Vachel Lindsay Home

Description

This antebellum site is the birthplace and longtime home of poet (Nicholas) Vachel Lindsay. Lindsay was internationally known in the early 20th century for his poetry, the artwork he created to illustrate the poetry, and his animated performances of his work.

The site offers tours.

William Allen White House State Historic Site

Description

Visitors can tour the showplace home of William Allen White, nationally known newspaperman and author. From the 1890s through World War II, White influenced state and national politics through his writings from the heartland town of Emporia. White looms particularly large in the politics of his home state, debating the Populists of the 1890s and battling against the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

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

Thomas Wolfe Memorial [NC]

Description

Thomas Wolfe left an indelible mark on American letters. His mother's boardinghouse in Asheville—now the Thomas Wolfe Memorial—has become one of literature's most famous landmarks. Named "Old Kentucky Home" by a previous owner, the rambling Victorian structure was immortalized by Wolfe as "Dixieland" in his epic autobiographical novel, Look Homeward, Angel. Restored to look as it did in the early 20th century when young Tom Wolfe and Mrs. Wolfe's boarders shared a roof, the house evokes a time and a place that inspired one of the South's greatest writers.

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

Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum [MD]

Description

The Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum is the largest original
African American historical site in the United States. Established in 1998, it
includes Banneker’s original farmstead and a nature preserve that is located in Oella, Maryland. A multitude of adventures awaits you while exploring this 142-acre park and museum.

This site features: exhibits, excavated artifacts, multi-media presentations, a colonial cabin, gardens, and nature trails. Mary Bannaky may even welcome you to her homestead as she goes about her daily tasks.

Educational programs are available for students to learn about: Benjamin
Banneker’s extraordinary life and accomplishments, African American history in
Maryland, settlement and development of the Patapsco River Valley, life in the 18th century, and nature and environmental conservation.

Teachers are welcome to reserve a tour and/or rental space for professional development and teacher workshops. The site also provide digital data about our
programming.

Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches, Melrose Plantation, and Kate Chopin House [LA]

Description

The Association for Preservation of Historic Natchitoches seeks to preserve areas of historic value in the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase Territory. The Association maintains the Melrose Plantation and the Kate Chopin House. The Melrose story begins with Marie Therese Coincoin, a slave born in 1742; she was eventually she sold to a Frenchmen, Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer. In time, Metoyer freed Marie Therese and 10 Franco-African children. Evidence points to Metoyer as the father of these children. Marie Therese and son Louis Metoyer received large grants of land including the present Melrose Plantation. This Creole-style home celebrates its most famous resident, Kate Chopin, and its original inhabitant, Alexis Cloutier. Built by slave labor between 1805 and 1809, the structure exemplifies the early 19th-century homes of the area.

The association offers occasional recreational and educational events; the plantation offers tours; the house offers exhibits and tours.

Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum [MO]

Description

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum properties includes eight buildings: six historically significant buildings and two interactive museums whose collections include 15 original Norman Rockwell paintings. A self-guided tour of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum properties gives visitors the chance to explore the Hannibal of Samuel Clemens's childhood and experience the beloved stories he created as Mark Twain through the power of his imagination.

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

Berkshire County Historical Society and Herman Melville's Arrowhead [MA]

Description

The Society is committed to the preservation and interpretation of Arrowhead, home of author Herman Melville, the first National Historic Landmark to be so designated in Berkshire County. The author's study, piazza, the original fireplace from his short story "I and My Chimney" and the restored barn in which Melville and Hawthorne spent hours discussing their writings are all open to the public. The Society has also restored the North Meadow preserving the view of Mount Greylock which was a major inspiration to Melville.

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

The Harlem Renaissance

Description

From 1919 to 1929, Langston Hughes noted, "Harlem was in vogue." Black painters and sculptors joined writers and musicians in an artistic outpouring that established Harlem as the international capital of African American culture. Participants will study the evolution of the Harlem Renaissance through the music of Duke Ellington and Ethel Waters, the art of painter Archibald Motley and sculptor Augusta Savage, and the literary works of Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jean Toomer, among others.

Contact email
Sponsoring Organization
Newberry Library
Phone number
312-255-3700
Start Date
Cost
$180
Duration
Seven weeks
End Date

Masters of American Drama

Description

The plays of Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Clifford Odets, and Arthur Miller defined American theater. In a lecture and discussion-based seminar the works of these playwrights will be examined, concentrating on theme, structure, and social impact. The plays will give insight into the issues confronting what it meant to be an American during the first half of the 20th century, as well as understanding what makes American theater so powerful.

Contact email
Sponsoring Organization
Newberry Library
Phone number
312-255-3700
Start Date
Cost
$180
Duration
Eight weeks
End Date