Franklin D. Roosevelt loved Springwood and considered the estate home. The first U.S. Presidential Library was started by FDR here. Visitors to the Home of FDR and Presidential Library and Museum can learn about the only President elected to four terms.
The site offers short films, educational programs, exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.
Executive Director of the Museum of Afro-American History Beverly Morgan-Welch discusses the history of the Museum's meeting house and of the museum itself.
Associate director of the Boston Athenaeum John Lannon outlines the history of the Athenaeum, a leading research library founded in 1807 which houses notable artifacts from American history.
Planning a teacher professional development experience this summer that will take your teachers on the road and outside of the classroom? Whether you are going across town to a local museum or across the country to visit a number of sites, be sure to check out Teachinghistory.org’s new professional development planning guide, Visiting History.
Designed to help professional development coordinators plan a successful trip to a museum, library, or historic site, the guide opens with a video that poses the question: What is good professional development?
From there, explore the guide's three sections:
Within each section, start by watching a video that lays out the key things to keep in mind during each step of the process. Or dive right into the content where you will find expert tips on what works when planning a professional development trip, learn strategies for engaging your group throughout the process, and get ideas for how to connect the trip back to the classroom. You can even download the guide’s planning checklist to help keep you organized and on track!
The guide is a project of the DC Museum Collaborative, a group envisioned by the U.S. Department of Education to share ideas for improving teacher professional development based on lessons learned from Teaching American History grants. Meeting for the past two years, the group developed the guide’s content through discussions, interviews, and workshop sessions.
While the examples are drawn from the DC area, the strategies and tips shared apply no matter where you plan to visit. Good professional development is more than a lecture—it is a chance to experience history. Summer is coming, so start planning how your teachers can begin Visiting History today!
For more about quality professional development—both inside and outside the classroom—take a look at our Roundtable on what makes professional development meaningful for teachers.
Visit Teachinghistory.org's Teaching American History grants section for Lessons Learned and Project Spotlights.
According to the WGBH website:
"Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. (1874-1954) was a Boston writer and bachelor bon vivant, best known for having preserved his family's Beacon Street home as a museum of Victorian style and taste. The Wounded Eros, a short documentary film by Todd Gernes, explores the aesthetic relationship between Gibson's literary production and the material culture contexts of his museum and library, set within the social history of turn-of-the-century gay Boston. Following the film, a dramatic reading, These Four Walls: A History of a Romantic Friendship, directed by Jacqueline Romeo and featuring John Anderson and Aleksander Feliks Wierzbicki, will extend the exploration of Gibson's life by depicting his enduring relationship with the eccentric self-styled "Count" Maurice de Mauny Talvande."
The Pawnee Nation was the dominant power of the Central Plains for hundreds of years. This museum tells the story of an 1820s Pawnee village. The most remarkable feature is the museum’s centerpiece—the excavated floor of a large 1820s Pawnee earth lodge. Visitors can walk the perimeter of the lodge and view the rare sacred bundle that hangs above the altar. After touring the museum, they can walk the interpretive trail that winds through the depressions marking other lodges.
The site offers exhibits, tours, and educational programs. An alternative website for the Pawnee Indian Museum is located here.
"The Texas Association of Museums is dedicated to fostering educational, cultural, and recreational opportunities for all Texans. It accomplishes this, through service to its members, by providing a communications network, sponsoring educational programs, and encouraging adherence to professional standards and practices." The association offers a variety of professional services, including educational workshops and online tools such as fundraising software.
The site offers information and purchasing information for all services offered by the association, as well as a museum location finding service.
The African American Museum and Library at Oakland is dedicated to discovering, preserving, interpreting, and sharing the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.
The museum offers exhibits, library access, and occasional recreational and educational events.
The Society's primary purpose is to authenticate the history of the Gum Springs Community by preserving its heritage, culture, artifacts, and traditions; to establish the Gum Springs Community as a historic landmark; to create and stimulate community awareness, appreciation, and involvement in the important activities of preserving culture, history, and tradition; and to establish a museum as a repository whereby the community may display artifacts that embody its cultural values and worldview. The Museum features a photographic exhibit of Gum Springs' residents and founding families. Many of these photos are close to 100 years old, and some are older.
The museum offers exhibits.
This outdoor museum encompasses authentically restored and furnished structures representing rural life in East Texas c. 1900. The purpose of the museum is to preserve the rural culture and architectural heritage of Texas to ensure present and future generations an opportunity to celebrate their heritage.