November 2010

The Park is made up of 12 park sites located on a 40-mile stretch of the Pacific coast from Long Beach, WA to Cannon Beach, OR. Visit the sites in any order you wish; we recommend starting at Fort Clatsop or the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment. Both offer rangers, gift shops and exhibits on the region.

Located in a building inspired by the traditional longhouse, the museum contains a vast library of original 17th- and 18th- century papers and a comprehensive collection of modern Iroquois art. Exhibits highlight archaeological discoveries made by museum curators, including a recently-discovered 9600-year-old site in Schoharie County and a pre-Revolutionary Schoharie Mohawk home.

The beginnings of the Tennessee State Museum can be traced back to a museum opened on the Nashville public square in 1817 by a portrait artist, Ralph E.W. Earl. A young boy who visited that museum in 1823 wrote home that he had seen a life-size painting of then General Andrew Jackson. That same painting hangs today in the State Museum, now located at the corner of Fifth and Deaderick streets.

In 1937 the General Assembly created a state museum to house World War I mementoes and other collections from the state, the Tennessee Historical Society and other groups. This museum was located in the lower level of the War Memorial Building until it was moved into the new James K. Polk Center in 1981. The Tennessee State Museum currently occupies three floors, covering approximately 120,000 square feet with more than 60,000 square feet devoted to exhibits.

This society, founded in 1964, has concentrated on collecting local artifacts and preserving the historic landmarks that have characterized the Borough of Manheim.

The society is located in the Manheim Heritage Center, which includes a museum, library, and office. The society also manages a number of landmarks in the city such as a unique trolley car, the log Fasig House, the Manheim Railway Station, the town clock, and the Keith House. Information and self-guided tours of all are available at the Heritage Center.

Many of the Boston Harbor Islands contain buildings and structures related to such uses as coastal defense, agriculture, commercial fishing, year-round and summer habitation, resort life, industry, public health, immigration, and social welfare. More than 100 buildings and structures, including sea walls, forts, lighthouses, gun emplacements, concrete bunkers, wood-framed cottages, and brick military and institutional buildings, reflect the long history and changing character of the Boston Harbor Islands. With several notable exceptions, the buildings and structures of the Boston Harbor Islands have not been evaluated with National Register criteria for their historical significance but will be the subject of several studies. Structures currently on the Register are the three national historic landmarks (Fort Warren, Boston Light, Long Wharf), Graves Light, and Long Island Head Light.

It has roughly two dozen sites on the north face of Beacon Hill. These historic buildings were homes, businesses, schools, and churches of a thriving black community that, in the face of great opposition, fought the forces of slavery and inequality.

19th Century Abolitionists

The Boston African American National Historic Site contains buildings and sites connected to scores of men and women who fought for the abolition of slavery. Abolitionist activism took many forms: political speeches, court cases, newspaper and pamphlet publications, open militancy and defiance of federal laws, etc. Abolitionists such as Maria Stewart, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, and others spoke against slavery at the African Meeting House and at the Charles Street Meeting House. Lewis Hayden sheltered and protected hundreds of self-emancipated slaves at his boarding house on Phillips Street, as did other community leaders including the Rev. Leonard Grimes, William C. Nell,James Scott, and Susan Hillard. John J.Smith, Lewis Hayden, John Coburn, and a dozen other men helped rescue Shadrach Minkins from federal custody in 1851.   

Oaklands is the premier Italianate house in Rutherford County, and is listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places both for its architectural significance and its rich historical associations. The only historic house museum in Murfreesboro, Oaklands has been featured in many publications and is the subject of several major studies and reports.

The society manages a research libray as well as the McCoy House Museum, the birthplace of Major General Frank Ross McCoy in 1874.

The Mifflin County Historical Society, founded in 1921, had become known as "Frysinger' s Dream". The founder George R. Frysinger had served as a Civil War editor of the Lewistown Gazette and ended his years of affiliation with the Society as the President Emeritus. The McCoy home now serves as the museum of Mifflin County as well, containing the permanent collections of the area. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Pennsylvania Heritage Trail.

Of the large tobacco plantations of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, Northampton was one of the most prominent. However, only the ruins of the main plantation house, some outbuildings, and the slave quarters remains, even though the area was in operation as a farm until the 1950s. Archaeological findings have told much about life on the plantation for slaves and tenants alike. Visitors take a self-guided tour which tells the story of African Americans at Northampton from the 1790s through the 1930s.

Author and orator Booker T. Washington was born in this small plantation, where he eventually took his "first breath of freedom."

On April 5, 1856, Booker T. Washington was born a slave on the 207-arce farm of James Burroughs. After the Civil War, Washington became founder and first principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School. Later as an adviser, author and orator, his past would influence his philosophies as the most influential African American of his era.