Greene County Historical Society and Bronck Museum [NY]

Description

The Green County Historical Society operates the Bronck Museum and Vedder Research Library. The Bronck Museum consists of a complex of historic structures which previously functioned as a working farm. The complex holds a 1663 stone house, the oldest remaining residence in Upstate New York; a 1738 Hudson Valley Dutch and Federal brick house; a detached kitchen; a Victorian horse barn with exhibits of historical daily life in Green County, NY; a Dutch barn; and a thirteen-sided barn. The homes and kitchen are furnished with period pieces; china; glass; silver; and artworks by Ezra Ames, John Frederick Kensett, Ammi Philips, Richard Hubbard, Benjamin Stone, and Nehemiah Partridge. The museum also presents regional textiles, and information on both spinning and weaving. The Vedder Research Library offers primary and secondary sources for researching the history of Green County.

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, guided tours, guided student tours, and research library access. School tours are available May 30 through October 31st by appointment only. Memorial Day weekend through mid-October tours are available to the general public. The website offers a suggested reading list.

National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame [TX]

Description

The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame honors courageous and independent women of America's western frontier, mid-19th century through present. Interactive exhibits include the opportunity to learn to saddle a full-scale pony model. Select other exhibits address arena sports, rodeo fashion, bronc riding, rodeo evolution, oral histories, ranching, cowgirl equipment, and cowgirls in dime novels and on the screen. The museum exterior features artworks by sculptor Mehl Lawson and painter Richard Haas.

The museum offers an 8-minute introductory film, other thematic films, interactive and traditional exhibits, interactive guided group tours, outreach speakers for students and adults, Western lifestyle workshops and courses, school tours, 45-minute distance learning programs for students, a traveling trunk, educator workshops, and research library access. Group tours must include 15 or more visitors, and be scheduled at least two weeks in advance. Library access is by appointment only. Wheelchairs are available for use on site. The website offers activity suggestions for use in the classroom.

Hampton Historical Society [NH]

Description

The Hampton Historical Society of Hampton, NH is a local history organization with its own museum, the Tuck Museum. The Tuck Museum currently consists of many 20th century historical buildings including the Museum building, barn, beach cottage, schoolhouse, fire museum, well, and various monuments and markers. The collection contains period school equipment, antique fire-fighting tools, maps, photographs, painting, and other authentic local items.

The site offers group tours for school groups and customized educational programs for grades 1,2,3, and 8. Home-school activities are also available.

Madeline Island Museum [WI]

Description

The Madeline Island Museum presents the history of Madeline Island, WI and its people. An original 1835 American Fur Company building contains exhibits on Ojibwe life and the mixing of Native American, British, American, and French cultures instigated by the fur trade. Other exhibits address 19th-century trades and hand tools, 19th- and early 20th-century settler life, leisure and tourism, and Protestant and Catholic missionary activity. Other structures housing exhibits include a historic jail, an 1890s barn, and a home built in memory to a drowned sailor. Collection highlights include an 1862 Fresnel lens, religious texts translated into Ojibwe, a boat winch, and a maple-sugaring kettle. The grounds also include fortifications similar to those created by the French in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The museum offers films, exhibits, lectures, workshops, group tours, student tours, educational programs for third through fifth grade students, student tours of La Pointe village, and a fur trade traveling trunk. Group tours and field trips are available by appointment only. Group tours must be scheduled for mid-June through September, and field trips are offered in May and early June. The traveling trunk is available November through March.

Fort Branch [NC]

Description

Fort Branch preserves the site of a Confederate earthwork fort, with the initial phases of construction having taken place in 1862. The fort's location permitted strategic defense of the Roanoke River, CSS Albemarle, and a railway bridge needed for supply lines. This is the only Southern earthwork fortification which possesses artillery original to the site. Sights include eight of the original 11 cannon, Native American pottery, artifacts from an 18th-century river town, a late 19th-century steam engine, and an 1850s farmhouse.

The site offers exhibits, and is open April through November.

Nineteenth Century Willowbrook Village [ME]

Description

Nineteenth Century Willowbrook Village offers the opportunity for visitors to immerse themselves in 19th-century daily life. Sights include two historic houses; two historic barns; a reproduction schoolhouse and bandstand; an 1894 carousel; an 1849 Concord stagecoach; a 1945 multi-wing aircraft; and blacksmith, broom maker, cooper, harness maker, printer, woodworker, wheelwright, canoe building, ice harvesting, bicycle shop, machine shop, maple-sugaring, and cobbler displays.

The village offers exhibits, period rooms, group tours, guided student tours, curriculum-based student programs, outreach programs for students, picnic tables, and a cafe. Student tours may be scheduled for May through October. Educational programs are only available in May and June. Approximately 50 percent of the site is wheelchair accessible.

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.

Black Hawk State Historic Site and Hauberg Indian Museum

Description

Black Hawk State Historic Site commemorates Native Americans of the area, particularly the Sauk and Mesquakie (Fox) Indians, who lived here from about 1750 to 1831. The Watch Tower Lodge, built between 1934 and 1942 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the State of Illinois, houses Works Progress Administration murals and basement "nature rooms" are available for science activities with school groups. Exhibits in the John Hauberg Museum of Native American Life depict the daily life of the Sauk and Mesquakie Indian nations. Dioramas show the four seasons with a full-sized winter house, a replica of a summer long house, an authentic dugout canoe, and other objects relating to the Sauk and Mesquakie. Another exhibit describes the importance of the fur trade to the Native Americans. Also located in the Lodge is an exhibit outlining the 1934–1942 activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps in developing Black Hawk Park. Outside the lodge is a large statue of Black Hawk executed in 1892 by sculptor David Richards. The Lodge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The site offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

The Museum At Warm Springs [OR]

Description

The Museum at Warms Springs is devoted to exhibiting the history of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, a Native American reservation in Oregon. The Museum rotates its exhibits once a year but focuses on showcasing the culture of the tribes, including tribal song and language, craftsmanship, and daily life.

School groups are welcome to tour the museum's gallery and its outdoor portion of the museum containing information on the museum's traditional architecture.

Genesee Country Village and Museum [NY]

Description

Genesee Country Village and Museum's 68 buildings recreate a 19th-century rural village, from the pioneer years, beginning in 1795, to the 1920s. Depending on when they visit, visitors may watch period baseball games and foodways, crafts, and other living history demonstrations, and participate in hands-on activities. The village also houses the John L. Wehle Art Gallery, displaying sporting and wildlife art as well as a changing exhibit on 19th-century life.

The museum offers exhibits, living history demonstrations, period baseball games (on some weekends), classes, summer camps, family pioneer experience weekends, nature trails, and other recreational and educational events.