November 2010

The last all sail ship built by the U.S. Navy, and the last Civil War-era vessel still afloat, the USS Constellation is now open as a museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Launched in 1854 out of the Chesapeake Bay, the vessel served her country for 100 years before finally being decommissioned in 1955.

Prior to the Civil War, the Constellation's main purpose was intercepting slave ships. With the onset of the war, it was charged with chasing Confederate raiders. At the end of the 19th century, it served as a training ship for midshipmen at the Naval Academy.

Today there are a wide range of activities and demonstrations to illustrate what life was like aboard the vessel as a part of Historic Ships in Baltimore.

In 1804, the followers of the Separatist George Rapp (1757-1847) emigrated to America from Iptingen (near Stuttgart) in southwest Germany seeking religious and economic freedom. Nearly 800 farmers and craftsmen followed their leader to Butler County, Pennsylvania where they built the town of Harmony. Ten years later they migrated westward to Posey County, Indiana founding a second town named Harmony, which today is known as New Harmony.

This museum explores the history of dentistry in the United States and includes many famous artifacts.

Opened in 1996 and designated in 2003 by Congress as the official national dental museum, this site’s collection includes 40,000 objects pertaining to the history of dentistry. There is also a permanent exhibition which includes Queen Victoria’s gilded dental instruments and George Washington’s denture.

Baker Mansion was originally home to ironmaster Elias Baker and his family. Baker purchased the nearby Alleghany Furnace in 1836 in partnership with his cousin Roland Diller. Elias brought his wife, Hetty, and their two sons, David Woods and Sylvester, from Lancaster County to what was described as a "tolerable good mansion house" near the furnace. Shortly after they arrived, a daughter, Anna, was born. A fourth child, Margaretta, was born in 1839, but she died of diphtheria at the age of two.

In 1844, Elias Baker bought out his cousin's share in the furnace. That same year, he contracted with Baltimore architect Robert Cary Long, Jr. to design him a new home. Work got underway on the mansion in 1845 but many problems and delays retarded its completion until 1849. The total cost was about $15,000. The cost overruns, coupled with falling prices for iron, pushed Mr. Baker to the brink of financial ruin before the home was finished. Still, Baker, ever the determined businessman, pressed ahead and achieved his dream house. He would enjoy it for fifteen years until his death in 1864. Hetty Baker remained a widow until her death in 1900.

Mount Clare was the center of Georgia Plantation, a self-sufficient plantation with a diverse community. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971, the Mount Clare Museum House now educates the public about all aspects of life on an 18th century plantation including the lives of enslaved Africans and indentured servants.

This fort, built by General Daniel Roberdeau, set out to produce lead to make ammunition for the Continental Army. More importantly, it serves as a place for locals to flee when British, Tories, and Native Americans threatened. It also served as a base for local militias to launch attacks on the Redcoats.

The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle is one of the world's leading repositories for the study of English Romanticism. Its holdings consist of some 25,000 books, manuscripts, letters, and other objects, chiefly from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Authors included within the collection are Percy Bysshe Shelley and his contemporaries, including his second wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, her parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and such friends and fellow writers as Lord Byron, Claire Clairmont, Teresa Guiccioli, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Love Peacock, Horace Smith, and Edward John Trelawny.

Thompson-Brown House, included in the National Register of Historic Places and located at 1004 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, Tennessee, is one of the oldest two-story, two pen log buildings in East Tennessee. The exact date of construction or who built it has not been pinpointed, but archeologists believe the house was erected in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. William Thompson purchased the land from Thomas Barclay. Thompson is thought to have built or had the house built. The Thompson family story tells of the birth of a daughter in the house in 1823.

Inspired by his love of the land, Bromfield restored the rich fertility of the farmlands and preserved the beauty of the woodlands. He built a 32-room country home, where his family, friends and neighbors could share the pleasure of life on the farm. In his book, Pleasant Valley, Bromfield wrote, "Every inch of it (the house) has been in hard use since it was built and will, I hope go on being used in the same fashion so long as it stands. Perhaps one day it will belong to the state together with the hills, valleys and woods of Malabar Farm." Bromfield's prophecy came true in August 1972, when the state of Ohio accepted the deed to Malabar Farm. The state pledged to preserve the beauty and ecological value of the farm.

The National Constitution Center was created by the Constitution Heritage Act in 1988. The Center is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness about the Constitution and its relevance in Americans’ daily lives.