Salem Witch Museum [MA]

Description

The Salem Witch Museum commemorates the men and women who were put on trial and executed during the Salem Witch hunts of 1692. These witch hunts were the product of unexplained sickness and hysterics of some of the village girls and resulted in the death of at least 19 townspeople and a period of terror in Puritan Massachusetts.

Group tours of the museum are offered for school groups.

Highlands Historical Society and Historic Village [NC]

Description

The Highlands Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Highlands, North Carolina, founded in 1875. To this end, the society operates the Historic Village, which consists of the 1877 House-Trapier-Wright Home, 1908 Bug Hill Cottage, and the Highlands Historical Museum and Archives. The House-Trapier-Wright Home serves as a living history museum. The Bug Hill Cottage is an open-air cubicle once used to house and treat tuberculosis patients. 60 such cubicles once existed at the sanatorium on site. The historical museums exhibits address women's lives, moonshine, historic structures, genealogy, education, religion, and the area tuberculosis sanatorium, among other topics.

The society offers exhibits, period rooms, and living history interpretation.

Old City Cemetery and Museums [VA]

Description

The Old City Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Virginia, in continuous operation since 1806. The site includes the Mourning Museum, Pest House Medical Museum, Hearse House and Cemetery Caretaker's Museum, Station House, and Chapel and Columbarium. The Station House is furnished in a circa World War I style. The Hearse House contains a circa 1900 hearse and a variety of cemetery caretaker tools. The Mourning Museum presents 19th- and 20th-century mourning attire, jewelry, and etiquette, as well as the history of coffins and embalming. Topics relevant to the site include horticulture, symbolism, ironwork, Civil War medicine, mourning practices of the Victorian era, railways, African American history, the founding of Lynchburg, women, archaeology, and local disasters. The cemetery has been in use since 1806.

The cemetery offers self-guided tours; period rooms; exhibits; Mourning Museum tours; interior tours of the Pest House, Hearse House, Station House, and Chapel; audio tours; customizable guided cemetery tours; and wayside signs. Appointments are required for interior tours of the Pest House, Hearse House, Station House, and Chapel, as well as for guided cemetery tours. The website offers lesson plans, brief descriptions of notable figures interred on site, a virtual African American history tour, and brief informative articles.

Atlanta History Center [GA]

Description

The Atlanta History Center consists of the Atlanta History Museum, Swan House, Tullie Smith Farm, Centennial Olympic Games Museum, historic gardens, Kenan Research Center, and the Margaret Mitchell House. The Atlanta History Museum depicts the story of Atlanta, GA, from early settlement to modern day. Permanent exhibits address historical development, the Civil War, folk arts, and golfer Bobby Jones. The Olympic museum presents the history of the Olympic Games and the sports which take place at the games via a collection of artifacts and photographs. Topics addressed include financing the event, community involvement, global travel to the Olympics, the bid process, and building game venues. The six historic gardens represent groups of people who influenced the development of Atlanta. The Kenan Research Center provides resources for the study of the history and culture of Atlanta and the South. Particular emphasis is given to gardens, military history, decorative arts, and genealogy. The 1928 Swan House portrays life in the 1920s-1930s; while the 1840s Tullie Smith Farm home is representative of area rural life, and is surrounded by outbuildings, such as a blacksmith shop. The Margaret Mitchell House is listed separately within this database.

The center offers guided student tours, self-guided student tours, traveling trunks, interactive outreach programs for students, homeschool days, educator workshops, lectures, toddler programs, summer camps, musical performances, gardens, and living history presentations. The Atlanta History Museum offers exhibits, summer camps, and a cafe. The Centennial Olympic Games Museum offers interactive and traditional exhibits, a sports lab, and multimedia presentations. The Kenan Research Center offers research library access. The Swan House offers an exhibit of decorative arts, audio tours, guided tours, and period rooms. The Tullie Smith Farm offers period rooms, guided tours, and demonstrations. The website offers lesson plans, a virtual tour, and a game based on the P.O.W. experience.

Tehachapi Museum [CA]

Description

The Tehachapi Museum presents the history of Tehachapi, CA. Exhibit topics addressed include women of note, children, Native American life, early man, costumes and textiles, geology, the railway, and Ice Age animals.

The museum offers exhibits and self-guided area walking tours.

Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace [GA]

Description

The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace preserves the home in which Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927), founder of the Girl Scouts within the United States, was born. The house itself is an 1818 English Regency townhouse. The home is furnished with family possessions, objects which belonged to Low herself, and artifacts selected to depict period taste.

The site offers period rooms, guided tours, school tours, Scout programs, and nine educational programs for students. Educational programs range from the life of Low to shipping and the cotton industry in Georgia. The website offers photographs and pre-and post-visit activities.

Osborne Homestead Museum [CT]

Description

Adjacent to the rolling hills and open meadows of Osbornedale State Park, the recently renovated Osborne Homestead Museum encompasses the house and grounds of the former Frances Osborne Kellogg Estate. Originally constructed in the mid-1800s, the house was enlarged and completely remodeled in the Colonial Revival style during the 1920s. Its restored interior now displays the original contents of the estate, which constitutes a significant collection of antiques and fine arts.

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

Spartansburg County Historical Association and Museums [SC]

Description

The Spartansburg County Historical Association seeks to preserve and share the history of Spartansburg County, South Carolina. To this end, the society operates three historical sites and a regional museum. The Seay House began as a Scots-Irish one-story log home, built before 1850. This residence is most like the dwelling of an average early inhabitant of the Spartansburg area. Interpretation focuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century women's lives. The circa 1795 Price House grounds also include a kitchen building and double-pen slave cabin. The home served as a residence and bed and breakfast. Interpretation focuses on the original owners, Thomas and Anne Price. The circa 1765 Walnut Grove Plantation includes a plantation home, Rocky Spring Academy, a forge, a meat house, a kitchen building, a well house, a barn, and the reconstructed office of the region's earliest physician to have received collegiate training. The site depicts area life prior to 1805. The Regional History Museum's permanent exhibits address an chronological overview of Spartansburg area developments, textiles, military history, and locally made furniture.

The Seay House offers period rooms, interpretive signage, and school tours. The Price House offers period rooms and guided tours. Walnut Grove Plantation offers guided tours of the home, kitchen, and Rocky Spring Academy; self-guided grounds tours; a nature trail; and the Moore family cemetery. The Regional History Museum offers student tours, curriculum-based programs for students, exhibits, traveling trunks, and summer camps. Reservations are required for school tours to the Seay House and for groups of 10 or more visiting the Price House and/or Walnut Grove Plantation. Visitors to the cemetery are asked to remain on the trail.

White Hall State Historic Site [KY]

Description

White Hall State Historic Site was first built in 1798 and remodeled in the 1860s. The original home was a two-story Georgian structure, but during the remodeling in the 1860s, the home was rebuilt in Italianate style and greatly enlarged. The house was home to the Clay family, including the noted emancipationist Cassius Clay and his daughter, Laura Clay, who was the first woman to be nominated by a major party for US President.

The home offers guided tours, field trip programs, and exhibits that showcase artifacts from the Clay family. The website offers a photo gallery of the home, a calendar of events, visitor information, and a history of the home.