Learn how to use your candle ‘scraps’ to mold new candles. Our Fort Nisqually Historical Interpreter teaches you techniques and describes the process of how candles were made at Fort Nisqually in the mid 19th century.

See more Fort Skills videos here:

Fort Nisqually YouTube.

Here is a picture of the children’s bedroom in the Factor’s house.  Could you recreate this by drawing, painting or by creating a miniature room?  Be sure to send us a picture of what you create! Send to: FortNisqually

Puppet shows were popular entertainment in the mid 1800s.  In 1855 there was a Punch and Judy Show at our Brigade Encampment. Watch Professor Petticoat and her Punch and Judy show.

Here is a site with puppets to make Punch cut outs 

In the 19th Century, games were often played in the Parlor (like your living room).  Charades was a popular parlor game that is still played today!

Charades is played by two teams trying to find the right word or saying or title of a book or movie by acting it our without words. On each turn, a single-player acts out a phrase in front of their team. Keep track of time and decide how long each group will get to guess when it is their turn(usually 2-3 minutes). The group that guesses the answer with the shortest amount of time, wins.

Here is a great site that gives you more details and ideas for playing. How to play Charades

http://www.victoriaspast.com

http://www.victorianschool.co.

Washington State History Museum at home

Washington State Historical Society has gathered some fun and engaging learning activities and lessons for your family to use at home, from coloring pages featuring Washington icons to our new museum app to podcasts and social studies curriculum!

Columbia Conversations. 

Do you like podcasts?  A podcast that highlights authors, historians, archivists and others working to preserve and share the history of Washington state and the Pacific Northwest. (A publication of the Washington State Historical Society.)

The Washington Post – 12 Historic Sites You Can Virtually Tour
Museums, historical sites and national parks have stepped up to deliver their signature experiences by offering virtual tours to anyone from the comfort of their homes. Virtually tour The Louvre, Sistine Chapel, Guggenheim Museum, Yosemite National Park, Van Gogh Museum, The Great Wall of China, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Yellowstone National Park, Museum of Modern Art, San Diego Zoo, British Museum, and the Metropolitan Opera House.

Virtually Tour 500+ Museums & Galleries From Home Including MoMA and the Louvre
The Vatican Museums offer 360-degree tours of the Sistine Chapel and Raphael’s Rooms, while the Van Gogh Museum shares over 200 paintings from the Dutch post-impressionist, 500 drawings and more than 750 letters. Munich’s Alte Pinakothek showcases its art treasures in the permanent exhibition with all its galleries digitized in 360° images.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
The museum’s collections tell the history of the planet and are a record of human interaction with the environment and one another. Take self-guided, room-by-room tours of select exhibits and areas from within the museum from your desktop or mobile device. Access select collections and research areas at their satellite support and research stations as well as past exhibits no longer on display.

Farnsworth Art Museum
Celebrating Maine’s Role in American Art. The museum has one of the nation’s largest collections of works by sculptor Louise Nevelson. Its Wyeth Center features works of Andrew, N.C. and Jamie Wyeth. The Farnsworth’s library is also housed in its Rockland, Maine, campus. Two historic buildings, the Farnsworth Homestead and the Olson House, and Julia’s Gallery for Young Artists complete the museum complex.

National Museum of American History: Online Exhibitions
The museum’s exhibitions explore fundamental American ideals and ideas—such as democracy, opportunity, and freedom—and major themes in American history and culture, from European contact in the Americas to the present day.

National Museum of American History: American Stories
American Stories featured an engaging mix of artifacts from the museum’s vast holdings to tell stories about the country’s history. Through more than 100 objects, visitors followed a chronology spanning the Pilgrims’ 1620 arrival in Plymouth, Massachusetts, through the 2008 presidential election.

National Museum of American History: 1801-1870 Expansion and Reform
Westward migration, technological advances, and rapid economic development pushed the country onward even as they threatened to break it apart. The nation expanded its borders into territory held by American Indians, France, and Mexico, claiming millions of acres and thousands of people as part of the United States. Urbanization and industrialization led to new social challenges while slavery and sectional politics drove the country to civil war.

National Museum of American History: Kids
These resources are designed to help children of all ages explore topics in American history. The majority of the resources on this page are for school-aged children.

Milking a cow at the 1850 Pioneer Farm at Living History Farms.

Some great writers of the 19th century included:  Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott . Who are your favorite 19th century authors?

Books worth a read

Moby Dick
Moby Dick, or The Whale, is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is sailor Ishmael’s narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship’s previous voyage bit off Ahab’s leg at the knee.

A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin
A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a book by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was published to document the veracity of the depiction of slavery in Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).

Little Women
The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. It is loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters.

Books for free

Gutenberg
Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.

Openculture
Free video lessons/tutorials; free mobile apps; free audiobooks, ebooks and textbooks; quality YouTube channels; free foreign language lessons; test prep materials; and free web resources in academic subjects like literature, history, science and computing.

Listen to a book

Audibles
Right now, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.

What would you do if you were living near Fort Nisqually in 1855 without electricity, cell phones, without refrigeration, without the internet? How would you cook?  How would you stay in touch with friends? How would you buy clothes or make money? How would you survive? What would your journal look like?

I would love to read your thoughts, email them to: [email protected]

What would you do if you could change history? What moment in time would you go back to and make changes? What change needs to be made?  What would be the long term ramifications of that change?  Good? Bad?

How could you make real world change today? What would you need to accomplish it?

I would love to read your thoughts, email them to: [email protected]