Gardner Museum of Architecture and Design [IL]

Description

The Gardner Museum is a stone Romanesque Revival style building erected in 1888. It was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Patton and Fisher and built with limestone supplied by the Frederick W. Menke Stone Works of Quincy. It presents exhibits related the history of local architecture and design. The second floor's large room, formerly the library reading room, has a tongue and groove wood vaulted ceiling. It now houses the "Aspirations in Glass" exhibit of stained glass windows saved from demolished churches.

The museum offers exhibits, research library access, and tours. Unfortunately, the museum is now closed due to lack of funding.

Eastern Shore Railway Museum [VA] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:39
Description

"What You’ll Find at the Museum:
* 1906 New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk (later Pennsylvania) Railroad passenger station
* 1890's maintenance-of-way tool shed full of tools and other railway artifacts
* Turn-of-the-century crossing guard shanty
* Railcars lined up on the Museum's sidings
* Picnic tables and a pavilion for family reunions
* Artifacts from the many railroads that have operated on the Delmarva peninsula since the mid-1800's"

Huddleston Farmhouse [IN]

Description

Owned and restored by Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, the 1841 Huddleston Farmhouse is open to the public as a museum where visitors learn about the daily lives of John and Susannah Huddleston and their 11 children, as well as the travelers who crowded the porches and yard and rented the farmhouse's two "travelers' kitchens" for cooking and sleeping. Travelers' diaries, archaeological digs, county records, and recollections of the Huddlestons' descendants are part of the guided tour that paints a rich picture of real lives in a young state.

The house offers exhibits, tours, and educational and recreational events.

Fort Pitt Museum [PA] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:38
Description

Situated in the recreated Monongahela Bastion at Point State Park, the Fort Pitt Museum commemorates the strategic importance of the Forks of the Ohio during the Great War for Empire in which British, French, Colonial, and Native American forces struggled for control of North America. Through exhibits and programs, the museum also addresses the important role of Fort Pitt during the American Revolution and the early development of the city of Pittsburgh. The site presents tours, exhibits, educational programs, and publications to broaden understanding of the significance of the area known as "the Point." In meeting this goal, Fort Pitt Museum closely examines the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the various military fortifications established on the site, the many cultures that influenced the development of the region, and the importance of the fur trade and other early commerce.

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

Historical Society and Museum of Ocean Grove and Centennial Cottage

Description

The Society's Museum has a collection of approximately 15,000 artifacts and pieces relative to the history of Ocean Grove, the Holiness Movement, camp meetings, Methodism, Monmouth County, and 19th-century life. The Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of Ocean Grove, recording the history of camp meetings, and to recording aspects of the Victorian Age. The 1879 Centennial Cottage serves as the Society's living history museum. Visitors to the cottage gain an understanding of life in a 19th-century camp meeting and seaside resort community.

The society offers tours, lectures, and research library access; the museum and cottage offer exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Georgetown Loop Historic Mining and Railroad Park [CO] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:39
Description

An engineering marvel originally built in 1884, the Georgetown Loop railroad fulfilled the hopes of Georgetown citizens to become a prosperous settlement connected to Denver and points east. In connecting Silver Plume and Georgetown, towns over 2 miles apart, the tracks scaled an elevation of 640 feet over mountainous terrain, requiring trestles, cuts, fills, loops, and curves totaling 4.5 miles. Today the Loop is once again a popular tourist attraction and an uncommon way to see the Clear Creek Valley. Along the route visitors may stop for guided tours of a historic silver mine. The park is located on 978 acres and includes an 1884 depot, the Morrison Interpretive Center, two 1860s mines, an 1871 mill building, four reconstructed mine buildings, a locomotive maintenance building, the 1874 Pohle House, and a new rolling stock shelter.

A second, individual website for the park can be found here.

The park offers a short film, train rides, tours, and exhibits.

Oklahoma Territorial Museum

Description

The Museum, through artifacts, photographs, and paintings tells the story of Oklahoma's territorial period. The facility covers approximately 10,000 square feet divided between two floors. The first floor presents exhibits embracing the first land run in the territories and the events leading up to the day, April 22, 1889. Exhibitions also cover the territorial lifestyle, including the homesteader and the urban aspect. Items related to territorial government, transportation, education, entertainment, and the statehood experience are presented in the second floor exhibits. Attached to the museum is the Historic Carnegie Library of Guthrie. Built in 1902, it hosted many important political and social events in early Oklahoma history and still houses its original furnishings.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, and educational and recreational events and programs.

Chisholm Trail Museum [OK]

Description

Once the greatest cow trail in the world, the Chisholm Trail served to get Texas cattle north to the Kansas railheads from which they were shipped to the other parts of the country. The main stem of the Chisholm Trail ran along what is now US 81. Cattle were first moved over the trail in 1867. In the ten years from 1867 to 1877, more than three million head of cattle passed through Oklahoma to Kansas. In Kingfisher County all three parts of the trail can be seen. The Chisholm Trail Museum is located directly on this famous trail.

The museum offers exhibits.