Newport Artillery Museum [RI]

Description

The Artillery Company of Newport operates a military museum in its Armory. The Museum houses one of the country's most extensive collections of military uniforms and memorabilia, including uniforms worn by His Royal Highness Prince Phillip; Lord Louis Mountbatten; Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery of Alamein; President Anwar Sadat of Egypt; Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz; Generals of the Army Dwight Eisenhower and Mark Clark; Generals William Westmoreland, Creighton Abrams, and Alexander Haig; and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as other American commanders. The Museum collection also includes four bronze cannon cast by Paul Revere in 1798 for the State of Rhode Island, three Civil War artillery pieces, a letter written to the men of the Artillery Company in 1794 by George Washington, and a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington, as well as numerous artifacts of particular significance to the history of the State of Rhode Island and the Artillery Company of Newport.

The museum offers exhibits.

Salmon Brook Historical Society and Museums [CT]

Description

The Salmon Brook Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Granby, Connecticut. To this end, the society operates four museum buildings. The circa 1732 Abijah Rowe House has been restored to an early 1800s interior appearance. It also houses a collection of Victorian toys. The circa 1790 Weed-Enders House houses the society research library and a Victorian parlor. The circa 1870 Cooley School House has been furnished and styled to a 19th-century appearance. The circa 1914 Colton-Hayes Tobacco Barn offers a recreated Shaker meeting house; town microcosm; and exhibits on vernacular items, Native American artifacts, and the Civil War.

The society offers exhibits, period rooms, and library access. The museum buildings are open between June and September. Reservations are required for groups.

Walpole Historical Society [MA]

Description

The Walpole Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Walpole, Massachusetts. The society is located within the 1826 Deacon Willard Lewis House. Artifacts on view include historic furnishings; military items; and children's books, toys, and clothing.

The society offers exhibits and archival access.

Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and Museums

Description

The Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism promotes the arts, film, historic preservation, museums, and tourism in Connecticut. The commission operates four museums—the Henry Whitfield State Museum, the Prudence Crandall Museum, the New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine, and the Sloane-Stanley Museum. The Henry Whitfield State Museum, Prudence Crandall Museum, and New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine are listed separately in this database. The Sloan-Stanley Museum presents U.S. craftsmanship heritage and the local iron industry. Displays include hand tools, the studio of artist Eric Sloane (1905-1985), a replica circa 1800 cabin, and the remains of a granite blast furnace located on site.

The Sloane-Stanley Museum offers exhibits.

Gilman Garrison House [New Hampshire]

Description

From the first English settlements of the 1630s to the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the frontier towns of New England lived with the threat of Indian attack. The 1709 Gilman Garrison House, described in 1719 as "the old logg house," was built as a fortified house, strategically sited to protect the valuable sawmills and waterpower sites owned by John Gilman. The interior of this unusual building reveals walls constructed of massive sawn logs and a pulley above the main entrance that was used to operate a portcullis, or reinforced door. In the mid 18th century, Peter Gilman substantially remodeled the house, adding a wing with elegantly paneled rooms.

The house offers tours.

Newport Restoration Foundation: Rough Point, Whitehorne House, and Prescott Farm [RI]

Description

The Foundation maintains and operates historical sites throughout Newport, including Rough Point, the Whitehorne House, and Prescott Farm. Frederick W. Vanderbilt built the English Manorial house Rough Point in 1889 on a dramatic, windswept promontory on Newport's Cliff Walk, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Whitehorne House, housed in a Federal period mansion, features some of the best examples of Newport and Rhode Island furniture from the late 18th century. Prescott Farm offers the visitor a glimpse of early New England buildings and landscape. The farm buildings and land trace their origins to the early 18th century.

The foundation offers tours; Rough Point offers exhibits and tours; the Whitehorne House offers tours; Prescott Farm offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Strawberry Banke Museum [NH]

Description

The Strawberry Banke Museum is a living history museum of one of New Hampshire’s oldest neighborhoods and its history that dates back to the 1600's. The outdoor museum contains 42 historic buildings, the earliest build in 1695, and many contain live demonstrations of craftsmanship, cooking, and other forms of daily life at work.

School groups can tour the neighborhood on their own and partake in a Time Travel Workshop that includes hands-on activities lasting about 90 minutes on a specific, curriculum-based topic. Other programs on architecture, archeology, cooking, Early America, Trade and Maritime history, and the Industrial revolution meet New Hampshire education standards for many grade levels. The site also offers programs for home-schoolers and holiday programs.

Great Brook Farm State Park [MA]

Description

The 1,000-acre Great Brook Farm State Park preserves long-standing agricultural, Native American, and milling histories. Cellar pits mark the site of a 17th-century English mill community, portions of the grounds have been considered sacred to local Native American groups, and modern farming continues an on site Holstein dairy tradition which began prior to 1950.

The park offers dairy tours, more than 20 miles of trails, and outdoor activities. Dairy tours are offered May through October.

Amasa Day House [CT]

Description

Colonel Julius Chapman created a symbol of rural gentility by building this Federal-style house in 1816 on the Moodus Green. It was subsequently purchased by Amasa Day, a local banker, in whose family the house remained until 1967. The house is furnished largely with objects owned by members of the Day family, including toys and locally produced ceramics and silver, and still features the original floor and stair stenciling applied to mimic carpeting. Also on display are a selection of photographs from among the thousands taken by pioneering American Pictorialist art photographer Dr. Amasa Day Chaffee between 1890 and 1925.

The house offers exhibits and tours.