Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Memorial [DC]

Description

As President, Franklin D. Roosevelt led the United States through the trying times of the Great Depression and World War II. The Memorial serves as an enduring tribute to Roosevelt's presidency.

The memorial hosts special events throughout the year. The website offers historical information about Roosevelt and his presidency, a calendar of events, and general visitor information.

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site [AZ]

Description

The Hubbell Trading Post was started in 1878 by John Lorenzo Hubball in order to serve the new Navajo Nation. The post is the oldest continuously operating trading post in Navajo Nation, and is operated today by the National Park Service. Since the trading post is still operating, visitors "will experience history first hand at Hubbell Trading Post NHS."

The site offer house tours, demonstrations, and Junior Ranger activities. The website offers brief historical and visitor information regarding the site. In order to contact the historic site via email, use the "contact us" located on the left side of the webpage.

Inupiat Heritage Center [AK]

Description

The Inupiat Heritage Center presents the history and culture of the Inupiat people. Originally the only hunters of the bowhead whale, or Agviq, in the region, during the 19th century they came into contact with New England whalers. After this point, many Inupiat crewed on New Bedford vessels and/or traded with the commercial whalers.

The center offers exhibits, a traditional room, activities, tours, storytelling, lectures, dance performances, and Junior Ranger activities. The website offers a booklet of activities to be completed during school visits.

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site [WA]

Description

The Fort Vancouver National Historic Site commemorates the history of For Vancouver, the main supply depot of the British Hudson Bay Company's "Columbia Department" between 1824 and 1860. As such, the fort was central to a 700,000 mile fur trading network, which reached from Alaska to California and from the Rocky Mountains to Hawaii. The fort has also been used as the early end of the Oregon Trail and a U.S. Army Post. The community living in Fort Vancouver consisted of 35 distinct ethnicities. The site also operates the home of John McLoughlin, Chief Factor of Fort Vancouver between 1825–1845.

The site offers introductory talks at Fort Vancouver; audio tours, including a tour designed for children; self-guided tours; guided house tours; period rooms; an overnight living history program; hands-on exhibits; a children's hands-on archaeological program; Victorian handcraft, artillery, blacksmithing, carpentry, cooking, baking, and gardening demonstrations; Junior Ranger activities; and lantern tours. Reservations are required at both sites for school groups.

Cane River Creole National Historical Park [LA]

Description

The Cane River Creole National Park contains Oakland and Magnolia Plantations. Oakland Plantation, dating to circa 1821, was the home of Jean Pierre Emmanuel Prud'homme. The structure is French Colonial in style with bousillage construction. Magnolia Plantation was built in the 1830s for Ambrose LeComte. Styles include Greek Revival and Italianate. Collection highlights include the last U.S. cotton gin with a wooden screw press located on its original site.

Both plantations offer ranger-led tours, self-guided tours, painting workshops, musicians, storytellers, craftsmen, Junior Ranger activities, and picnic sites. The website offers videos and historic photographs.

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park [CA]

Description

The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park presents the maritime history of the Pacific Coast. The visitor's center, within a 1908 cannery warehouse, discusses the ethnic diversity of the San Francisco area and displays a First Order Fresnel lighthouse lens. A variety of historic vessels and access to working boat builders are also available on site. Historic vessels include the 1886 square-rigger Balclutha, 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka, 1895 schooner C. A. Thayer, 1891 scow schooner Alma, 1907 steam tug Hercules, 1914 paddlewheel tug Eppleton Hall, and circa 1890 Bay Ark, as well as 6 small craft including a replica Chinese shrimp junk.

The park offers interactive exhibits, information panels, films, ranger-led interpretive programs, tours, sail raising demonstrations, Junior Ranger activities, and a research library. Tours are available on the pier, the Balclutha, the Eureka, and the Hercules. The library is open by appointment only. The website offers videos and a virtual tour, pre- and post-visit activities, curriculum materials, and other activities.

Rock Creek Park [DC]

Description

The Park includes the Peirce Barn and Mill and Old Stone House. Peirce Barn and Mill were built in the 1820s, and operated commercially until 1897. The U.S. Government acquired the mill as part of Rock Creek Park in 1892. The Old Stone House, one of the oldest known structures remaining in the nation's capital, is a simple 18th-century dwelling built and inhabited by common people.

NOTE: The Peirce Mill is currently closed for restoration.

The site offers tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events; the Old Stone House offers tours; the Peirce Barn offers tours.

Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site [AL] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:37
Description

The Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site is located on Tuskegee University. Sights include the George W. Carver (circa 1864-1943) Museum and The Oaks, Booker T. Washington's (1856-1915) home. Other figures honored include Dr. Frederick W. Patterson (1901-1988), founder of the United Negro College Fund, and Dr. Robert Moton, who stressed the need for health care for African American veterans. Carver is known for his support of the peanut as an alternative to the southern cotton crop, which had been ravaged by the boll weevil. Washington founded the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers, later the Tuskegee Institute, to provide education to African American students. Due to the strength of the aeronautical engineering program at the institute, the site was selected by the military to train African American pilots for World War II.

The site offers exhibits, interpretive programs, 30-minute introductory films on George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington, guided tours of The Oaks, period rooms, tours of the historic Tuskegee University, and 2-hour curriculum-based programs. Reservations are required for curriculum-based programs. The Oaks is not fully wheelchair accessible. Films can be played with captions.

Innovative Alliances in the Retail Grocery Trade

Description

According to the Library of Congress Webcasts site:

"Beginning in the 1890s through the 1930s, independent grocers (white and black) formed a variety of innovative alliances—cartels, buying syndicates, and cooperatives—to navigate major changes within the trade. Through organizations like the Boston Wholesale Grocers' Association, Independent Grocers' Alliance, Red & White Stores, and Colored Merchants' Association, small businessmen formulated alternative ways of dealing and distributing goods, challenged chain stores, and created new entrepreneurial opportunities for black proprietors. Cooperative enterprise had limitations, however; while some groups advanced, others struggled to maintain a united front. This talk explores both successes and failures while questioning the role of collaboration in small business."

Daughters of the Union: Northern Women Fight the Civil War Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/04/2008 - 14:03
Description

Professor Nina Silber traces the emergence of a new sense of self and citizenship among the women left behind by Union soldiers during the Civil War. Silber argues that women found themselves at a disadvantage, with their husbands away, in a male-dominated society; but also found new, active roles for themselves in politics and support.