Christmas At Historic Houses

History is brought to life in many historic houses, especially at Christmas time, when special decorations help to welcome the social season and visiting guests. In this revised second edition, learn history and local customs through engaging text and over 420 color photos. Costumed guides interpret Christmas traditions in some of the thirty specially decorated houses that are featured from across America. Both magnificent estates and simple residences offer a variety of styles, tastes, and ideas to inspire your own celebrations. See preserved buildings with illuminated gardens, inviting dining halls, and stunning interiors. Enjoy the many efforts on display here that help to make the Christmas season a magical time of sharing, caring, and gratitude.

Enjoy this historical approach to festive Christmas decorating. Taking inspiration from the wonderful decorations of fruits and greens at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, and other historic house museums across the nation, this book provides essential details for creating colorful decorations of your own for exteriors, entryways, consoles, mantels, bedrooms, dining rooms, and the kitchen. Beautiful color photos give inspiration for authentic decorative arrangements made with fresh, dried, and preserved fruits and greenery. Instructions for drying your own fruit are included, as are sources and tips for buying and caring for your faux botanicals. This book is a fabulous keepsake for those who love Christmas and the elegant historical decorations of the past.

The beauty of Christmas is displayed through decorated historic homes from around the country. From Virginia to Texas, tour 27 houses and see how history comes alive in a festive way during the holiday season. Learn the traditions of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's family with a trip to "The Texas White House," revisit colonial America with a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, and get decorating tips from professional designers. With more than 300 color images, historic homes ranging from magnificent estates to simple residences offer a variety of styles, tastes, and ideas to inspire your own celebrations. Homemakers, decorators, historians, or anybody who loves the magic of Christmas will appreciate the engaging text and wonderfully decorated interiors.

Revisiting the Past in Museums and at Historic Sites demonstrates that museums and historic spaces are increasingly becoming "backdrops" for all sorts of appropriations and interventions that throw new light upon the objects they comprise and the pasts they reference. Rooted in new scholarship that expands established notions of art installations, museums, period rooms, and historic sites, the book brings together contributions from scholars from intersecting disciplines. Arguing that we are witnessing a paradigm shift concerning the place of historic spaces and museums in the contemporary imaginary, the volume shows that such institutions are merging traditional scholarly activities tied to historical representation and inquiry with novel modes of display and interpretation, drawing them closer to the world of entertainment and interactive consumption. Case studies analyze how a range of interventions impact historic spaces and conceptions of the past they generate. The book concludes that museums and historic sites are reinventing themselves in order to remain meaningful and to play a role in societies aspiring to be more inclusive and open to historical and cultural debate. Revisiting the Past in Museums and at Historic Sites will be of interest to students and faculty who are engaged in the study of museums, art history, architectural and design history, social and cultural history, interior design, visual culture, and material culture.

Describes the customs, recipes, poems, and songs used to celebrate Christmas in the big plantation houses and in the slave quarters just before the Civil War.

The author presents 134 of Wisconsin's noted historical houses, offering color photos, histories and descriptions, and practical travel information for each. All of these houses are open to the public. Learning about and touring these houses is like living the history of Wisconsin. Most were homes of substance, built by barons of industry, while others are more modest homes of figures who later became famous personages. Some are very large, and some are very small, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's 880-square-foot Seth Peterson Cottage, on Mirror Lake. All will be of interest to those who travel Wisconsin's roads in search of adventure and delight.

This three volume reference series provides an authoritative and comprehensive set of volumes collecting together the most influential articles and papers on tourism, heritage and culture. The papers have been selected and introduced by Dallen Timothy, one of the leading international scholars in tourism research. The second volume 'The Heritage Tourist Experience' focuses on the nature of the heritage experience, the demand for heritage, and managing visitors and their experiences. Sold individually and as a set, this series will prove an essential reference work for scholars and students in geography, tourism and heritage studies, cultural studies and beyond.

The first comprehensive guide to America's historic house museums, this directory moves beyond merely listing institutions to providing information about interpretive themes, historical and architectural significance, collections, and cultural and social importance, along with programming events and facility information. Useful cross-reference guides provide quick and easy ways of locating information on almost 2500 museums. A multi-functional reference for museum professionals, local historians, historic preservationists or anyone interested in America's historic house museums.