James J. Hill House [MN]

Description

The 1891 Gilded Age James J. Hill House served as the residence of James J. Hill (1838-1916), chief executive officer of several Great Northern Railway lines; his family; and their servants. The interpretive focuses include family life and the life of the home's domestic servants. Other topics covered include Hill's career; architecture; interior design; and period heating, power, communication, and lighting systems. Hill's original gallery now displays art exhibits.

The house offers residence tours, exhibits, 75-minute tours of the residence for students, video or slide show introductory programs for students, late 19th-century skill workshops for children, 90-minute walking tours and 45-minute bus tours of the Summit Avenue neighborhood, lectures, concerts, and dramatic performances. Reservations are required for field trips. The website offers a word search.

Historic Rugby [TN]

Description

In 1880, the town of Rugby was established by British author and social reformer Thomas Hughes as a Utopian colony for Christians who wanted to build a cooperative agricultural community free of class tensions and distinctions. Though the colony caused a lot of controversy and only lasted two decades, the descendents of some of the colonist has preserved this interesting compound in rural Tennessee.

Guided tours of the historic town are available, though there is no specific tour for school groups. Workshops and events are offered but can be quite expensive. Lodging and dinging options are also offered on site.

McFaddin-Ward House [TX]

Description

The 1906 Beaux Arts Colonial McFaddin-Ward House presents the history of its residents and that of the Beaumont, TX area between 1906 and 1950. The McFaddins were involved in real estate, trapping, rice farming, rice milling, cattle, and oil. The grounds contain historic gardens. The carriage house contains period rooms and exhibits addressing the McFaddin's business interests and automobiles.

The house offers a 10-minute introductory film, period rooms, exhibits, guided tours, gardens, self-guided carriage house tours, and seventh grade tours. Guided tours consist of no more than eight visitors, and children under eight are not permitted. Spike heels cannot be worn in the residence. The home is not wheelchair accessible. The website offers pre-tour information and post-visit suggestions for educators.

Almanzo Wilder Home

Description

The Almanzo Wilder Home is the birthplace and childhood farm home of Almanzo Wilder, husband of the famous children’s' author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her book Farmer Boy is set at this site. The site is set during the years the Wilder family would have lived there, from 1857-1875.

The farm offers tours and the Wilder Farm School Tour Program, in which students tour the house, barn, and grounds. The tour assumes the students have read Farmer Boy and is geared towards an older elementary school level.

Gunston Hall Plantation [VA]

Description

Visit the home of George Mason, the author of the Virginia Bill of Rights (the basis of the Constitution's Bill of Rights). Completed in 1759, Gunston Hall is a fine example of Virginia's colonial architecture in the Georgian style. The mansion's grounds and gardens were surveyed and designed by Mason himself and are available for visiting today.

The site welcomes field trips and offers school tours based on Virginia SOLs and on-site programs for all grades. Outreach programs are also available if a visit is impossible. Teacher resources and curriculum guides are available for purchase in the museum shop. Teacher workshops and lectures are also featured as well as an on-site research library.

Martha's Vineyard Museum [MA]

Description

The Martha's Vineyard Museum houses centuries of the island's history dating back to the pre-Columbian period. Its collections relate to all aspects of life on Martha's Vineyard, and include agricultural, hunting and fishing tools, costumes, decoys, artwork, armaments, fossils, maritime and whaling related tools and more. The museum is steward of the Gay Head, East Chop and Edgartown lighthouses.

The site offers education programs designed with Massachusetts state education standards in mind for grades K-12. Lighthouse tours are also offered. It has an interactive website on 19th Century Whaling and a young girl's experience on a whaling voyage, http://www.girlonawhaleship.org

Elgin Area Historical Society [IL]

Description

The Elgin Area Historical Society supports its own museum dedicated to local history. Exhibit topics include Early Elgin, Elgin Road Races, Elgin Architecture, the Hiawatha Pageant, and the Elgin Watch Factory and Industry. The Museum is housed in a historical 1856 building known as the Old Main.

School groups of all ages can take an educational tour of the museum while completing a scavenger hunt. Groups can also upgrade to the Grand Tour which includes hand-on educational activities for each of the museum's five exhibits. The museum also offers programs with specific topics including cooking, architecture, Native Americans, pocket watches, and pioneers. Travelling trunks can also be reserved.

Aycock Birthplace [NC]

Description

Charles B. Aycock was born into a simple, rural home in 1859. In 1900 he was elected governor of North Carolina and dedicated his life to improving public education in the state. An 1893 one-room schoolhouse, moved to the site of his birthplace, underscores Aycock's commitment to education. This typical 19th-century family farm includes the main house, separate open-hearth kitchen, corn crib, and smokehouses.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, demonstrations, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Manship House Museum [MS]

Description

The Manship House Museum preserves the Gothic Revival "cottage villa" of Charles Henry Manship (1812-1895), mayor of Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil War and ornamental painter by trade. Restored to period, the residence serves as a site to share the history of the Manship family. The museum offers annual exhibits about weddings and mourning customs circa 1888.

The museum offers exhibits and period rooms.

Robert Frost Farm State Historic Site [NH]

Description

The Robert Frost Farm was home to Robert Frost and his family from 1900–1911. Frost, one of the nation's most acclaimed poets whose writings are said to be the epitome of New England, attributed many of his poems to memories from the Derry years. The simple two-story white clapboard farmhouse is typical of New England in the 1880s.

A second, individual website for the site can be found here.

The site offers exhibits, tours, lectures, and occasional recreational and educational events.