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.

Newton Fire Museum [NJ]

Description

The Newton Fire Museum presents firefighting history. The museum collections include an 1873 engine, circa 1849 hose carriage, uniforms, and turnout gear. The museum is housed in an 1891 firehouse.

The museum offers exhibits. The museum is open May through October. Groups are welcome throughout the year by appointment. The website offers historical photographs.

New York City Fire Museum [NY]

Description

The New York City Fire Museum presents firefighting history from the late 18th century to present day. The largest firefighting collection in the country, museum artifacts include art, uniforms, parade hats, tools, fire engines dating from the 1700s onward, other vehicles, and more than 2,000 fire marks. A permanent exhibit memorializes the firefighters involved in 9-11 disaster relief. The museum is located within a 1904 firehouse.

The museum offers exhibits, guided historical tours for groups, and interactive guided fire safety tours for students. Reservations are required for history group tours, which must include at least 20 individuals, and student tours. The website offers a teacher resource guide and a summary of the New York Fire Department's history.

Fort William Henry Museum and Reconstruction [NY]

Description

The Fort William Henry Museum and Reconstruction presents the history of England's Fort William Henry in use along the southern edge of New York's Lake George between 1755 and 1757. Particular focus is given to warfare and weaponry.

The museum offers an introductory film, exhibits, tours led by costumed interpreters, group tours, student tours, student fort and Lake George history tours, Scout tours, ghost tours, musket and cannon firing, musket ball molding, Native American craft demonstrations, hands-on children's activities, and self-guided tours. Groups must consist of at least 15 people. Boxed lunches are available with advance notice. The website offers a scavenger hunt.

Coopersville Area Historical Society and Museum [MI]

Description

The Coopersville Area Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Coopersville, MI. To this end, the society operates a museum of local history. The museum is housed within two structures, one of which is an early 20th-century railway depot. Exhibit topics include sawmills, settler lifestyles, rock music, logging, and business. Period settings include an early 20th-century school room and an 1880s drugstore. The museum contains a memorial to rock and roll singer Del Shannon (1934-1990).

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, and group tours. Reservations are required for group tours.

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

Mammoth Spring State Park [AR]

Description

Mammoth Spring, the 10th largest spring in the world, and a National Natural Landmark, flows nine million gallons of water each hour. Following the Civil War, this immense water source attracted industrialists who built a gristmill, and later, a dam here. Next, the investors opened large roller mills and a shoe factory. Soon after, the railroad arrived. Still standing near the spring is the charming 1886 Frisco Depot. At the dam, you can walk through the 1925 power plant that brought electricity to the region long before most other rural areas.

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

Cornwall Iron Furnace [PA]

Description

Cornwall Furnace is a unique survivor of the early American iron industry. Originally built by Peter Grubb in 1742, the furnace underwent extensive renovations in 1856–57 under its subsequent owners, the Coleman family, and closed in 1883. It is this mid-19th-century ironmaking complex which survives today. At Cornwall, furnace, blast equipment, and related buildings still stand as they did over a century ago. Here visitors can explore the rambling Gothic Revival buildings where cannons, stoves, and pig iron were cast, and where men labored day and night to satisfy the furnace's appetite for charcoal, limestone, and iron ore.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

National Canal Museum [PA]

Description

The National Canal Museum presents the story of U.S. towpath canals. Galleries include an interactive 90-foot model canal, the life of canal workers, and Lehigh Valley railroading. Other sights include the Emrick Technology Center, displaying Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania's industrial past; the Hugh Moore Park, which contains a canal boat and locks, as well as industrial ruins; and a locktender's house with period rooms and costumed interpreters.

The museum offers interactive exhibits, period rooms, costumed interpreters, full-day curriculum-based living history programs for students, a canal life outreach program for students, a traveling trunk, archive access, and canal boat rides. Canal boat rides are available May 14th through September seventh. Payment of a daily fee is required of non-members using the archive. The website offers Flash games and curricula.