Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and Museums

Description

The Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism promotes the arts, film, historic preservation, museums, and tourism in Connecticut. The commission operates four museums—the Henry Whitfield State Museum, the Prudence Crandall Museum, the New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine, and the Sloane-Stanley Museum. The Henry Whitfield State Museum, Prudence Crandall Museum, and New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine are listed separately in this database. The Sloan-Stanley Museum presents U.S. craftsmanship heritage and the local iron industry. Displays include hand tools, the studio of artist Eric Sloane (1905-1985), a replica circa 1800 cabin, and the remains of a granite blast furnace located on site.

The Sloane-Stanley Museum offers exhibits.

Old Island Restoration Foundation and the Oldest House [FL]

Description

The Old Island Restoration Foundation is primarily concerned with architectural preservation within Key West, Florida. However, the organization also operates the 1829 Oldest House museum. The residence was once home to a customs inspector, lightship captain, and wrecker. Wreckers were men who would race to shipwrecks in order to save the crews and to collect a portion of the cargo as their own. The museum holds furnishings, maritime artifacts, wrecker artifacts, ship models, and items once lost at sea. The structure itself is the oldest in South Florida, hence the name.

The museum offers exhibits and gardens.

Gilman Garrison House [New Hampshire]

Description

From the first English settlements of the 1630s to the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the frontier towns of New England lived with the threat of Indian attack. The 1709 Gilman Garrison House, described in 1719 as "the old logg house," was built as a fortified house, strategically sited to protect the valuable sawmills and waterpower sites owned by John Gilman. The interior of this unusual building reveals walls constructed of massive sawn logs and a pulley above the main entrance that was used to operate a portcullis, or reinforced door. In the mid 18th century, Peter Gilman substantially remodeled the house, adding a wing with elegantly paneled rooms.

The house offers tours.

Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation and the Hunt-Morgan House [KY]

Description

The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation advocates preservation of historic architecture within Lexington, Kentucky. The trust operates the 1815 Federal-style Hunt-Morgan House, restored to period appearance. The upper floor contains the The Alexander T. Hunt Civil War Museum.

The trust offers exhibits, period rooms, tours of the Hunt-Morgan House, traveling exhibits for rental, monthly brown bag lectures, preservation resources, a local history curriculum, walking tours of Gratz Park, and self-guided walking tours.

Newport Restoration Foundation: Rough Point, Whitehorne House, and Prescott Farm [RI]

Description

The Foundation maintains and operates historical sites throughout Newport, including Rough Point, the Whitehorne House, and Prescott Farm. Frederick W. Vanderbilt built the English Manorial house Rough Point in 1889 on a dramatic, windswept promontory on Newport's Cliff Walk, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Whitehorne House, housed in a Federal period mansion, features some of the best examples of Newport and Rhode Island furniture from the late 18th century. Prescott Farm offers the visitor a glimpse of early New England buildings and landscape. The farm buildings and land trace their origins to the early 18th century.

The foundation offers tours; Rough Point offers exhibits and tours; the Whitehorne House offers tours; Prescott Farm offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Marathon County Historical Society and Yawkey House Museum [WI]

Description

The Marathon County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Wisconsin—with particular emphasis on Marathon County. To this end, the society operates a local history exhibit area, research library, and the Yawkey House Museum. The Yawkey House is a 1901 Classical Revival residence now furnished in the style of 1915.

The society offers exhibits, 30-minute exhibit and museum guided tours, outreach presentations and slide shows, research library access, research assistance, relevant videos for rental, a junior historical society, and genealogy classes. Payment of a fee is required for research assistance. Reservations are required for museum group tours. The website offers historical photographs and biographies of past county residents.

Historic Collinsville [TN]

Description

Historic Collinsville is a living history museum featuring several authentically restored log houses and outbuildings from the mid 1800s. The settlement is also home to a one-room schoolhouse, church, and a exhibit center which focuses on Collinsville-area wildlife and Native Americans.

The museum offers exhibits, guided tours, and field trip programs. The website offers visitor information regarding the museum.

Strawberry Banke Museum [NH]

Description

The Strawberry Banke Museum is a living history museum of one of New Hampshire’s oldest neighborhoods and its history that dates back to the 1600's. The outdoor museum contains 42 historic buildings, the earliest build in 1695, and many contain live demonstrations of craftsmanship, cooking, and other forms of daily life at work.

School groups can tour the neighborhood on their own and partake in a Time Travel Workshop that includes hands-on activities lasting about 90 minutes on a specific, curriculum-based topic. Other programs on architecture, archeology, cooking, Early America, Trade and Maritime history, and the Industrial revolution meet New Hampshire education standards for many grade levels. The site also offers programs for home-schoolers and holiday programs.

Conestoga Area Historical Society [PA]

Description

The Conestoga Area Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of the Penn Manor Area, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. To this end, the society operates the circa 1850 Harnish House; an outdoor oven; a local history museum, housed in a 19th-century tobacco barn; and a working blacksmith shop. The Harnish House contains a selection of reproduction furniture, and addresses the life of the Harnish family. Society highlights include a Conestoga wagon and a tobacco stripping display.

The society offers exhibits and demonstrations.

Historic Bethlehem [PA]

Description

Historic Bethlehem presents and interprets three centuries of life within Bethlehem, PA. The site consists of a visitor center, the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, Burnside Plantation, Colonial Industrial Quarter, and Goundie House. The Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts discusses the history of the Lehigh Valley in the 18th through 20th centuries via a collection of decorative arts. The museum also hosts toys from the 1830s to 1930s. The Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, housed within a 1741 structure, presents the lives of Bethlehem, PA's Moravian founders. The Burnside Plantation consists of a barn and farmhouse dating to the 18th and 19th centuries. The site was once home to a Moravian missionary active in local politics. The Colonial Industrial Quarter consists of the 1869 Luckenbach Mill; Miller's House; 1762 Tannery; 1762 Waterworks, the first pumped town water system in the U.S.; and the restored working Blacksmith's Shop. The 1810 Federal Goundie House presents exhibits of local history.

The site offers exhibits, period rooms, group site tours, educational programs for students, a student outreach presentation, a traveling trunk, walking tours, Segway tours, lectures, and step on guides. Note that participants must weigh between 100 and 250 pounds for the Segway tours.