include showcase the Tinney family's (the current owners) antiques and the variety of architectural styles of the home. The tour covers the history of the Gilded Age and the home's illustrious residents O.H.P. Belmont, a representative of the Rothschild Banking empire and Congressman, and his wife Alva Vanderbilt, the former wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt.

Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society and Museum [NY]

Description

The Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Western New York. The society's headquarters is the only permanent structure created for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Society holdings include more than 100,000 artifacts. Highlights include the largest collection of Pan-American Exposition artifacts, the Pierce Motorette, pacemaker prototypes, and the Red Jacket Peace Medal. Other artifacts can be classified as relevant to the Iroquois, War of 1812, Erie Canal, U.S. Presidents, industrialization, glass, ceramics, paintings, textiles, aviation, or immigration.

The society offers exhibits, 30-minute exhibit tours for students, outreach presentations, and research library access. Four weeks advance notice is required for student tours. A fee is charged for use of the library by non-members. The website offers virtual exhibits, slide presentations and videos for rental, resource kits for rental, and a Buffalo timeline.

Pendarvis [WI]

Description

In the 1830s and 1840s, settlers from other parts of the United States and
Europe began to flow into the Wisconsin Territory. They were lured by the prospect of plentiful lead to be had in shallow diggings throughout the region. As the easy lead became scarce, and greater technical knowledge was needed to work the earth for its deeper lead and zinc deposits, immigrants from Cornwall,
England filled the need. These miners and their families made a lasting imprint on southwest Wisconsin.
At Pendarvis, you can see their stone cottages, learn about their lives, and come to understand how their legacy was preserved in the twentieth century.
Pendarvis offers guided tours for groups by reservation from May through October. Please allow at least 3 weeks lead time. For further information, contact by telephone or e-mail.

Pendarvis offers an elementary level educational activity packet available for free download from the web site.

National Ranching Heritage Center [TX]

Description

The 30-acre National Ranching Heritage Center presents the history of ranching and ranchers in the United States through a succession of changing exhibits. Topics addressed include daily life, vocational and craft skills, equipment, and the West. The outdoor museum contains more than 30 historic structures, including residences, a schoolhouse, ranch buildings, a bunkhouse, a blacksmith shop, a granary, a stable, a carriage house, a sheep hospital, barns, and a railway depot. Several of these structures survived Native American raids. The center also possesses a collection of fine art works depicting Western themes.

The center offers exhibits, summer youth classes, and self-guided tours. Reservations can be made by school groups for picnic areas. The website offers pre-visit suggestions, a virtual tour, curricula, video and audio podcasts, and children's materials for use on site.

Ships of the Sea Museum [GA]

Description

The Ships of the Sea Museum presents the history of 18th- and 19th-century Atlantic maritime trade and travel between England and America. The museum is located within the 1819 Greek Revival Scarbrough House, historic home of the president of the Savannah Steamship Company. Exhibits topics include vessel models, maritime art, steamships, scrimshaw, the Civil War, and shipbuilding. The garden design is based on 19th-century parlor gardens. The gardens include Savannah's historic official federal weather station.

The museum offers exhibits, gardens, educational programs for students, and Scout activities.

Casey Farm

Description

This mid-18th-century homestead overlooking Narragansett Bay was the center of a plantation that produced food for local and foreign markets. Located near Newport, Casey Farm had access to material goods imported from England, enabling its early owners to live in a fashionable manner. Today, resident farm managers raise organically grown vegetables, herbs, and flowers for subscribing households in a Community Supported Agriculture program. The guided tour includes the farmyard and cemetery, where six generations of Caseys are buried.

The farm offers tours and educational and recreational programs.