Sully Historic Site [VA]

Description

Sully Historic Site was the home of Richard Bland Lee, Northern Virginia's first Congressman and uncle of Gen. Robert E. Lee. His home reflects the history of Fairfax County, emphasizing the Early Republican period.

The site offers school tours and hands-on educational programs designed with Virginia SOLs in mind. Outreach programs and teacher activities and resources are also available.

Harriet Beecher Stowe House [OH]

Description

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is operated as an historical and cultural site, focusing on Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The site also includes a look into the family, friends, and colleagues of the Beecher-Stowe family; Lane Seminary; and the abolitionist, women's rights, and Underground Railroad movements in which these historical figures participated in the 1830s to 1860s, as well as African-American history related to these movements. The house was home to Harriet Beecher Stowe prior to her marriage and to her father, Rev. Lyman Beecher, and his large family, a prolific group of religious leaders, educators, writers, and antislavery and women's rights advocates. The Beecher family includes Harriet's sister, Catherine Beecher, an early female educator and writer who helped found numerous high schools and colleges for women; brother Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, a leader of the women's suffrage movement and considered by some to be the most eloquent minister of his time; General James Beecher, a Civil War general who commanded the first African-American troops in the Union Army recruited from the South; and sister Isabella Beecher Hooker, a women's rights advocate. The Beechers lived in Cincinnati for nearly 20 years, from 1832 to the early 1850s, before returning East.

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

Grant Boyhood Home and Grant Schoolhouse [OH]

Description

The Grant Boyhood Home was the home of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States, from 1823, when Grant was one year old, until 1839, when he left to attend West Point. Ulysses Grant lived in this home longer than any other during his lifetime. Jesse and Hanna Grant, the parents of young Hiram Ulysses Grant, built the original two-story brick section of the Grant Boyhood home in 1823, when they moved to Georgetown from Point Pleasant in Clermont County, where Ulysses had been born the year before. Grant attended the Schoolhouse from the ages of about six to 13. The building, built in 1829, consisted of only one room at that time.

The site offers tours.

Boone Station State Historic Site

Description

"Daniel Boone (1734-1820), known for his role in the exploring and settling of the Kentucky frontier decided that the settlement of Boonesborough had become far too crowded. In December 1779, Boone and his family established Boone’s Station. At its height, the community had 15 to 20 families, including the Boone, Barrow, Hays, Morgan, Muir, Scholl and, Stinson families.

Daniel Boone and his family endured many hardships while living at Boone's Station. Both his son Israel, and nephew Thomas Boone were killed at the Battle of Blue Licks in 1781. By 1781, Boone’s claim to Boone Station proved to be invalid. He and other members of the settlement continued to live there for a brief period. However, by 1791 Boone Station had ceased to exist. In 1795, Robert Frank purchased 500 acres that included the Station site.

Eventually Boone and his family moved to Missouri where the famous pioneer died in 1820. In 1845, the Governor, and General Assembly of Kentucky requested that the remains of Daniel Boone and his wife Rebecca Bryan Boone be reburied in Kentucky. They are buried in the State Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky."

Waveland State Historic Site [KY]

Description

The Waveland State Historic Site preserves a home from one of Kentucky's earliest settlements, the 1779 Bryan's Station. The Bryan family accompanied famed trailblazer Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap; and the 1847 Greek Revival home on site was built by a Bryan who was also Boone's grandnephew. The site contains the residence, fields of grain and hemp, racing thoroughbreds, slave quarters, a smokehouse, an icehouse, and flower and herb gardens. The site's interpretation focuses on 19th-century plantation life and the Bryan family.

The site offers period rooms, guided home and outbuilding tours, group tours, student tours, student educational programs, gardens, a nature trail, a playground, and picnic tables. Reservations are required for group tours. Between January and March, the site is open by appointment only. Educational programs focus on Kentucky plantation life between 1840 and 1860.

No Vacancies

Description

From the BackStory website:

"Historian Susan Rugh describes the discrimination black families faced on America's highways in the 1940s and 50s. Many of those travelers recounted their experiences in letters to the NAACP—letters that eventually helped convince U.S. Senators to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

The Malcolm X Project

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Photo, Introductory graphic, The Malcolm X Project
Annotation

This site is dedicated to the study of the life and legacy of Malcolm X. Only one of three "initiatives" is publicly available (Columbia faculty, staff, and students may also access the site's "multi-media study environment" section). "Oral histories," "outreach," and "Malcolm X biography project" are under construction. A chronology traces Malcolm's life from his birth in May 1925 to his assassination in February 1965, with short entries on major events. "Government Documents" offers FBI files on Malcolm X—4,000 pages of surveillance reports—covering the period 1954 to 1964. A brief summary accompanies each report and the files can be searched by keyword. The site's project journal, focusing on particular themes and issues, has seven articles on Malcolm X and eight weblog postings. Additionally, the site offers an e-seminar "Life after Death: Malcolm X and American Culture" by Columbia professor Dr. Manning Marble for a fee (available free to Columbia faculty, staff, and students). When this site is completed, it will be a good starting point for researching the ideas and life of Malcolm X.

Slavery and the Making of America

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Image, Graphic from Religion, Slavery and the Making of America
Annotation

This extensive companion to the PBS documentary of the same name provides interpretive and primary material on the history of African-Americans during slavery and Reconstruction, including essays, personal narratives, original documents, historical readings, and lesson plans. The "Time and Place" chronology of slavery and Reconstruction places the main events of U.S. history relating to African Americans between 1619 and 1881 in their historical context. "Slave Memories" allows visitors to hear the voices of African Americans recorded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on their experiences in slavery and Reconstruction. "Resources" includes 17 print resources, 23 books for children, and 30 websites related to slavery. "Slave Experience" allows users to explore slave life through the themes of legal rights and government; family; men, women, and gender; living conditions; education, arts, and culture; religion; responses to enslavement; and freedom and emancipation. Each features essays, historical overviews, original documents, and personal narratives.

A K-12 learning section features historical readings of narratives, slave stories and letters, student plays, links to 19 sites with primary sources, and six lesson plans for middle and high school. This website is a valuable resource for teachers as well as an excellent introduction and overview for those with an interest in the history of slavery and slave life in America.