Q1)
Albany County Historical Association-Ten Broeck Mansion
Description: The Ten Broeck Mansion, named Prospect, was built in 1797-1798 and was originally the home of General Abraham Ten Broeck and his family. Theodore Olcott later bought the home in 1848 and renamed it Arbour Hill, after the surrounding area known as Arbor Hill. The mansion overlooks the Hudson River, which at the time was a busy trade route. After a century of Olcott family ownership, the mansion was presented to the Albany County Historical Association and is open for tours from May to October.
Citation: Albany County Historical Association-Ten Broeck Mansion. Accessed March 3, 2016. http://www.albany.org/listings/Albany-County-Historical-Association-Ten-Broeck-Mansion/244/.
Albany Institute of History & Art
Description: The Albany Institute of History & Art was founded in 1791 and was created in order to promote the collection, interpretation and promotion of the history, art and culture of Albany as well as the upper Hudson Valley area.
Citation: Albany Institute of History & Art. Accessed March 3, 2016. http://www.albany.org/listings/Albany-Institute-of-History-Art/1559/.
Irish American Heritage Museum
Description: Irish American Heritage Museum is a permanently chartered non-profit organization with the goal of preserving stories of Irish contributions in American history. The board of trustees hopes to inspire individuals to examine and understand how their heritage fits into the American cultural mosaic, which is vital for the cultural development of future generations.
Citation: Crowder, David. Accessed March 3, 2016. http://irish-us.org/about/.
Description: Located in Downtown Albany, the New York State Museum explores the cultural and the natural history of New York State. Varieties of history, science and art exhibitions are featured regularly, including many long standing favorites, as well as a fully operational carousel on the 4th floor. The museum itself if free, although donations are accepted.
Citation: New York State Museum. Accessed March 3, 2016. http://www.albany.org/listings/New-York-State-Museum/1007/.
Description: Moored on the Hudson River, the USS Slater is the only World War II destroyer escort left afloat in the United States out of the 563 built. Although it was decommissioned after the war, it was given to Greece in 1951 where it served the Hellenic Navy for 40 years. As a national historic landmark, the USS Slater had undergone a 15 year long restoration process back to its 1945 configuration and has guided tours available from April to November.
Citation: History of the USS SLATER. Accessed March 3, 2016. http://www.ussslater.org/history/history.html.
Q2) Google Maps estimates that the walking tour would take 52 minutes.
Q3)The theme of my tour is museums with interesting facts. The audience of the tour would be typically meant for tourists or perhaps “history buffs”. Museums don’t necessarily only hold interesting things, but it could have itself an interesting start up. Visiting a museum is great because it is literally almost impossible to not learn anything new by visiting one. Each of my stops along the tour has some kind of interesting fun fact about it as weak as it’s history. Each museum has also been established in different time periods, ranging from over 200 years ago to as recently as a few decades ago.The main takeaway for this is the emphasis of how important history is, similar to the ideals of the Board of Trustees who run the Irish American Heritage Museum. This is important because many of the issues faced today are similar to those faced in the past and through it, we can learn from those events in order to prevent undesirable consequences. With the proper knowledge and education about history, the future generations can avoid many tragedies and actually move forward where the previous generation couldn’t.
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These images are free to use and share. I chose these types of images because I believe that history should be free to study and share.
Q5) 1. Why are most of the tours seasonal rather than year round?
2. How do free museums compare to those with admission fees?
3. Does location have anything to do with theme?
Your tour needs to have more of a focus than just “history” or “museums.” Some suggestions: the architecture of the building, the time period covered by the museum, the time period the building was built, the area of town surrounding a certain museum. You’re also going to need to research information beyond what the museums cover on their own website–why would a visitor take your tour if they can just go to the museum website themselves?
Pick a time period or area and focus down. This: https://www.flickr.com/photos/albanygroup/sets/72157637489997256 is a selection of images from the 18th and early 19th centuries, and this: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=swan%20site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Falbanygroup%2F is a selection of images along Swan Street, which your tour already goes down. Think about what’s no longer there, not just what is there now.