Stately Oaks Plantation [GA]

Description

The Stately Oaks Plantation bills itself as the inspiration for Margaret Mitchell's classic Gone with the Wind and it’s easy to see why. This 19th century Southern plantation home is complete with costumed interpreters, a country store, and Civil War artifacts.

Guided or MP3 tours are available for groups as well as educational tours especially for students. Educational program topics include Native Americans and the Civil War.

Tudor Place Historic House and Garden [DC]

Description

The 1816 neoclassical Tudor Place was built for Martha Custis Parker, Martha Washington's granddaughter, and her husband Thomas Peter. The site presents the governmental, business, and societal aspects of the Peters' lives, as well as the lives of their servants—both enslaved Africans and the English and Irish. Another interpretive focus is the development of Washington, DC, beginning in the 18th century. Collection highlights include 19th-century silver, porcelain, and more than 100 artifacts originally owned by George and Martha Washington. The five and a half acres of gardens largely retain their Federal era design.

The site offers period rooms, gardens, educational programs for students, a summer camp, guided house tours, and self-guided garden tours. Reservations are required for groups of 10 or more. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to notify the staff of their visit in advance.

Colonial Williamsburg [VA]

Description

Colonial Williamsburg is the world's single largest living history museum. It consists of the reconstructed 18th-century British outpost of Williamsburg, VA. Through costumed interpreters and structures furnished to period, the museum shares the story of America and its people—Native American, African American, Caucasian, enslaved, indentured, and free—circa 1699 through 1780. The historic area includes political and residential sites, trade skill settings, a plantation, gardens, and animal breeds of circa 200 years ago. Museums on site include the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.

The site offers exhibits, period rooms, living history interpreters, demonstrations, walking tours, dramatic performances, military exercises, fife and drum parades, ghost walks, mock witch trials, films, lectures, music programs, reenactments, a teacher institute in early American history, children's activities, curriculum-based tours for students, museum tours, conferences, forums, workshops, concession stands, and several dining locations with period-inspired food. The website offers audio tours, a virtual tour, virtual exhibits, information on historical structures and people, information on aspects of daily life, recipes, electronic field trips, lesson plans, teaching resources for purchase, slide shows, videos, audio clips, a daily vocabulary feature, podcasts, blogs, activities and games, and journal excerpts

New Castle Court House Museum [DE]

Description

The New Castle Court House, erected in 1732, was Delaware's first court and state capitol building. Topics addressed on site include colonial and state history, early Delaware law and government, and the Underground Railroad.

The museum offers site tours, exhibits, educational programs for students, and an hour long walking tour for adults. Reservations are required for large groups. The first floor of the structure is wheelchair accessible.

Oakland County Pioneer & Historical Society [MI]

Description

The Oakland County Pioneer & Historical Society's Pine Grove Historical Museum consists of the 1845 Greek revival mansion of the 12th Michigan governor, Moses Wisner. The site also contains a summer kitchen, outhouse, smokehouse, root cellar, and the Drayton Plains One-Room Schoolhouse. A Carriage House is also home to the Research Library, office and the Pioneer Museum.

School tours led by costumed docents are offered on site. Teachers may also rent the one-room school house for half the day to teach their own lessons in an authentic Victorian school. Teacher guides are available on site to assist teachers in designing a field trip that meets their needs.

John Jay Homestead State Historic Site [NY]

Description

The John Jay Homestead State Historic Site maintains the 1801 home of Founding Father John Jay who served as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme court and co-authored the Treaty of Paris, among his many other accomplishments. The home is interpreted as an 1820's country home with 12 or its 24 rooms decorated and open to the public for tours.

Specialized tours and education programs are available by appointment. School groups may also tour the 1820's schoolhouse and the 1830s barn as wells as the formal gardens on the property.