National Civil Rights Museum [TN]

Description

The National Civil Rights Museum is located in the Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The museum is focused both on preserving the site of King's assassination as well as chronicling the history of the Civil Rights Movement as a whole.

The museum offers field trip programs, guided tours, exhibits, and special events. The website offers visitor information, an events calendar, and resources for teachers including curriculum guides, primary sources, and worksheets.

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum [IL]

Description

Jane Addams's Hull House was the most famous example of settlement houses popular during the American industrial revolution. The Hull House functioned as a center for the Chicago’s disadvantaged, offering community programs and other forms of community aid in poor, ethnic areas of Chicago.

The site offers school tours as well as lesson plans for teachers and pre-and post-visit activities.

Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture [SC]

Description

The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture presents the history of African Americans in the South Carolina Lowcountry and in Charleston, South Carolina. Topics include slavery, emancipation, segregation, large-scale relocations, civil rights, and modern issues. The center includes a museum space and a research library, which boasts nearly 4,000 artifacts. Permanent exhibits address 19th-century social studies education, Gullah culture, and the work of master blacksmith Phillip Simmons. Approximately 40 percent of all Africans brought to the United States as slaves were brought ashore in the Charleston area.

The center offers exhibits, a period room, tours, research library access, research assistance, and oral histories. Reservations are required for all tour groups with five or more people.

Aycock Birthplace [NC]

Description

Charles B. Aycock was born into a simple, rural home in 1859. In 1900 he was elected governor of North Carolina and dedicated his life to improving public education in the state. An 1893 one-room schoolhouse, moved to the site of his birthplace, underscores Aycock's commitment to education. This typical 19th-century family farm includes the main house, separate open-hearth kitchen, corn crib, and smokehouses.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, demonstrations, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Filson Historical Society, Ferguson Mansion, and Museum [KY]

Description

The Filson Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Kentucky and the Ohio Valley. The society's offices are located within the 1905 Beaux Arts Ferguson Mansion. A museum is located within the carriage house. Collection highlights include the largest number of antebellum portraits in Kentucky; Clark, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, family artifacts; and Shaker artifacts. Exhibit topics include Kentucky pioneers, Shaker life, slave life, and the Civil War. The society also operates a library, containing more than 50,000 volumes.

The society offers period rooms, exhibits, tours of the mansion and museum for students, traveling trunks, non-circulating research library access, and research assistance. A daily fee is charged for research library access. Payment is required for research conducted on request. Please call ahead if you wish to use the library. Reservations are required for student tours.

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens [OH]

Description

The 70-acre Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens is a historic house museum. The Tudor Revival manor was built in 1912; and reflects the architecture of Charles S. Schneider (1874-1932), interior design of Hugo F. Huber, and landscaping of Warren H. Manning (1860-1938). Manning favored naturalistic, as opposed to heavily stylized, garden design. The residence is intended to be visually complementary to its surrounding environment. Guests who visited the estate owners, the Sieberlings, included Shirley Temple (born 1928) and Will Rogers (1879-1935). Other structures on site include the Gate Lodge, site of a conversation among Henrietta Seiberling and two men suffering from alcoholism which would determine the guiding principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as a reproduction of the original greenhouse. The Lodge contains an exhibit on the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The estate offers an exhibit, period rooms, gardens, self-guided manor tours, guided manor tours, other guided tours, educational programs for students, traveling trunks, educational outreach presentations, teacher's workshops, a children's club, Scout programs, and collections access. Appointments are required for collections access. Two weeks advance notice is required for group tours. Boxed lunches can be provided with five days advance notice.

Pennsbury Manor [PA]

Description

The recreated country home of William Penn provides a peaceful contrast to the hurry of modern American life. The construction of the original manor was an expression of Penn's belief that life in the country was more wholesome than in the worldly atmosphere of crowded cities. Pennsbury Manor is permeated with the spirit of this kindly, devout humanitarian, and it gives the visitor a sense of the unhurried grace and charm of those years when Pennsylvania was William Penn's "Holy Experiment."

The site offers tours, demonstrations, workshops, educational programs, and recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Greenbelt Museum [MD]

Description

Greenbelt was developed as a New Deal planned community in 1937. A historic house museum presents middle class life during the Great Depression and World War II. Years depicted range from 1936 to 1952. Furnishings within the interior were designed by the New Deal’s Special Skills Division. Thew New Deal, introduced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt between 1933 and 1935, sought to offer relief to the unemployed and stimulate the economy of the Great Depression era (1929-the late 1930s or early 1940s).

The museum offers guided tours, exhibits, lectures, educational programs, self-guided walking tours, and 90-minute guided walking tours.

Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum [NC]

Description

Founded in 1902 by Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Palmer Memorial Institute transformed the lives of more than 2,000 African-American students. Today, the campus provides the setting where visitors can explore this unique environment where boys and girls lived and learned during the greater part of the 20th century. The museum links Dr. Brown and Palmer Memorial Institute to the larger themes of African-American history, women's history, social history, and education, emphasizing the contributions African Americans made in North Carolina.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, lectures, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).