Oberlin Heritage Center [OH]

Description

The Oberlin Heritage Center consists of three historic sites—the 1866 Monroe House, 1884 Jewett House, and 1836 School House. The center's goal is to preserve and share the history of Oberlin, OH, including its role in abolitionism, the Underground Railroad, women's rights movements, temperance, education, and the aluminum industry. The Italianate Monroe House was home to General Giles W. Shurtleff, leader of the first African American Civil War regiment from Ohio. The School House has been restored to a pioneer era appearance. The school offered lessons to all students, regardless of wide-spread segregation, as early as 1836. The Jewett House was owned by chemistry professor Frank Fanning Jewett and his wife Frances Gulick Jewett. The couple published works on public health, and rented living space to Oberlin College students.

The center offers guided house tours, group tours, guided history walks, step-on guides for bus tours, and research center access. The research center is open by appointment only, and it offers oral histories in addition to archival materials. Tours are approximately 75 minutes long. Reservations must be made at least one month in advance for groups of 10 or more. History walks are available by reservation only. Audio amplifiers are available. The historic homes are partially wheelchair accessible. The website offers historical photographs; historic games, crafts, and recipes; 1800s children's stories; information on the intersection of the heritage center and state educational standards; and suggested class activities.

New-York Historical Society and Museum [NY]

Description

The New-York Historical Society presents American and U.S. history through artifacts and documents relevant to the history of New York City and state. Permanent exhibits include slavery in New York and visible open storage. Collection highlights include George Washington's inaugural chair, Benjamin Franklin's cane, watercolors by John James Audubon, Hudson River School landscapes, Tiffany lamps, and Abraham Lincoln's life mask.

The society offers exhibits, guided tours, customizable group tours, school visits, guided student workshops, outreach programs for students, interactive stations, audio tours, teen audio tours, written gallery guides, research library access, educator professional development opportunities, and a cafe. An appointment is required to access prints, photographs, or architectural records. No appointment is necessary to access manuscripts and general collections. Wheelchairs are available for use on site. American Sign Language interpreters are available for tours with at least three weeks advance notice. The website offers digital collections access.

Kentucky Derby Museum [KY]

Description

The Kentucky Derby Museums presents the significance and history of Thoroughbred racing; Churchill Downs; and the Kentucky Derby, a world-renowned annual horse race. The grounds include the graves of several favorite Derby horses—Carry Back, Swaps, Brokers Tip, and Sunny's Halo. Permanent exhibits address Kentucky Derby hats; races from 1918 to present day; the jockey stance; winning horses, owners, and trainers; jockey and stable life; handicapping; and African Americans in Thoroughbred racing.

The museum offers interactive and traditional exhibits, films, trivia tests, guided walking tours of Churchill Downs, barn and backside van tours, behind the scenes tours, legends and lore tours, student tours, curriculum-based programs, curriculum-based outreach programs, hands-on activities, scavenger hunts, summer camps, and a cafe. Social studies program topics range from economics to urbanization. The website offers a suggested reading list for students and relevant vocabulary.

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.

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

Peerless Rockville [MD]

Description

Peerless Rockville seeks to preserve and share the history of Rockville, MD.

The organization offers lectures, guided walking tours, customizable guided walking tours, self-guided walking tours, research library access, and research assistance. Guided tour topics include a historical overview of Rockville, the Civil War, 19th-century landmarks, a family scavenger hunt, African American history, the Underground Railroad, public architecture, F. Scott Fitzgerald, downtown, the Rockville cemetery, the 1891 courthouse, and early settlement. Appointments are recommended for research library use.

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.

Fort Mose Historic State Park [FL]

Description

The power politics of 18th-century England and Spain reached across the Atlantic to the Florida frontier. In 1738, the Spanish governor of Florida chartered Fort Mose as a settlement for freed Africans who had fled slavery in the British Carolinas. When Spain ceded Florida to Britain in 1763, the inhabitants of Fort Mose migrated to Cuba. Although nothing remains of the fort, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 for its importance in American history.

The park offers tours.

Kent Plantation House [LA]

Description

The Kent Plantation House, completed in 1800, presents a typical Creole working plantation home of the colonial period. More broadly, the site is used to discuss Central Louisianan history between 1795 and 1855. The site includes the main residence, milk house, open hearth kitchen, slave cabin, carriage house, barn, blacksmith shop, gardens, and a sugar mill.

The house offers period rooms, exhibits, guided tours, group tours, customizable student tours, demonstrations, summer camps, and a traveling trunk. Reservations are required for group tours and open hearth cooking. The website offers an educational packet on the Yellow Fever.

George Ranch Historical Park [TX]

Description

The George Ranch Historical Park presents living history interpretation of the history of Fort Bend County, Texas and neighboring areas. The site consists of a 23,000-acre working ranch, which interprets the periods between 1824 and circa 1940. Sites include the 1830s Jones Stock Farm, 1860s Ryon Prairie Home, a sharecropper's farm, chuck wagon camp, blacksmith shop, the 1890s Davis Victorian Mansion, a family cemetery in use between the 1820s and 1916, and the 1930s George Ranch House.

The park offers period rooms; hands-on activities; guided group tours; self-guided tours; 11 educational program options for students, including two role-playing programs; a homeschool day program; demonstrations; home tours; living history interpreters; period lunches; a tram; and a cafe. Groups desiring guided tours must include at least 15 individuals. Meal options are available for groups.