Frontier Culture Museum

The Frontier Culture Museum is the biggest open-air living history museum in the Shenandoah Valley. Costumed historical interpreters show the life and customs of the indigenous Native American tribes in Virginia, the arrival of the German, English and Irish settlers, and the painful journey of the enslaved Africans to the first permanent British colony in North America. Actual homes of the period have been relocated to the museum in Staunton, Virginia to show the progression of European immigration and the settlement on the American frontier.

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One Room School House Classroom

Schooling and education in early America was a matter for families and communities. Although a few states organized and funded school systems prior to the 1870s, most did not, and school attendance and educational attainment was inconsistent for most Americans. Families in rural neighborhoods often pooled their resources to construct a school building and to recruit a teacher. Teachers were usually men who had some education themselves and were able to manage children of a wide range of ages. Such schools held classes as long as there was a teacher and students attended when their work at home allowed. The Early American School House is an example of a school in a rural community in the 1820-1850 time period.

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