RED MILL MUSEUM VILLAGE
Educational Programs
Interpretive Tours
A tour of the Red Mill Museum Village's authentic 19th century buildings and reproduction 18th century log cabin on ten acres of grounds can kindle a new understanding of the workings of communities as they were and are today.
Places to Live/Places to Work
Ages: Preschool to Grade 2
Length: 1 ½ hours
Fee: $5 per student
This tour begins with a discussion about places where people live and work. Students are asked to describe the characteristics that make a place a home or business site. A thinking game is played at each stop to enable students to learn about life and work while walking among the museum's many buildings and sites.
Community Life - Then and Now
Ages: Grades 3-6
Length: 2 hours
Fee: $5 per student
This museum tour focuses on family and community life during the late 1800s. At the Tenant House and the Log Cabin discussion centers on work done in the home, including the importance of chores done by children. The Schoolhouse and General Store, places of learning and commerce, are shown to be centers for community activities. The Blacksmith's Shop and Carriage Shed are used as focal points for discussion about transportation. Visits to the Red Mill and the Quarry buildings afford opportunities to talk about modes of communication, community status, educational values and gender roles. Children's roles in the community are expressed throughout the tour.
Rural Industrial Life
Ages: Grades 4-8
Length: 2 hours
Fee: $5 per student
This tour revolves around the processes of work, machines and natural energy. It starts with a detailed tour of the Mill and includes the harnessing of water power and human power. The tour also includes an explanation of the Mill's products: wool, feed grains, linseed oil, basket making, graphite and talc. It continues with a visit to the Mulligan Quarry. The relative comfort of the Quarry office can be contrasted with the reality of the dangerous work on the face of the cliff and the long shift work sweating by the heat for the lime kilns.
Workshop Programs
Hands-on workshops are offered as an extension of the interpretive tour and are appropriate for all ages. While one group is participating in a workshop, the other group is touring the museum site. Many workshops can also be scheduled as outreach programs conducted in your classroom.
Carding, Spinning and Weaving
Fee: $4 per student + interpretive tour fee
The Red Mill was originally built as a woolen mill where wool sheared from nearby flocks of sheep was carded, spun and woven into blankets. Participants learn about 19th century textile production by processing wool fiber from a sheep's fleece to a small weaving project using reproduction hand tools.
Basket Making
Fee: $5 per student + interpretive tour fee
In the late 19th century the mill was used to manufacture baskets for the flourishing peach orchards in the area. Participants learn to create a small basket to hold their own possessions.
A One-room School Experience
Fee: $4 per student + interpretive tour fee
Students take part in 19th century lessons in the circa 1860 one-room schoolhouse using McGuffey Readers, slates and slate pencils, pen and ink bottles, as well as other learning tools and materials of the 19th century. A School Marm/Master challenges students to solve problems in mental mathematics, participate in a spelling bee, improve their handwriting skills and learn about a child's daily life at the turn of the century.
Log Cabin Skills
Fee: $5 per student + interpretive tour fee
Participants are invited to try their hands at 18th century chores such as corn shelling, wool-carding, candlemaking and other chores associated with log cabin living. This workshop includes an exploration of the Morgan Cabin, Spring House and Herb Garden.
Curriculum-centered Programs
Through these full-day programs teachers will be better able to meet new curriculum standards set by the State of New Jersey, including Social Studies Standards 6.1 to 6.9.
Colonial America
Fee: $10 per student
Students will examine the social, economic and political issued of 18th century America and New Jersey. This program includes viewing specific artifacts and interactive tours of the Red Mill, Blacksmith Shop, General Store, Log Cabin, Spring House and Herb Garden. Choose from the following hands-on activities: carding, spinning and weaving, candlemaking, Colonial-style fishing, and 18th century militia drill.
Divided Union
Fee: $10 per student
Students will examine the social, economic and political climate of pre-Civil War America and New Jersey between 1810 and 1860. This program includes viewing specific artifacts and interactive tours of the Red Mill, Mulligan Quarry Buildings, Blacksmith Shop, General Store and 1860 One-room Schoolhouse. Choose from the following hands-on activities: town election, 19th century school day, abolitionist debate of Fugitive Slave Law, Know-Nothing Party debate on immigration, 19th century labor, Civil War recruitment and drill.
Archaeology
Fee: $8 per student
Students will dig in and experience what it is like to be an archaeologist by excavating, recording and identifying their finds. By studying these artifacts, participants will learn how archaeologists use observation skills and specialized knowledge to discover how people lived and worked during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Outreach Programs
Outreach programs can be taken to school classrooms within northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Programs run one hour and topics can be chosen to meet teachers' curriculum needs. Please call for fees.
Colonial Life
Topics include: life on the frontier, the Revolutionary War, the role of the militia and 18th century fife and drum music.
Divided Union
Topics include: 19th century life, Union/Confederate soldiers, the role of the militia and 19th century fife and drum music.
19th Century School Day
Topics include: the role of students and teacher, discipline, areas of study and 19th century learning materials.
Beyond the Classroom
Youth Groups
Programs and workshops suited to scouts, 4-H Clubs, Indian Guides and other youth groups are offered after school, subject to staff availability. Activities can be used to fulfill requirements for badges, programs, etc.
Home-schooled Students
Home-schooled students and their instructors are invited to use the resources of the Red Mill Museum Village to enhance their studies. Guided interpretive tours can be arranged for groups of 15 students or more, Monday through Friday.
Fee: $5 per child, $7 per adult, $6 per senior
Adult Group Tours
A guided tour of the Red Mill Museum Village provides a distinctive orientation to the Clinton area. Enjoy sights and sounds of authentic 19th and early 20th century workplaces nestled between the soaring quarry cliffs and the Spruce Run River. A stroll across the bridge affords a perfect view of the mill dam that powers the Red Mill's restored waterwheel. After your tour, enjoy an afternoon at the Art Museum, housed in an old stone mill, or explore Clinton's Main Street for lunch and shopping.
Call for Group Rate discounts.