Lyndon B. Johnson State Park, Historic Site, and Sauer-Beckmann Farm [TX]

Description

The park's location is historically significant since it is in the heart of the former President's home country. The area has been influenced by three major cultures: Native Americans, Spanish, and German. Indians roamed the Hill Country first, leaving behind artifacts which tell of their nomadic life. The Spanish conquistadors followed, bringing a culture which was to endure to the present. German immigrants settled the Hill Country in the early 1800s and their descendants still call it home. Their culture has had a major impact on the development of the region and the park itself. All of these cultures are represented at the park. The Visitor Center contains memorabilia from President Johnson's presidency and interactive displays about the land and people that shaped a president. Attached to the Visitors Center is the Behrens Cabin, a two-room dogtrot cabin built by German immigrant H. C. Behrens during the 1870s. The furnishings are typical of such homes in that period. Visitors can further explore the history of these immigrants by viewing the 1860s Danz family log cabin located just west of the Visitor Center. Also located in the park is the Sauer-Beckmann Farm, a living history farm. Life on the farmstead is presented as it was in 1918. Park interpreters wear period clothing, do the farm and household chores as they were done at that time, and also conduct tours for the visitors.

The site offers exhibits, tours, demonstrations, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920

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Image for Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920
Annotation

These published works, manuscripts, images, and motion picture footage address the formation of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage. Materials include 62 books and pamphlets, 140 Federal statutes and Congressional resolutions, 34 additional legislative documents, and excerpts from the Congressional Globe and the Congressional Record. An additional 360 presidential proclamations, 170 prints and photographs, two historic manuscripts, and two motion pictures are available.

Materials include Alfred Bierstadt paintings, period travel literature, a photographic record of Yosemite, and Congressional acts regarding conservation and the establishment of national parks. An annotated chronology discusses events in the development of the conservation movement with links to pertinent documents and images.

Film and Video
Newspapers and Periodicals
Official Documents
Paintings and Prints
Photographs
conservation
conservation movement
conservationists; muir
government documents
john; roosevelt
parks
photographs
politicians
presidents
theodore; national parks
travel
U.S. Congress
Yosemite
Images
Text
Video
Earth Day
Splash Pullout Earth Day
Learn Earth Day
Civil War & Reconstruction, 1850-1877
Devel. of the Industrial US, 1870-1900
Emergence of Modern US, 1890-1930
Art
Environment
Ideas & Ideologies
Legal History
Literature
Media
Politics
Popular Culture, Leisure
Reform

President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home [DC]

Description

Located in Washington, DC, the Cottage served as the summer home of President Lincoln and his family during the Civil War. The Lincolns lived in the cottage between June and November of 1862, 1863, and 1864. Beginning in 1851 the campus surrounding the structure was used as a home for disabled veterans, and it continues to serve that purpose.

The cottage offers a visitor center with exhibits, guided tours, and educational programs. Educational programs include interactive tours for K-12 students, off-site programs for 6th -12th-grade students, and on-site professional development workshops for educators. Pre- and post-visit activities are offered online for all student tours. Off-site program topics include Lincoln's commute and the controversy and debate surrounding emancipation.

Note that school tours require at least three weeks advance notice.

Resources for Presidents Day

Date Published
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Photo, Presidential Seal, Jan. 11, 2011, Dave Newman (newmanchu), Flickr
Article Body

February 20 marks Presidents Day, 2012. An evolving holiday, it originally celebrated George Washington's birthday. Today, the holiday is also associated with Abraham Lincoln's birthday and with the office of president in general.

How do you think of this holiday? What does it mean to your students?

Regardless of which presidents you associate with the holiday or how you teach the presidency, you'll find resources to support you on our Presidents Day spotlight page. From lesson plan reviews to quizzes to teaching strategies, you'll find materials here to spark new ideas and deepen units and lessons you already teach.

There are plenty of resources available outside of Teachinghistory.org, too. Where else can you explore? Here are some ideas:

  • Download a primary source set on Presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln and explore presidential portraits courtesy of the Library of Congress.
  • Try out the many roles a president must play with Scholastic's interactive "7 Hat Challenge," or explore other Scholastic resources.
  • Download lesson plans from EDSITEment's collection curated to accompany the PBS series The Presidents.
  • Watch videos, view photographs, or learn about John Wilkes Booth and Lincoln's assassination in an interactive from HISTORY.com—or watch videos on the lives of more recent presidents.
  • Read primary sources on the history of the holiday from the National Archives and Records Administration.
  • Browse the Smithsonian Institution's resources on Abraham Lincoln, from his top hat to online exhibits to recommended picture books. Or skim through other digital resources on the presidents and the presidency.
  • Uncover lesson plans, interactives, and other materials on presidential elections, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Andrew Jackson in the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History's online journal History Now.
  • Read up on the lives of the presidents at Bio.com—or the White House.

A Patriot's History of the United States, Part Two: Reinterpreting Reagan and the Cold War

Description

Professor Larry Schweikart argues that most popular textbooks today show a liberal, left-wing bias. He reexamines specific periods in U.S. history from a conservative perspective, focusing particularly on the slave market within the U.S. and then on Ronald Reagan's presidency and his role in ending the Cold War.

This lecture continues from A Patriot's History of the United States, Part One: Liberty and Property in the American Past.

A Patriot's History of the United States, Part One: Liberty and Property in the American Past

Description

Professor Larry Schweikart argues that most popular textbooks today show a liberal, left-wing bias. He reexamines specific periods in U.S. history from a conservative perspective, focusing on Ronald Reagan's presidency and the colonization of the original colonies, particularly as documents from the latter discuss property rights.

This lecture continues in A Patriot's History of the United States, Part Two: Reinterpreting Reagan and the Cold War.

Grant Boyhood Home and Grant Schoolhouse [OH]

Description

The Grant Boyhood Home was the home of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States, from 1823, when Grant was one year old, until 1839, when he left to attend West Point. Ulysses Grant lived in this home longer than any other during his lifetime. Jesse and Hanna Grant, the parents of young Hiram Ulysses Grant, built the original two-story brick section of the Grant Boyhood home in 1823, when they moved to Georgetown from Point Pleasant in Clermont County, where Ulysses had been born the year before. Grant attended the Schoolhouse from the ages of about six to 13. The building, built in 1829, consisted of only one room at that time.

The site offers tours.

New Visitor's Center Opens at Monticello

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Monticello Visitors Center
Article Body

Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, officially opens a new visitor center on April 15. The Visitor Center billed as the 21st-century gateway to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, offers hands-on, thought-provoking, interactive views and experiences of the artifacts and ideas that help define Jefferson and his times.

A New York Times museum review, Jefferson's Blind Spots and Ideals, in Brick and Mortar, emphasizes that the overwhelming sweep of the new exhibits serves, in part, to highlight the diversity, tension, and contradictions of Jefferson's genius and the effect of that genius on his personal life and his vision for the nation.

As Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum points out, the exhibitions and a discovery room reflect changes in how we talk about and present history. "Nowadays, hagiography is Out. Historical reconstruction is In. Silent contemplation of the great man's possessions is also Out. Recent scholarship about those possessions is firmly In. Interactive games and objects are In, too."

Monticello pioneered the movement to increase online, public access to historical resources.

And if you live too far away to visit? Monticello has pioneered the movement to increase online, public access to historic collections, archives, and resources. The superb Monticello website offers The Monticello Classroom with sections for kids and for teachers, access to Resource Packets (K–12), and a wealth of essays, podcasts, and research resources. The online Press Room offers video clips and images of the new center as well.

And at Jefferson Today, scholars, public figures, and the general public can debate and interpret Thomas Jefferson's ideas and present-day events. Read, for example, how Jefferson dealt with pirates off the coast of Africa, see an image and transcription of Jefferson's 1801 address to Congress addressing the problem, and link to commentary from the Library of Congress.

Monticello has also joined other public history venues on Facebook where an active membership shares events, comments, photos, and all things Jeffersonian.

On YouTube, the Monticello Channel includes a nine-and-a-half-minute video narrated by historian David McCullough and a series of clips of a lecture by Annette Gordon-Reed discussing the process of researching and writing The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.

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