The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum presents the works and lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) and his wife, Zelda (1900-1948). The museum is located in the couple's last remaining residence, which they inhabited between 1931 and 1932. Fitzgerald is best known for his novel The Great Gatsby. The couple was considered by the press of their day to be a perfect embodiment of the Jazz Age.
The museum offers exhibits.
The Bronx County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of the Bronx, New York City. To this end, the society operates a research library, the county archives, the Poe Cottage, and a local history museum within the 1758 Valentine-Varian House. The 1812 Poe Cottage was Edgar Allan Poe's final home. He lived on site between 1846 and 1849. "Annabel Lee" was written during this time. Poe (1809-1849) is credited with creating the detective fiction genre, as well as being an early writer of American short stories. He is classified as a Romantic author; and his poetry, short stories, and novels lean toward the macabre. Famous works include "The Raven," "The Black Cat," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "Annabel Lee."
The society offers student tours and interactive activities in both historic homes, presentations for students, outreach programs for students, and neighborhood walking tours for students. The Poe Cottage offers period rooms, an introductory video, and guided tours. The Museum of Bronx History offers rotating exhibits. Both the archives and research library are open to the public by appointment. Payment of a fee is required for research assistance.
The Poe Cottage is undergoing renovations. Please check the website to verify that it will be open at the time which you wish to visit.
The Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine preserves Fort McHenry, defensive site of the 1814 Battle of Baltimore. It was this battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem "The Star-Spangled Banner," now the U.S. national anthem.
The site offers an introductory video, self-guided tours, exhibits, period rooms, a flag change program, educational programs for students, and Junior Ranger activities. During the summer, the site also offers talks; weekend living history interpreters; musket, drill, and artillery demonstrations. Three weeks advance notice is required for school visits. The website offers lesson plans and a teacher's guide.
The Minisink Valley Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of the Minisink Valley which stretches across New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. To this end, the society operates the Fort Decker Museum of History. The structure was originally built in 1760 as a defensive center against Native American attack and as a trading post.
The society offers archival access, exhibits, and 50-minute outreach slide presentations. Appointments are required for archival access. Slide presentation topics include author Stephen Crane, the Delaware and Hudson Canal, artist John Newton Howitt, cemetery history, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the bluestone industry. The website offers a small collection of music and historical photographs.
Built circa 1748, the Noah Webster House is the restored birthplace and childhood home of the lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843). Today, the museum building includes the historical house, library, archives, and a modern exhibition gallery.
The house and society offer exhibits, tours, reference library access, educational programs, and recreational and educational events.
The Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home preserves the residence in which famed author Flannery O'Conner (1925-1965) lived between 1925 and 1938. The interior has been restored to appear much like it did during that period of time. While O'Conner lived on site, the residence consisted of the first floor only. O'Conner's short stories and novels were often Southern Gothic in style, and favored grotesque characters.
The home offers period rooms.
The Carl Sandburg State Historic Site is the birthplace of Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), a Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet and Lincoln biographer, a children's author, and folk song collector. The small frame home, architecturally significant as a "workingman’s cottage," contains three rooms—parlor, bedroom, and kitchen. Carl Sandburg was born here January 6, 1878. Several original family items are on display, along with other simple, utilitarian furnishings typical of the era. Also on the site is a two-story Greek Revival frame house built in 1858. The house currently serves as the site visitor center. On the main floor are a small video theater, the site office, and small exhibit gallery.
The site offers exhibits, tours, a short film, and educational and recreational events.
The Beverly Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the socio-cultural, artistic, and transportation history of Beverly, Massachusetts and Massachusetts' North Shore. To this end, the society operates a museum of local history, the 17th-century Balch House, the Reverend John Hale Farm, and the Charles W. Galloupe Sr. Memorial Library. Collections consist of more than 750,000 artifacts. Highlights include a fire bucket, military artifacts, local maritime artifacts, paintings from the 18th through early 20th centuries, documents signed by U.S. Presidents, children's artifacts, and genealogical resources. The society also boasts an extensive collection of photographs and pamphlets of all manner of transportation technologies. The 1781 John Cabot House Museum holds both the library and exhibits. Permanent exhibits address the Revolutionary War and the Beverly Bank, established 1802. The Balch House is furnished to period. The Hale Farm is furnished to depict changing trends in Beverly's history.
The society offers exhibits, tours of the Cabot House, Balch House tours, Hale Farm tours, research library access, research assistance, curriculum-based programs, a one-hour Balch House tour for students, a two-hour historic Beverly bus tour for students, an outreach living history program for students, and teacher workshops. Fees are required for both non-member library access and research assistance. Non-member library access is limited. The living history program depicts author and poet Lucy Larcom (1824-1893).
The Hemingway Home and Museum commemorates the life of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author and journalist Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). The 1851 Spanish Colonial home served as Hemingway's personal residence for more than ten years. A Farewell to Arms was completed in Key West for publication in 1929. Many of the home furnishings and hunting trophies on display belonged to Hemingway, and the more than 60 cats are descended from his own pets. Hemingway's work is characterized by simple sentences, understatement, and stoic characters. Examples of his writings include The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls.
The site offers period rooms, guided tours, and an abundance of cats.
Historic Dumphries Virginia seeks to preserve and share the history of Dumfries, Virginia. To this end, the organization operates the Weems-Botts Museum. This museum preserves the at least 250-year-old home of Parson Weems, the author who popularized a number of legends about George Washington, including the cherry tree tale. The home later served as the residence of Benjamin Botts, who successfully defended Aaron Burr during his treason trial.
The museum offers period rooms and research opportunities. A fee is required in order to pursue research.