Steppingstone Museum [MD]

Description

The Steppingstone Museum presents farming life in Harford County, Maryland between 1880 and 1920. Emphasis is placed on arts, crafts, agriculture, animal husbandry, other trades, and domestic life. The stone farmhouse on site is furnished to period. Outbuildings hold woodwright, joiner, copper, blacksmith, weaver, dairy farmer, spinner, potter, and wheelwright tools and veterinarian office, decoy carver workshop, and general store settings.

The museum offers period rooms, exhibits, guided tours, and craft workshops

Beauport House, the Sleeper-McCann House

Description

Beauport, the 1907–1934 summer home of the collector and interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper, is a fantasy house built on the rocks overlooking Gloucester Harbor. Crowned by towers, dormers, and dovecotes, the structure encloses a labyrinth of rooms decorated to evoke different historical and literary themes. Every nook and alcove holds a composition of curiosities, folk art, china, or colored glass. The settings—playful variations on subjects like the early American kitchen, an English cottage, or the sea captain's retreat—are arranged to amuse and to stimulate the imagination.

The site offers tours and educational and recreational programs.

Highlands Historical Society and Historic Village [NC]

Description

The Highlands Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Highlands, North Carolina, founded in 1875. To this end, the society operates the Historic Village, which consists of the 1877 House-Trapier-Wright Home, 1908 Bug Hill Cottage, and the Highlands Historical Museum and Archives. The House-Trapier-Wright Home serves as a living history museum. The Bug Hill Cottage is an open-air cubicle once used to house and treat tuberculosis patients. 60 such cubicles once existed at the sanatorium on site. The historical museums exhibits address women's lives, moonshine, historic structures, genealogy, education, religion, and the area tuberculosis sanatorium, among other topics.

The society offers exhibits, period rooms, and living history interpretation.

Key West Heritage House Museum and Robert Frost Cottage [FL]

Description

The Key West Heritage House Museum presents the literary and piracy histories of Key West, as well as life in the area over six generations. The structure itself is an 1830s Caribbean Colonial residence. Collections include period furnishings and maritime artifacts. The grounds include gardens and the Robert Frost cottage, in which audio recordings of the poet's work can be heard.

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

Kosciusko County Historical Society and Museums [IN]

Description

The Kosciusko County Historical Society offers a glimpse into Indiana's past with several renovated historical buildings to visit. Visitors can tour the 1870 county jail museum, the 1838 Pound Store museum, and visit the 1897 Tippecanoe River Bridge (now closed to traffic).

The society offers exhibits and a library where students and teachers may look up information about Kosciusko County and its residents' genealogical records.

Old City Cemetery and Museums [VA]

Description

The Old City Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Virginia, in continuous operation since 1806. The site includes the Mourning Museum, Pest House Medical Museum, Hearse House and Cemetery Caretaker's Museum, Station House, and Chapel and Columbarium. The Station House is furnished in a circa World War I style. The Hearse House contains a circa 1900 hearse and a variety of cemetery caretaker tools. The Mourning Museum presents 19th- and 20th-century mourning attire, jewelry, and etiquette, as well as the history of coffins and embalming. Topics relevant to the site include horticulture, symbolism, ironwork, Civil War medicine, mourning practices of the Victorian era, railways, African American history, the founding of Lynchburg, women, archaeology, and local disasters. The cemetery has been in use since 1806.

The cemetery offers self-guided tours; period rooms; exhibits; Mourning Museum tours; interior tours of the Pest House, Hearse House, Station House, and Chapel; audio tours; customizable guided cemetery tours; and wayside signs. Appointments are required for interior tours of the Pest House, Hearse House, Station House, and Chapel, as well as for guided cemetery tours. The website offers lesson plans, brief descriptions of notable figures interred on site, a virtual African American history tour, and brief informative articles.

John G. Neihardt State Historic Site [NE]

Description

Visitors to this site can discover the story of John G. Neihardt, Nebraska's Poet Laureate and author of Black Elk Speaks. John G. Neihardt called Bancroft, Nebraska home from 1900 to 1920. Visitors can see the study where the famous poet wrote many of his works or visit the interpretive center and walk in the Sioux Prayer Garden. Among the many objects on exhibit in the memorial room are items Lakota Holy Man Black Elk gave to Neihardt over the course of their friendship, including the sacred hoop of the world, a drum, and a pipe. The Neihardt Center has a library of secondary sources exploring Neihardt's life and legacy available to researchers for inhouse use.

The site offers exhibits, tours, research library access, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Empire Mine State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Empire Mine State Historic Park is the site of one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest, and richest gold mines in California. In existence for more than 100 years, the mine produced 5.6 million ounces of gold before it closed in 1956. The park contains many of the mine's buildings, the owner's home. and restored gardens, as well as the entrance to 367 miles of abandoned and flooded mine shafts.

The park offers exhibits, tours, living history presentations and events, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Greater Cape May Historical Society and the Colonial House [NJ]

Description

The Greater Cape May Historical Society operates the Colonial House. The Colonial House was built prior to the Revolutionary War. Memucan Hughes, member of an area whaling family, used the site as a tavern during the Revolution. His eldest son later used the building as a residence. The site presents the Hughes' life in historic Cape May, New Jersey.

The house offers exhibits.

Atlanta History Center [GA]

Description

The Atlanta History Center consists of the Atlanta History Museum, Swan House, Tullie Smith Farm, Centennial Olympic Games Museum, historic gardens, Kenan Research Center, and the Margaret Mitchell House. The Atlanta History Museum depicts the story of Atlanta, GA, from early settlement to modern day. Permanent exhibits address historical development, the Civil War, folk arts, and golfer Bobby Jones. The Olympic museum presents the history of the Olympic Games and the sports which take place at the games via a collection of artifacts and photographs. Topics addressed include financing the event, community involvement, global travel to the Olympics, the bid process, and building game venues. The six historic gardens represent groups of people who influenced the development of Atlanta. The Kenan Research Center provides resources for the study of the history and culture of Atlanta and the South. Particular emphasis is given to gardens, military history, decorative arts, and genealogy. The 1928 Swan House portrays life in the 1920s-1930s; while the 1840s Tullie Smith Farm home is representative of area rural life, and is surrounded by outbuildings, such as a blacksmith shop. The Margaret Mitchell House is listed separately within this database.

The center offers guided student tours, self-guided student tours, traveling trunks, interactive outreach programs for students, homeschool days, educator workshops, lectures, toddler programs, summer camps, musical performances, gardens, and living history presentations. The Atlanta History Museum offers exhibits, summer camps, and a cafe. The Centennial Olympic Games Museum offers interactive and traditional exhibits, a sports lab, and multimedia presentations. The Kenan Research Center offers research library access. The Swan House offers an exhibit of decorative arts, audio tours, guided tours, and period rooms. The Tullie Smith Farm offers period rooms, guided tours, and demonstrations. The website offers lesson plans, a virtual tour, and a game based on the P.O.W. experience.