Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace [NC]

Description

This pioneer farmstead features the birthplace of Zebulon Baird Vance, North Carolina's Civil War governor. Before becoming governor, Vance served as a Confederate Army officer and later became a U.S. Senator. Rugged and controversial, Vance had a dynamic political career, which is traced at the homestead. The five-room log house—reconstructed around original chimneys—and its outbuildings are furnished to evoke the period from 1795 to 1840 when three successive generations of the famed mountain family lived here.

The site offers a slide show, tours, exhibits and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history 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.

Sam Houston Schoolhouse [TN]

Description

The Sam Houston Schoolhouse is named for the soldier, statesman, and pioneer from East Tennessee. Built of hewn poplar logs, it is representative of field schools of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Desks are cleverly converted from the window apertures, and a seven-foot ceiling hovers over hewn log seats.

The schoolhouse offers exhibits.

Adams County Historical Society [PA]

Description

The Adams County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Adams County, PA, and its people. To this end, the society operates a museum, located within the dormitory of the first U.S. Lutheran seminary, founded in 1826. The building later served as a Civil War hospital. Exhibit topics include iron works, social classes, pre-history, county development between 1745 and 1945, the Civil War and Battle of Gettysburg, mortuary equipment and mourning practices, religion, education, children's toys, furniture making, seminary history, and circa 1900 dorm life. Other holdings include more than 200,000 photographs and negatives, manuscripts, and county records.

The society offers exhibits, guided museum tours, guided behind-the-scenes tours, research library access, and research services. Appointments are required for all tours to ensure docent availability, with tours only being offered to groups of 10 or more. Students and members may use the research library free of charge. A fee is charged for research conducted upon request.

Massie Heritage Center [GA]

Description

The Massie Heritage Center, part of the Savannah-Chatham County Public School system, presents the history of Savannah, Georgia and the surrounding area. Particular emphasis is given to architectural history. The center is housed in three Greek Revival structures—one of which was Savannah's first public school, opened to the public in 1856. In 1865, the school was designated as being for African American students only. Today, a portion of the second floor recreates a 19th-century classroom.

The center offers self-guided tours, guided tours, exhibits, 17 educational programs, and the option of creating a custom program for students. Teachers who participate in an educational program receive suggested pre- and post- visit activity listings. Reservations are required for groups of more than 10 who would like a guided tour. The website offers children's activities.

John Paul Jones House Museum [NH]

Description

The John Paul Jones House Museum structure was built as a residence in 1758. After the death of her husband, the owner of the home rented it out to gentlemen boarders. Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones (1747-1792) stayed in the home on two separate occasions: while waiting for the Ranger to sail in 1777 and while awaiting the readiness of the U.S.S. America in 1781. The house collection includes period decorative arts, costume and wedding gowns, firearms, toys, and documents.

The museum offers period rooms, exhibits, and tours covering Jones' life.

USS Constellation [MD]

Description

The U.S.S. Constellation serves as a museum of its own history. The vessel is the final sail-powered warship built by the Navy, and the last floating Civil War era vessel. Education program topics include African Americans in the Navy, life at sea as a powder monkey, the Constellation's efforts against the slave trade, and the construction of the sloop-of-war.

The vessel offers gun drills, exhibits, an audio tour, an overnight program, educational programs, and educational outreach presentations. The website offers downloadable curriculum.

Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site [TX]

Description

Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site features the modest two-story frame house in the railroad town of Denison where Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in 1890. Eisenhower's father worked for the railroad and the birthplace contains family possessions and period antiques demonstrating the lifestyle of a late 19th-century working family. The site includes six acres of scenic woods and creek bottomland intersected by an abandoned rail track turned into a hiking path. The visitor center is a historic structure filled with hundreds of items relating to Eisenhower and his role in U.S. and world history.

The site offers exhibits and tours.

Historic Rosedale Plantation [NC]

Description

Rosedale, originally part of a 911 acre plantation, was built in 1815 by Archibald Frew, merchant, postmaster and tax collector. In the 1830s, a doctor occupied the residence. He oversaw both his practice and the plantation work, carried out by two slave families. Rosedale exemplifies Federal period architecture (1780–1830) and is noted for its faux grain woodwork and the original French wallpaper that survives in three rooms. On a broader scope, the plantation is motivated by the preservation, exhibition, interpretation, and preservation of the architecture, decorative arts, and lifestyle of the 19th–century Catawba River Valley region.

The plantation offers guided tours (both in modern and period dress), hands-on activities, role playing, and educational activities (with listed corresponding state
standards) specifically for field trips.