November 2010

Founded in 1982, the Jonesborough/Washington County History Museum and Archives collects artifacts, documents and photographs to help tell the stories of the land and people who formed "the mother of Tennessee".

Visitors can float past 200 years of Georgia history on a replica canal cargo boat, visit the award-winning Canal Interpretive Center in a restored textile mill, view the Confederate Powderworks chimney, or hike, bike or paddle along the historic waterway.

The 1848 Granite Mill is the oldest mill to begin operations on the canal. After the canal expanded in the 1870s, the large, brick Enterprise Mill was built on the site. Today it houses businesses, apartments and the Augusta Canal Interpretive Center. The 10,000 square-foot visitor center houses models, movies and working mill machinery. Daily narrated guided tours are conducted aboard open-air boats modeled after the cargo vessels that carried cotton and other crops to markets.

The original 92 acre property was owned by members of the Herr family since 1844. Although the date stone on the house reads 1852, there is evidence that the north side of the house was erected earlier. The first family member to reside there was Henry Herr, who was a descendent of Hans Herr, one of Lancaster's earliest settlers. Henry Herr and his wife Elizabeth raised 6 children at the homestead and eventually their son, Amos B. Herr took over farming the property and raising tobacco. Amos and his wife, Emma made major renovations to the house in 1913. They had one child, Amos Rohrer Herr who began managing the property in 1926 upon the death of his father. When Amos R. Herr's beloved wife Ethel passed away in 1964, he gave a portion of the 55-acre tract to East Hempfield Township. Amos R. Herr lived at the farm until his death in 1987 when the remaining acreage was formally turned over to East Hempfield Township with the stipulation that the land be used for public good.

The Society of the Cincinnati was founded at the close of the Revolutionary War by the officers of the Continental line and their French counterparts, who had served together in the struggle for American independence. They wished to preserve the rights and liberties for which they had fought and to foster the bonds of friendship that had been formed among them during the long years of war. The Society's founding document, the Institution, was adopted on May 13, 1783. The Society took its name from the Roman hero Cincinnatus, the citizen-soldier who was twice called to lead his country in war and, after each each victory, declined offers of power and position to return to his home and plough. George Washington, known as the "Cincinnatus of the West," was elected the Society's first president general, a position he held until his death in 1799.

The Spanish Governor's Palace is an excellent example of a large Spanish colonial townhouse. Constructed in 1749, it was used as the headquarters and residence of the captain of the San Antonio De Bexar Presidio and dubbed the "Spanish Governor's Palace." The residence was later the home of Ignatio Perez, governor of Texas from 1815 to 1817. The one-story stuccoed stone building surrounds a traditional Spanish courtyard. It also has wrought iron window grilles and an entrance with a keystone bearing the Hapsburg coat of arms. The Spanish Governor's Palace is the only remaining example in Texas of an aristocratic 18th-century Spanish residence.

Yucca House is one of the largest archeological sites in southwest Colorado, and acted as an important community center for the Ancestral Puebloan people from A.D. 1150-1300. The long-term preservation of Yucca House ensures that archeologists will be able to continue studying Ancestral Puebloan society and what caused them to migrate from this region in the late 1200s. On July 2, 1919, Henry Van Kleeck deeded 9.6 acres of land, including most of Yucca House, to the federal government. Due to its significance as an excellent example of a valley pueblo, Woodrow Wilson made Yucca House a National Monument by Presidential Proclamation on December 19, 1919.

Arkansas Post became part of the United States following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. By 1819, the post was a thriving river port and the largest city in the region and selected as the first capital of the Arkansas Territory.

During the Civil War, Confederate troops tried to maintain tactical control of the confluence of the Arkansas and White Rivers, and in 1862 they constructed a massive earthen fortification known as Fort Hindman at the Post. In January 1863 Union troops destroyed the fort, ensuring control of the Arkansas River.

At the Visitor Center and Museum, visitors are invited to view the park movie, "Arkansas Post: Echoes of the Past" and explore museum exhibits reflecting over three hundred years of human history at Arkansas Post. Visitors can also immerse themselves in the natural beauty and tranquility of over two miles of trails winding through the historic town site and an ancient hardwood forest.

A campus history project initiated in the late 1920s created a repository that ultimately emerged as the B. Carroll Reece Memorial Museum. The museum collection grew as a part of the university's library, and in 1965, the collection was transferred to its present location in the renovated building that had most recently housed the art department. The Art Department's permanent collection of works of art became the core of the Reece Museum's fine arts collection.

The Reece Museum is a component of ETSU's Center for Appalachian Studies and Services and has been accredited by the American Association of Museums since 1972.

Camp Sumter, commonly called Andersonville, was one of the largest military prisons established by the Confederacy during the Civil War. In existence for 14 months, over 45,000 Union soldiers were confined at the prison. Of these, almost 13,000 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, and exposure to the elements. The largest number held in the 26½-acre stockade at any one time was more than 32,000, during August of 1864. Today the beauty of the prison site belies the suffering that once took place inside the stockade.

The exhibits in the National Prisoner of War Museum serve as a memorial to all American prisoners of war. The museum opened in 1998 and is dedicated to the American men and women who have suffered as POWs.

The society is located on the second floor of the Philip Schaff Library at Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is open to the public for research and education.