Casey Farm

Description

This mid-18th-century homestead overlooking Narragansett Bay was the center of a plantation that produced food for local and foreign markets. Located near Newport, Casey Farm had access to material goods imported from England, enabling its early owners to live in a fashionable manner. Today, resident farm managers raise organically grown vegetables, herbs, and flowers for subscribing households in a Community Supported Agriculture program. The guided tour includes the farmyard and cemetery, where six generations of Caseys are buried.

The farm offers tours and educational and recreational programs.

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village [MI]

Description

The Henry Ford Museum presents U.S. ideas and inventions. Exhibit topics include agriculture; clockwork; automobiles; Presidential limousines; furnishings; manufacturing; jewelry; home appliances; R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House, a 1940s house of the future; aviation; human rights within the United States; silver; pewter; transportation; and 20th-century generations. Collection highlights include Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theatre, one of George Washington's camp beds, a replica of the Wright brothers' Flyer, the limousine in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated, a Gothic steam engine, and the Goldenrod. The Goldenrod broke world land speed records in 1965. The 80-acre Greenfield Village incorporates 83 historic structures. District themes include the railway, an 1880s working farm, Thomas Alva Edison, home life between the 17th and 20th centuries, historic skills, and the Model T Ford.

The museum offers exhibits, three curriculum-based guided activity programs, one curriculum-based dramatic presentation, and cafes. The village offers exhibits, interactive activities, the opportunity to ride historic vehicles, eight curriculum-based dramatic presentations, a self-guided activity for students, restaurants, and a food stall. The site also offers teacher workshops, a teacher fellow program, summer camps, Scout programs, and a youth mentorship program. Wheelchairs and electric scooters are available for use on site. The village is closed between January and mid-April. The website offers virtual exhibits, teacher's guides, student exploration guides, suggested pre- and post-visit activities, a club for teachers, and audio tour downloads.

Oak Creek Historical Society and Museum [WI]

Description

The Oak Creek Historical Society operates a museum complex. The complex includes the 1840s Hughes Log Cabin, which depicts Wisconsin pioneer life; an 1890 summer kitchen, displaying the history of textile cleaning techniques; the 1874 Oak Creek Town Hall; an 1886 blacksmith shop; a farm shed with farming implements from the 1830s through 1950s; and a print shop.

The society offers period rooms, exhibits, and guided tours.

Phelps Historical Society and Museum [NY]

Description

The Phelps Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Phelps, New York. To this end, the society operates a museum and the circa 1835 Country Lawyer's Office. The museum is located within the 1869 Second Empire-style Howe House, and presents exhibits on historical households and farming life.

The society offers exhibits, customizable group programs, and access to the Country Lawyer's Office. The law office is open by appointment only.

Camden County Historical Society, Pomona Hall, and Museum [NJ]

Description

The Camden County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Camden County, New Jersey. To this end, the society operates a 20,000 volume library, the circa 1788 Georgian-style Pomona Hall, and a museum. Pomona Hall offers a glimpse of daily life following the Revolutionary War. The museum presents 300 years of area history, including exhibits on weaving, farming, education, blacksmithing, and transportation.

The society offers research library access, a traveling trunk, and school outreach presentations. Pomona Hall offers period rooms, open hearth cooking demonstrations, spinning demonstrations for students, and student tours. The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, and student tours. Payment of a fee is required for non-members to use the research library.

Fulton County Historical Society and Museums [IN]

Description

The Fulton County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Fulton County, Indiana. To this end, the society operates a museum; a 1924 round barn, containing historic farming implements; a living history village; and a research library. Exhibit topics include music, art, living conditions between 1910 and 1935, toys, medicine, Native Americans, education, the military, recreation, trade, religion, and the circus.

The society also manages another site (www.potawatomi-tda.org) which shows the Potawatomi Trail of Death 1838 diary, photos of all 78 historical markers and of the many Potawatomi who had ancestors on the Trail of Death from Indiana to Kansas, exhibits, period rooms, a tour and scavenger hunt for students, and research library access.

Grayson County Historical Society and Museum [KY]

Description

The Grayson County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Grayson County, Kentucky. To this end, the society operates a museum and research library within the circa 1814 Jack Thomas House. The society also operates the 1835 Buchanan Log Cabin, which houses home and farm tools. Highlights within the cabin include a handmade loom, over a century in age.

The society offers exhibits, tours of the Buchanan Log Cabin, and research library access.

Newark Valley Historical Society, Bement-Billings Farmstead, and the Railroad Depot [NY]

Description

The Newark Valley Historical Society operates two historical sites. The 90-acre Bement-Billings Farmstead is a living history farm museum, which interprets early 19th-century farming, daily life, and the environment. The grounds include the farmhouse, outbuildings, the reconstructed threshing barn, and a replica blacksmith shop. The Railroad Depot presents local transportation and commercial history.

The farmstead offers group tours, educational programs for students, tours, a day camp, historic skill demonstrations, and a junior docent program. The depot offers tours, activities, lectures, concerts, and other events between June and September.