Orange County Historical Museum [NC]

Description

The Museum collects and preserve artifacts, photographs, and documents relevant to Orange County and shares the heritage of Hillsborough and Orange County with the public. Permanent exhibits explore the development and history of Hillsborough in a chronological fashion, beginning with early Native American settlements, progressing through the 1950s. Special exhibits explore a variety of topics relevant to Orange County history.

The museum offers exhibits and educational and recreational programs.

New Bern Firemen's Museum [NC]

Description

Established in 1955, the New Bern Firemen's Museum seeks to preserve the history of firefighting in New Bern. The exhibits are original pieces of equipment from the city's past. New Bern was the first city in North Carolina to charter a fire company, and one of the first in the nation; and the city's firefighters hold many world records.

The museum offers exhibits.

USS Constellation [MD]

Description

USS Constellation, the last all-sail warship built by the U.S. Navy, is open to the public as a museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The USS Constellation Museum invites guests to discover life on board the only Civil War era vessel still afloat and explore the ship's maritime history.

The ship offers exhibits, tours, demonstrations, living history events, lectures, and other educational and recreational programs.

Charlotte Museum of History and Hezekiah Alexander Homesite [NC]

Description

The Charlotte Museum of History and Hezekiah Alexander Homesite comprise multiple venues on an eight-acre wooded campus in east Charlotte. The oldest structure, and the reason for the museum's location, is the Hezekiah Alexander Homesite, a 5,000-square-foot rock house. The Hezekiah Alexander House is the oldest surviving house in Mecklenburg County. Listed on the National Register for Historic Places, it was built circa 1774 and still stands on its original site. The house is accompanied by a reproduction log kitchen and reconstructed two-story springhouse. The Museum itself occupies a 36,000-square-foot building and displays three galleries' worth of displays taking the Charlotte-Mecklenburg story from the 18th to the 20th century.

The museum and site offer exhibits, guided and self-guided tours for school groups, museum-on-the-go traveling trunks, programs for homeschoolers, and other educational and recreational events (including living history events).

Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation Historic Site

Description

This beautiful plantation represents the history and culture of Georgia's rice coast. In the early 1800s, William Brailsford of Charleston carved a rice plantation from marshes along the Altamaha River. The plantation and its inhabitants were part of the genteel low-country society that developed during the antebellum period. While many factors made rice cultivation increasingly difficult in the years after the Civil War, the family continued to grow rice until 1913.

Today, at the plantation, a museum features silver from the family collection and a model of Hofwyl-Broadfield during its heyday. A brief film on the plantation's history is shown before visitors walk a short trail to the antebellum home. A guided tour allows visitors to see the home as Ophelia kept it with family heirlooms, 18th- and 19th-century furniture and Cantonese china. As one of the Colonial Coast Birding Trail sites, Hofwyl-Broadfield offers a nature trail that leads back to the Visitors Center along the edge of the marsh where rice once flourished.

The plantation offers exhibits, a film, and tours.

Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum [MD]

Description

Founded in 1990, the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum is a private, nonprofit corporation. The Museum's purpose is to maintain an educational institution dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and documentation of aviation and space history in Maryland—namely, the contributions of Glenn L. Martin and his successful company. On display are many items of Maryland historical significance, including industrial models of aircraft and rockets, wind tunnel models, restored and partly-restored aircraft, and many original photographs outlining the growth of the Martin Company. An effort has been made to chronologically depict this growth from its beginnings in Santa Ana, California, to its current standing as the Lockheed Martin Corporation. The Museum also spotlights aviation history in Maryland. Unknown to most, the United State's earliest manned flight took place in Maryland.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, and lectures.

Ocean City Life-saving Station Museum [MD]

Description

Housed in an 1891 structure used 1962 by the Life-saving Service and then by the Coast Guard, the museum offers exhibits featuring the history of the U.S. Life-saving Service and of Ocean City. It also displays a mermaid collection, shipwreck artifacts, sands of the world, and bathing fashions. Aquariums feature local marine life.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, and educational programs and demonstrations.

Marco Island Historical Society and Museum

Description

The Society is a nonprofit educational group dedicated to the investigation and preservation of Marco Island's history and the dissemination of that information to the public. The society maintains two museum spaces in Key Marco.

The museums offer exhibits; the society offers lectures and occasional tours.

Please note that as of October, 2010, the museum is closed for installation of new exhibits.

Baltimore American Indian Center [MD]

Description

The Baltimore American Indian Center (BAIC) is an urban American Indian Center established to assist and support American Indian and Alaskan Native families with moving into an urban environment and adjusting to the culture change they will experience. The BAIC also serves as a focal point for the Indian community for social and cultural activities and to educate non-native people about the cultures of the North American Indian and Alaskan Native communities.

The Center offers educational cultural classes and workshops, as well as an annual powwow.

Hopsewee Plantation

Description

Built almost 40 years prior to the American Revolution, the Hopsewee Plantation House, still a private residence, is a typical low-country rice plantation dwelling of the early 18th century, with four rooms opening into a wide center hall on each floor, a full brick cellar, and attic rooms. Constructed on a brick foundation covered by scored tabby, the house is built of black cypress. It is furnished in 18th- and 19th-century furniture.

The house offers tours.