Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Jedidiah Morse, a pastor who was as well known for his geography as Noah Webster, a friend of the family, was known for his dictionaries.

Huguenot Historical Society

"The Huguenot Historical Society invites you to journey back in time by exploring the historic house museums of Huguenot Street and the nearby Locust Lawn mansion and farm complex. While the original portion of many of the homes date to the 1680s, continuous family ownership through the centuries resulted in modifications to meet changing needs, offering the visitor a unique chance to experience the history of a Hudson Valley village through the ages. So come and experience three hundred years of history!"

FDR Presidential Library and Museum

Educational Resources on FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt including biographies, online photos and exhibits, and preparation material for a site visit.

Watershed Education Resources

This website provides professional materials and information for educators including Field Trip suggestions, cultural programs, and information about classroom-based science programs.

Van Cortlandt Manor School Programs

Philipsburg Manor School Programs

Sunnyside School Programs

Union Church School Programs

Lyndhurst Education Programs

Boscobel's School Program

Olana Educational Programs

The Hudson River Museum School Programs

Neuberger Museum of Art School Programs and Tours

John Jay Homestead State Historic Site Educational Programs

Dia: Beacon School Programs

Straatsburgh State Historic Site Educational Programs

Clermont State Historic Site Educational Programs

Albany Institute of History and Art Student Programs

New York State Museum Educational Programs

Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site Educational Resources

Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture Student Programs

The Historical Society of Rockland County School Programs

Caramoor House Museum Programs for School Children

Katonah Museum of Art School Programs

Constitution Island School Tours

The Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame School Programs

Web Based Resources

NPS - Teaching with Historic Places

Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of products and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom.

NPS - The Battle of Bennington

The lesson is based on the National Historic Landmark documentation file, "Bennington Battlefield," and on Philip Lord, Jr.'s War over Walloomscoick: Land Use and Settlement Patterns on the Bennington Battlefield--1777. The lesson could be used in American history, social studies, and geography courses in units on the Revolutionary War.

NPS - Battle of Oriskany

This lesson is based on the National Register of Historic Places registration files "Oriskany Battlefield" and "Fort Stanwix", accounts of people who lived during this period, and other source materials. The lesson could be used in U.S. history, social studies, and geography courses in units on the Revolutionary War and American Indian history. It also could be used in courses on conflict resolution, cultural diversity, and art.

NPS - First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt at Val-Kill

This lesson is based on the National Register of Historic Places registration file "Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site" and other source materials. The lesson could be used in American history courses in units on efforts to achieve world peace during the Cold War in the 1950s, or on human rights and civil rights issues. Students will learn about Eleanor Roosevelt's contributions as a humanitarian.

NPS - Martin Van Buren's "Return to the Soil"

This lesson is based on the National Register of Historic Places registration file "Lindenwald" and other sources related to Van Buren. This lesson complements classroom study of early 19th-century politics by tracing the life of Martin Van Buren and examining his retirement home. It could be used in U.S. history courses and in civics or government classes. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the man who played an important role in the Jacksonian Era.

NPS - Saratoga: The Tide Turns on the Frontier

This lesson is based on materials from the archives at Saratoga National Historical Park. This lesson could be used in American history, social studies, and geography courses in units on the American Revolution or New York State history.

NPS - Springwood: Birthplace and Home to Franklin D. Roosevelt

This lesson is based on the National Register of Historic Places registration file for the "Home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Historic Site" and other source material. This lesson could be used in U.S. history, social studies, and geography courses in units on FDR's presidency, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II.

NPS - Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site: Monument to the Gilded Age

This lesson is based on the National Register of Historic Places registration file for the "Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site" and other source materials. The lesson could be used in U.S. history, social studies, and geography courses in units on the Gilded Age or America's industrial and economic growth. Vanderbilt Mansion will help students understand the possibilities for wealth in an age before income taxes and government regulation of business and industry.

Library of Congress - Teachers' Resources

Index page for millions of primary documents. Collections include The Learning Page, American Memory, Today in History, I Hear America Singing, and Community Roots. Everything from Colonial to Contemporary culture.

Digital Pathfinder

The Digital Pathfinder for Historic Sites: Enhanced and Virtual Tours

Development of the initial Digital Pathfinder for Historic Sites Project at Staatsburgh State Historic Site was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It was developed using themes of arts and architecture, agriculture and industry, immigration, landscape architecture, leisure, technology, transportation, and society and culture. The Digital Pathfinder provides an audio-video self-guided tour with a series of short “mobisodes” that include archival images, video, and narration. It utilizes the open-source Cooltour software developed by Dr. Ron Coleman, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Marist College, and the Geoplicity programming community.

The goal was to exploit the latest open-source digital technology in order to make historic sites as well as their archives and artifacts accessible to a broader audience, while providing a flexible, personalized tour. Prior to offering Digital Pathfinder, Staatsburgh had an existing landscape tour that was offered by appointment only and remained largely unavailable to the 60,000 people who enjoy the site's grounds each year.

The integration of this existing tour with the technology provides an opportunity for the site to support these visitors with self-guided tours of the immediate and more far-reaching grounds, as well as to offer an additional opportunity to house visitors and educational tours. Using a global positioning system (GPS) enabled personal data assistant (PDA), visitors can control the number of stops they make, the duration of time spent at each one, the selection of topics, and the overall level of detail of each part of their tour.

Staatsburgh State Historic Site is within the bounds of the Mills-Norrie State Park, located in Hyde Park, New York. It is an elegant example of the great estates built by America's financial and industrial leaders during the Gilded Age. Originally, a 25-room Greek Revival home was built on the site in 1832 by Morgan Lewis and his wife, Gertrude Livingston, replacing an earlier house that had burned down. This second house was inherited by Ruth Livingston Mills, wife of noted financier and philanthropist Ogden Mills. In 1895, Mr. and Mrs. Mills commissioned the prestigious New York City architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White to remodel and enlarge the estate. After completion in 1896, the house was transformed into a Beaux-Arts mansion of 65 rooms and 14 bathrooms. Its exterior was embellished with balustrades, pilasters, floral swags, and a massive portico. The rooms were furnished with elaborately carved and gilded furniture, fine oriental rugs, silk fabrics, and a collection of art objects from Europe, ancient Greece, and the Far East. This new tour provides the opportunity to interpret the privilege of early American industrialists, the technology that they developed and bought, the life of their servants, who were often immigrants, and the legacies that they have left behind.

As with any application of technology in service to the humanities, the optimal balance is achieved when you can transcend the actual experience of an object or site without actually replacing that object or site. This objective applies to the Digital Pathfinder in terms of content – providing archival and behind-the-scenes images and information – as well as in the delivery – using a variety of technologies in order to transcend the geographic and other limitations of the site and its visitors.

We hope that you will take the opportunity to help us continue testing and refining the pilot by contacting either HRVI or Staatsburgh directly. Tours will be available by appointment through the autumn of 2010.

Stay tuned for new information as well, including a virtual tour online with sample “mobisodes.”