Cottonwood Ranch State Historic Site

Description

John Fenton Pratt had no idea when he started building his ranch that it would someday tell the story of his family and his native Yorkshire, England. Visitors can tour the grounds and house of this relatively unchanged rural ranch set in the South Solomon River Valley of the High Plains. Through Pratt’s photo collection, stained glass windows, and examples of Yorkshire architecture, visitors will learn about businessman and sheep rancher Pratt, other early Kansas ranchers, and their stories.

The site offers exhibits, tours, and educational and recreational programs.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park presents the opportunity to experience the history of early San Diego by providing a connection to the past. Visitors can learn about life in the Mexican and early American periods of 1821 to 1872, as converging cultures transformed San Diego from a Mexican pueblo to an American settlement. The core of restored original historic buildings from the interpretive period are complemented by reconstructed sites, along with early 20th-century buildings designed in the same mode. The Historic Plaza remains a gathering place for community events and historic activity. Five original adobe buildings are part of the historic park, which includes museums, unique retail shops, and several restaurants. La Casa de Estudillo is a mansion built around a garden courtyard. La Casa de Machado y Stewart is full of artifacts that reflect ordinary life of the period. Some of the other historic buildings include the Mason Street School (California's first public schoolhouse), La Casa de Machado y Silvas, the San Diego Union Printing Office (site of the city's oldest surviving newspaper office), and the first brick courthouse. The Seeley Stables Museum, with newly rehabilitated exhibits on overland transportation, houses one of the finest wagon and carriage collections. Visitors can experience a working blacksmith shop, enjoy music, see or touch the park's burros, and engage in activities that represent early San Diego.

The park offers exhibits, tours, living history events and programs, and other recreational and educational events.

Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park

Description

Dallas Heritage Village is a living history museum portraying life in North Texas from 1840–1910. The museum is composed of 38 historic structures and boasts a working Civil War era farm, a traditional Jewish household, elegant Victorian homes, a school, a church, and commercial buildings.

The village offers tours, exhibits, living history demonstrations and reenactments, workshops, and other educational and recreational events.

El Camino Real International Heritage Center [NM]

Description

The newest State Monument tells the fascinating story of more than three centuries of trade and commerce that traversed the trail, linking Spain, Mexico, and the United States at a time when mules, trains, and horses were the only means of land travel. The award-winning building is set amidst the pristine Chihuahuan Desert north of the Jornada del Muerto and houses an exhibit that takes visitors on a virtual journey along the historic trail from Zacatecas, Mexico to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visitors can discover the indigenous people encountered by the Spanish and the impact the arrival of the Spanish had on the formation of New Mexico. Remnants of the early journey remain today in hand-hewn carts, tools, leather water jugs, and religious altars and objects that accompanied the travelers into the northern territory. Visitors experience the journeys of Native Americans, Spaniards, and Mexicans; the military fort period; and the first Anglo settlers from the Eastern United States, through first-person stories and the art and objects they brought with them.

A second website, maintained by the El Camino Real International Heritage Center Foundation, can be found here.

The center offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, workshops, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park [CA]

Description

In August 1908, Colonel Allen Allensworth and four other settlers established a town founded, financed, and governed by African Americans. Their dream of developing an abundant and thriving community stemmed directly from a strong belief in programs that allowed blacks to help themselves create better lives. By 1910, Allensworth’s success was the focus of many national newspaper articles praising the town and its inhabitants. Today a collection of restored and reconstructed early 20th-century buildings—including the Colonel's house, historic schoolhouse, Baptist church, and library—once again dots this flat farm country.

The park offers a short film, exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

American Irish Historical Society [NY]

Description

The Society, founded in 1897 to inform the world of the achievements of the Irish in America, is today a national center of scholarship and culture. From its home on New York's Fifth Avenue, the Society serves as a focal point of the contemporary transatlantic Irish experience, a place where current public issues are explored, and where the great renaissance in Irish culture is celebrated in lectures, concerts, art exhibits, and a literary journal.

Does not appear to be affiliated with any specific historical sites.

The Capitol Complex Extension Branch of the Southeastern Regional Black Archives at Union Bank[FL]

Description

Completed in 1841 when Florida was still a territory, the Union Bank is the state's oldest surviving bank building. Chartered to help finance local cotton plantations, it ultimately closed because of crop failures, the Second Seminole War, and poor management. After the Civil War, it reopened as the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company for emancipated slaves and later served several other functions. In 1971, the Bank was moved from its original site, and, after restoration, it was opened as a museum in 1984. The Union Bank now serves as an extension of the Florida A&M University Black Archives, Research Center, and Museum and is open to the public and school groups only on weekdays. Artifacts and documents reflecting black history and culture are on display, and public programs are provided by Black Archives staff.

The bank offers exhibits.

B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretative Center [MS]

Description

The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center will take visitors back to the place where B.B. King grew up and lived the blues long before he learned to make the music that would change his life. Proposed educational, cultural, and character development programming will take the form of classes, mentoring, and interactive exhibits. In addition, the stories of the Delta, from its history to its music, social mores, race relations, literature and legends, and adversities and successes will be examined in one interpretive setting.

Please note: The museum will open Sept. 13, 2008.

The museum will offer exhibits, tours, and educational and recreational events and programs.

Chattanooga African American Museum [TN]

Description

The Museum operates as a source of curricula, historical references, creative works, and media about the African-American experience. The Museum maintains a collection of multimedia presentations, rare artifacts, African art, original sculptures, paintings, musical recordings, and local Black newspapers. Visitors can explore the history of Africans in Chattanooga, a region where most Africans were bought to be personal servants or laborers, rather than field hands.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum [WA]

Description

The Center presents interpretative exhibits covering the entire history of the Columbia Gorge, from prehistory to the present day, including First Peoples, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, forts and settlements in the area, timber and fishing industries, transportation up and down the river, and other historical topics.

The center offers a short film, exhibits, and educational programs.