Gamble Plantation Historic State Park [FL]

Description

This antebellum mansion was home to Major Robert Gamble and headquarters of an extensive sugar plantation. It is the only surviving plantation house in South Florida. It is believed that Confederate Secretary of State, Judah P. Benjamin, took refuge here after the fall of the Confederacy, until his safe passage to England could be secured. Today, the mansion is furnished in the style of a successful mid-19th-century plantation.

The park offers tours.

Brick Store Museum [ME]

Description

The Brick Store Museum presents the history of Kennebunk, Maine. The museum collection consists of more than 70,000 artifacts. Collection highlights include Maine's largest collection of World War I and II posters; maritime artifacts; possessions of historical novelist Kenneth Roberts (1885-1957) and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and dramatist Booth Tarkington (1869-1946); and artworks by Impressionist painter Abbott Fuller Graves (1859-1936) among others.

The museum offers museum tours, walking tours of the historic district, exhibits, and archival and non-circulating library access. Reservations are required for group tours. Please call ahead for library or archival visits. The website offers virtual exhibits.

Pennsylvania Military Museum

Description

The Pennsylvania Military Museum tells the story of Pennsylvanians who have served the United States through military enrollment, regardless of branch. The grounds served as the National Guard's first mounted machine gun troop's training grounds in 1916.

The museum offers exhibits; a film; guided tours of the museum and the National Guard's 28th Infantry Division Shrine; a themed, guided tour focusing on armored vehicles; self-guided tours; an information hunt or RECON mission; outreach PowerPoint presentations on changing battlefield technologies, field medicine, and being a historical interpreter; and a picnic area. The website offers teaching modules on the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.

Thomas Paine National Historical Association [NY]

Description

The Thomas Paine National Historical Association seeks to share the story of Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and gain widespread acknowledgment of Thomas Paine as the primary founder of the United States. The association operates a museum, the Thomas Paine Cottage, and a monument. The cottage once served as Paine's home. Thomas Paine was a pamphleteer and revolutionary, who promoted the concept of human rights and supported both the French and American revolutions. Although he supported the French Revolution, he did not support the execution of Louis XVI—instead proposing that he be exiled to America, since he had financially aided the United States in the Revolutionary War.

The cottage offers exhibits. The association offers educational programs, public speakers, and presentations.

The museum is currently closed for re-cataloging and preservation.

Paul Revere House [MA]

Description

The Paul Revere House is located in north Boston and is notable for being the house that Paul Revere left for his famous night ride. The house still stands and is now a national historic landmark.

The house offers guided tours, a variety of field trip programs catered to different grades, two annual exhibits, and special events. The website offers information regarding upcoming events, visitor information, and information for teachers about field trip programs. In order to contact the house via email, use the "contact us" located at the upper right corner of the webpage.

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park [CA]

Description

This remote military post was established in 1853 to assist in conflict resolution between Native Americans and gold-seekers and settlers who had begun flooding into the area after the discovery of gold in the northern mines. Fort Humboldt was formally abandoned in 1870 and rapidly fell into decay. Today, only the hospital building remains out of the original fourteen structures. It is now a historical museum dedicated to telling the story of the Fort and the Native American groups, including the Wiyot, Hoopa and Yurok of this region. In the 1980s the Surgeon's Quarters was reconstructed and there are plans for its establishment as a period house museum. In 2001 an historic herb and vegetable garden was recreated adjacent to the Hospital. The park also includes a Logging Museum and open air displays of historic 19th- through mid-20th-century logging equipment including the Dolbeer Steam Donkey, "Lucy"; the Bear Harbor Lumber Company's Gypsy Locomotive #1; and the Elk River Mill and Lumber Company's #1 "Falk" locomotive.

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

Cannonball House [GA]

Description

The Cannonball House, named for damage sustained in the Civil War, is a Greek Revival Structure dating to approximately 1853. The house contains period furnishings, contents of the founder's parlors of the ΑΔΙΙ and ΦΜ societies, and a collection of Civil War era artifacts. A two-story kitchen house in the back, once the quarters of the family servants, is one of few such surviving structures. Collection highlights include Civil War uniforms, early 1800s face shields, and a circa 1850 Bohemian crystal punch bowl.

The house offers period rooms; exhibits; tours, which can be customized to educational needs and focal topics; educational programming designed to meet state educational criteria; demonstrations at special events; and a December children's Victorian tea party.

Historic Fort Steuben [OH]

Description

The Historic Fort Stueben is a reproduction fort built upon the site of the original. Dating to 1786, the original fort was built by the First American Regiment for the purpose of protecting surveyors from local Native American groups. Their safety thus bolstered, the surveyors were able to map the Northwest Territory (1789-1803), as requested by the Continental Congress. The site includes the First Federal Land Office (an original structure), officers' quarters, enlisted quarters, a quartermaster's office, artificer shop, hospital, and commissary. Topics covered include early Ohio history and the voyage of Lewis and Clarke (1803-1806).

The fort offers tours and demonstrations of surveying, blacksmithing, and flintknapping.

Fort Ligonier [PA]

Description

Fort Ligonier is an on-site reconstruction of an early U.S. fort, which stood between 1758 and 1766. The fort withstood the years of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and Pontiac's War (instigated 1763). In addition to the fort itself and numerous outlying structures, the site displays reconstructions of mid-1700s "Conestoga" wagons. No Conestoga wagons survive to this day. The replica wagons are based on historical accounts and archaeological evidence. A museum serves as the entry point to the fort. Collection highlights include pistols given to George Washington by the Marquis de Lafayette, 13 original French and Indian War era paintings, and a period room with 18th and early 19th-century furnishings.

The fort offers exhibits, an 8-minute introductory video, a gallery, a period room, living history activities, reenactments, guided tours, and a picnic area. Reservations are required for tours.