November 2010

The Museum's original 800 items have increased to over 9,000 and the collection continues to grow. Many items were acquired directly from heirs and friends of the Stevenson family. Original letters; manuscripts; journals; first, variant, early and presentation editions (including translations and annotated copies); rare periodicals; paintings and drawings; sculptures; photographs; scrapbooks; and memorabilia form the collection which includes: Stevenson's childhood letters and drawings; the last words he ever penned; two pages from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Stevenson's own copy of his first book, An Inland Voyage; the copy of A Child's Garden of Verses which he presented to his wife; his manuscript notes on The Master of Ballantrae and The Morals and Ethics of Life; unpublished manuscript poems; and over a hundred books from his library in Samoa. His lead soldiers; the desk at which he worked and composed Treasure Island; the box he made when learning carpentry as a boy; a `girondole mirror;' toll road sign; and his wedding ring are among many of the memorabilia comprising the collection.

Officially known as Fuerte San Felipe del Morro, this fort sits atop a high promontory overlooking the entrance to San Juan Bay. It is the result of the efforts of many different Spanish engineers over a period of more than 200 years and is one of the largest forts built by the Spaniards in the Caribbean. Although the foundations were laid in 1539, the six-level fort was not considered completed until 1787. During World War II, the U.S. government added an annex of its own design on top of the fort. This massive structure suffered countless attacks from the likes of Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and the Dutch fleet in 1625. In 1898 American ships fired on it during the Spanish-American War, destroying its lighthouse, which was later restored. Visit hidden passages, aim your camera on the cannons that still guard the harbor, and gaze over the 60-foot tall walls at the ocean. Stroll on the lawns where soldiers once marched and watch the children flying their kites in the afternoon sea breezes.

It is here in southwestern Pennsylvania that this little girl, who grew up to become "one of the most influential people of the 20th century," according to TIME magazine, developed her love or nature. The youngest and only child of three to attend college, Rachel Carson was a published writer by age 10. In addition she began a life-long love of the ocean - perhaps inspired by her daily view of the great Allegheny River.

The Homestead is situated in a suburban neighborhood where visitors can tour the four remaining rooms that Rachel Carson shared with her parents, her brother and sister. Standing in her bedroom, you can look through the window as she did and imagine what life was like for her as a young girl in the early 1900s. This was a humble home that had no indoor plumbing and a lean-to kitchen at the back of the house.

From this house, Emerson wrote his well known essays, such as Self-Reliance and The American Scholar; cultivated friendships with Bronson Alcott, Henry Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and others; and traveled throughout the United States and Europe to give lectures on moral character, spiritual insight, education, political power and reform, the arts and sciences, and the social order. In his later years, he advocated passionately for the abolition of slavery.

The Robert Frost Farm was home to Robert Frost and his family from 1900-1911. Frost, one of the nation's most acclaimed poets whose writings are said to be the epitome of New England, attributed many of his poems to memories from the Derry years. The simple two-story white clapboard farmhouse is typical of New England in the 1880s.

Tours, displays, a trail, and poetry readings are all available at the park.

The Pearl S. Buck House, home to the celebrated author and her international family for 38 years, now promotes her legacy.

Discover the legacy of the first American woman to receive the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes for literature. Learn about the life of author, activist, and humanitarian Pearl S. Buck by visiting the 68 acre estate, with beautiful gardens, greenhouses, cottage, milk house, and renovated barn. The 1825 stone farm house is an excellent example of nineteenth century architecture.

The historic home holds a rich collection of Pennsylvania country furniture alongside Chinese decorative screens, a silk wall hanging presented by the Dali Lama of Tibet, Chen Chi paintings and works by celebrated artists Redfield and Baum.

The Dunbar House exhibits his literary treasures, many of his personal items and his family's furnishings. During his short lifetime Dunbar became known as the poet laureate of African Americans. Drawing on his observations of society and the experience of his parents--both former slaves--he gave voice to the social dilemma of disenfranchised people of his day and became a proclaimer of black dignity. On July 23, 1936, the Dunbar House became the first state memorial to honor an African American.

Orchard House was the Alcott family's most permanent home (from 1858 to 1877). Louisa May Alcott wrote her classic work, Little Women, here in 1868 at a "shelf" desk built by her father especially for her. She also set Little Women in this home, causing guests to comment that "a visit to Orchard House is like walking through the book!" There have been no major structural changes to the site since the Alcotts’ time of residence. Approximately 75% of the furnishings were owned by the Alcotts, and the rooms look very much as they did when the family lived there.

History fills the walls of the Old Manse, from the house's construction in the 18th century to its inhabitance by famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose friend Henry David Thoreau planted a vegetable garden there.

A self-guided tour brings visitors by the reconstructed nineteenth-century boathouse and along the eighteenth-century stone walls lining the fields still kept as pastureland.  A guided house tour unfolds the story of those who lived here, beginning in 1770 with the Reverend William Emerson and including his grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who drafted his essay "Nature" while living in The Old Manse. 

A recreation of Henry David Thoreau's vegetable garden, planted in 1842 as a wedding gift to the Hawthornes, still flourishes in the same location.  The Concord River flows serenely past the Manse and under its neighbor, the North Bridge, site of the famous "shot heard 'round the world" that started the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.

This home contains over 200 years of family furnishings, including a Steinway cross-strung grand piano, eighteenth-century Cantonware, William Emerson's clock, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing desk. 

Known as "the master of the short story," O. Henry lived in this 1886 Queen Anne-style cottage from 1893 to 1895.

The O. Henry Museum offers a look into the life of William Sidney Porter, the man who became famous under the pen name O. Henry. His home has since been restored and now contains artifacts and memorabilia from Porter's life in Austin. During his more than thirteen years in Austin, Porter worked in a variety of occupations. Some of his experiences as a pharmacist, draftsman, bank teller, and reporter would later figure in his short stories. His first nationally known short story, "The Miracle of Lava Canyon", was published before leaving Texas in 1897.