Motorsports Museum and Hall of Fame [MI]

Description

The Motorsports Museum and Hall of Fame presents more than 40 racing vehicles. These include racing cars, powerboats, drag racers, motorcycles, racing snowmobiles, and air vehicles. Topics addressed include the people, companies, and equipment behind the racing industries. The Hall of Fame celebrates important members of the racing industry, past and present.

The museum offers exhibits, racing simulators, games, films, group tours, and school field trips. Reservations are required for group tours and field trips.

West Volusia Historical Society, Museums, and Memorial Garden [FL]

Description

The West Volusia Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of West Volusia County, Florida. To this end, the society operates the 1886 DeLand House Museum, Robert M. Conrad Research and Educational Center, the 1922 DeLand Memorial Hospital, and the Lue Gim Gong Memorial Gardens. The hospital was used for medical purposes until 1948. A separate building behind the main structure served the local African American population. The hospital addresses medical history and African American life, as well as housing collections of elephant figurines, historic toys, and military artifacts. The grounds include two gardens, one of which is devoted to offering a sensory experience for visually and physically impaired visitors. The Lue Gim Gong Memorial Gardens honor Lue Gim Gong (1860-1925), creator of a number of grapefruit and orange varieties.

The DeLand House Museum offers period rooms. The Conrad Center offers exhibits, oral histories, and a research library. The DeLand Memorial Hospital offers period rooms, exhibits, and gardens. The society also offers outreach speakers, a memorial to Lue Gim Gong, and access to his grave site.

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame [TN]

Description

The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame presents the history and modern state of women's basketball—at all levels of play and prominence. Collection highlights include the 1901 rulebook and a jersey worn by Georgeann Wells, first female player to score a dunk at the collegiate level.

The hall offers exhibits, a 15-minute introductory video, self-guided tours, audio recordings of famous coaches giving pre-game and halftime talks, basketball courts, an athletic playground, and a hall of honor. Educational programs are offered for kindergarten through fifth grade students; and focus on nutrition, sportsmanship, and exercise.

Goodhue County Historical Society and History Center [MN]

Description

The Goodhue County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Goodhue County, Minnesota. To this end, the society operates the History Center. Collections include more than 150,000 artifacts, ranging back to prehistoric times. Permanent displays address Native American life, military history, geology, natural history, sports, leisure, costume, agriculture, archaeology, business, and immigration.

The society offers exhibits, customizable one-hour guided tours of the History Center, student educational programs, traveling trunks, traveling exhibits, films for rental, artifacts available for classroom use, research library access, and research assistance. Two weeks advance notice is required for all guided tours. Traveling trunk topics include women in history, rural schools, archaeology, and immigration. A fee is charged for library use and for research assistance. The website offers historic photographs.

Nishna Heritage Museum [IA]

Description

The Nishna Heritage Museum primarily presents the history of the Oakland, Iowa area. Additional displays are global in scope. Exhibits include quilts and quilting, historical tools, music playing devices, and dairy equipment. Highlights include an early 20th-century tire changer, Edison phonographs, a butter press, and a switch board.

The museum offers period rooms and exhibits.

Los Angeles State Historic Park [CA]

Description

The Los Angeles State Historic Park, although under development, opened a 13-acre preview of the completed park to the public. In addition to land suitable to a wide variety of outdoor activities, the park encompasses the waterwheel, round house, freight house, station yard, and depot of the 1875 Southern Pacific Railroad’s River Station and a glass footprint of the 1879 Pacific Hotel.

The park offers bike trails, urban wildlife viewing, guided interpretive programs, and picnic areas.

Ashland Historical Society Museum [WI]

Description

The Ashland Historical Society Museum presents a glimpse into the past of Ashland, WI. Exhibits on display address the Ashland Hotel, Boy and Girl Scouts, souvenir dishes, gas stations, historical and modern images of Downtown, Oredocks, and local schools.

The museum offers exhibits, archive access, and research services. A fee is charged for research conducted upon request. Individuals conducting private research must match their personal research time with research for the society. The website offers short articles on a variety of local history aspects and historical photographs.

Carteret County Historical Society and Museum [NC]

Description

The Carteret County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Carteret County, North Carolina. To this end, the society operates a local history museum. The society's research library, accessible to the public, contains more than 8,000 volumes, archival materials, and photographs. Photographs include works by Clifton Guthrie and Jerry Schumacher. Artifact collections include hunting decoys; quilts; and the buggy of Emiline Pigott, a Confederate spy.

The society offers exhibits, research library access, research assistance, lunch and history storytelling events, and a teahouse. Reservations are required for lunch and storytelling programs.

Freetown Village [IN]

Description

Freetown Village presents the history and culture of the approximately 3,000 free African Americans known to have been living in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1870. The content focus is on the Fourth Ward, which is Indianapolis' oldest African American settlement.

The village offers a summer camp for five through 14 year old children, interactive plays, spiritual music performances, and hands-on children's workshops. With the exception of the summer camp, all programs are available as outreach programming in Indiana and nearby states.