Wilton House Museum [VA]

Description

The Wilton House is a circa 1753 Georgian style home, once the center of the Randolph family's tobacco plantation. Site guests included Washington, Jefferson, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Collections date from the 18th- and 19th-century, and assist in the interpretation of the mid-18th-century plantation owner lifestyle and the story of the Wilton House and its residents. The site is furnished to the specifications of an 1815 survey.

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, curriculum-based tours for students, hands-on activities for students, an outreach program for students, an after school program, a day trip to local sites for students, group tours, Scout tours, and summer camps. Two weeks advance notice is required for school tours. Please mention at the time of reservation if disability accommodations are needed.

San Antonio Conservation Society [TX]

Description

The San Antonio Conservation Society is primarily a local preservation advocacy organization. However, the society also operates two historic house museums, namely the Steves Homestead and Yturri-Edmonds House. The 1876 Steves Homestead consists of the main residence and servant's quarters. The circa 1840-1860 Yturri-Edmonds House is a rare adobe block home. The grounds contain a reconstructed 1820 grist mill.

The society offers tours, period rooms, self-guided walking tours, an annual educator seminar, an annual fourth grade bus tour, research library access, and research services. A fee is charged for more than one hour of research conducted upon request.

Levine Museum of the New South [NC]

Description

The Levine Museum of the New South presents the history and culture of the New South, the Southern United States after 1865. At the beginning of this period, southerners were forced to determine new ways of life, as the institution of slavery, so long a major component of the economy, had been abolished. The museum's permanent exhibit uses the Charlotte area to describe the development of the South after the end of the Civil War. The interactive exhibit includes six experiential environments, as well as oral histories, film, music, and more than 1,000 artifacts.

The museum offers interactive exhibits, self-guided tours, guided exhibit tours, guided walking tours, curriculum-based programs for students, traveling trunks, outreach programs, discussions, and lectures. Reservations are required for all group tours or programs, and must be made at least two weeks in advance.

Steppingstone Museum [MD]

Description

The Steppingstone Museum presents farming life in Harford County, Maryland between 1880 and 1920. Emphasis is placed on arts, crafts, agriculture, animal husbandry, other trades, and domestic life. The stone farmhouse on site is furnished to period. Outbuildings hold woodwright, joiner, copper, blacksmith, weaver, dairy farmer, spinner, potter, and wheelwright tools and veterinarian office, decoy carver workshop, and general store settings.

The museum offers period rooms, exhibits, guided tours, and craft workshops

Beauport House, the Sleeper-McCann House

Description

Beauport, the 1907–1934 summer home of the collector and interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper, is a fantasy house built on the rocks overlooking Gloucester Harbor. Crowned by towers, dormers, and dovecotes, the structure encloses a labyrinth of rooms decorated to evoke different historical and literary themes. Every nook and alcove holds a composition of curiosities, folk art, china, or colored glass. The settings—playful variations on subjects like the early American kitchen, an English cottage, or the sea captain's retreat—are arranged to amuse and to stimulate the imagination.

The site offers tours and educational and recreational programs.

Highlands Historical Society and Historic Village [NC]

Description

The Highlands Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Highlands, North Carolina, founded in 1875. To this end, the society operates the Historic Village, which consists of the 1877 House-Trapier-Wright Home, 1908 Bug Hill Cottage, and the Highlands Historical Museum and Archives. The House-Trapier-Wright Home serves as a living history museum. The Bug Hill Cottage is an open-air cubicle once used to house and treat tuberculosis patients. 60 such cubicles once existed at the sanatorium on site. The historical museums exhibits address women's lives, moonshine, historic structures, genealogy, education, religion, and the area tuberculosis sanatorium, among other topics.

The society offers exhibits, period rooms, and living history interpretation.

Levittown Historical Society and Museum [NY]

Description

The Levittown Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Levittown, NY. To this end, the society operates the Levittown History Museum. Artifacts on exhibit include furnishings and appliances dating to the late 1940s. Levittown was established in 1947 as a low-cost community with mass-produced housing available to veterans. It subsequently served as the model for countless post-World War II suburban neighborhoods.

The museum offers period rooms and guided tours. Guided tours are available by appointment only.

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum [FL]

Description

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum presents the history of Florida. Particular emphasis is given to the area between the Loxahatchee River and the Jupiter Inlet. In the mid 19th-century, the railroad reached no further south than Jacksonville, Florida. As a result, sea travel was the easiest mode of transportation along the southern Florida coastal region. To reduce the significant number of shipwrecks in the area, Congress authorized the creation of the lighthouse in 1853. The lighthouse was first operated in 1860. During the Civil War, Confederate troops shut down the light, and took command of the grounds. The museum is housed within a World War II barrack, which presents exhibits of local historical interest.

The site offers climbing lighthouse tours, exhibits, lectures, and a summer camp. Reservations are required for all visits. Visitors must be at least four feet tall to climb the lighthouse, and no flip-flops or spike heels are permitted.

Key West Heritage House Museum and Robert Frost Cottage [FL]

Description

The Key West Heritage House Museum presents the literary and piracy histories of Key West, as well as life in the area over six generations. The structure itself is an 1830s Caribbean Colonial residence. Collections include period furnishings and maritime artifacts. The grounds include gardens and the Robert Frost cottage, in which audio recordings of the poet's work can be heard.

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, and guided tours.

Kosciusko County Historical Society and Museums [IN]

Description

The Kosciusko County Historical Society offers a glimpse into Indiana's past with several renovated historical buildings to visit. Visitors can tour the 1870 county jail museum, the 1838 Pound Store museum, and visit the 1897 Tippecanoe River Bridge (now closed to traffic).

The society offers exhibits and a library where students and teachers may look up information about Kosciusko County and its residents' genealogical records.