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Come face-to-face with an alligator or a red snapper at aquarium exhibits that help this marine laboratory share its research with the public. The barrier island location is surrounded by Mobile Bay, Mississippi Sound, and Gulf waters. Tanks display watery homes for oyster reefs, eels, octopus, sea horses, sharks, and more.
Named for a prominent family that helped settle Frederick, this former historic flour mill overlooking Frederick's Community Bridge now houses art exhibits as well as art classes and programs—and admission is free. A gift shop sells fine jewelry and local crafts and the new sculpture garden is well worth a visit.
A nonprofit located on 10 acres of forest across from Denali National Park, the center offers intensive learning experiences that range from a variety of all-inclusive weeklong Road Scholar programs to youth programs, including hands-on research in conjunction with the National Park Service and backpacking trips for high schoolers. Public events, as well as day and evening dinner programs, are offered at intervals throughout summer.
Also known as the "Blacksmith House," this yellow Colonial is now owned by the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. The tree itself is long gone, but this spot inspired Longfellow's lines: "Under a spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands." The blacksmith's shop, today commemorated by a granite marker, was next door, at the corner of Story Street. Although not open to the public, you can catch a glimpse inside during the celebrated Blacksmith House Poetry Series, which runs throughout the year on Monday nights. Tickets are $5.
You'll find a butterfly pavilion, bugs galore, nature trails, a puppet theater, and hands-on exhibits just for children at this museum. Kids can experience up-close interaction with animals, and explore the Fort Wild outdoor play area.
Capping one of Nashville’s highest points, the Dyer Observatory rises above Radnor Lake State Park with its imposing steel dome. Inside the dome is the Seyfert Telescope, used for viewing the rings of Saturn and other astral wonders. On the second Friday of each month (March through November), the observatory hosts telescope nights for guests to stargaze and mingle with astronomers. Or, for a daytime visit, you can attend an open house between 9 am and noon on the first Tuesday of each month (March through November) to view the sun through a solar telescope and receive a tour from an astronomer. These are both ticketed events, but the cost is minimal (sometimes even free). Simply preregister online.
The entrance to the tree-shaded Cheney campus is marked by the Pillars of Hercules; built in 1915, they include granite from the original Cheney Normal School that was destroyed by fire a few years earlier. Six campus buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. Walk through the EWU Historic District to learn about the university's founding as the state's first institution for training teachers and to see the early-1900 buildings where students lived and studied.
The country's oldest Catholic university (founded in 1789) does not offer architectural tours, but visitors can download a self-guided campus tour from the university's website. The 100-acre campus features a mix of architectural styles, with the most striking building being Healy Hall, a Victorian Gothic masterpiece whose construction nearly bankrupted the institution. Architects oriented its front toward the city, not the Potomac River, to signal its educational stature. Old North, modeled after Princeton's main hall, has hosted more than a dozen U.S. presidents. Also worth a peek is the turn-of-the-century Riggs Library, which boasts impressive cast-iron railings. At the southern end of campus, between M and Prospect Streets, a set of 75 super-steep steps were immortalized in the 1973 film The Exorcist. Less sinister beings—Georgetown's many joggers—can be seen running up and down the stairs when the sun rises.
Hampton University was founded in 1868 as a freedmen's school, and ever since has had a distinguished history as an institution of higher education for African Americans. Booker T. Washington was an early graduate. The
The tree-studded, shady, and redbrick expanse of Harvard Yard—the very center of Harvard University—has weathered the footsteps of Harvard students for hundreds of years. In 1636 the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted funds to establish the colony's first college, and a year later chose Cambridge as the site. Named in 1639 for John Harvard, a young Charlestown clergyman who died in 1638 and left the college his entire library and half his estate, Harvard remained the only college in the New World until 1693, by which time it was firmly established as a respected center of learning. Local wags refer to Harvard as WGU—World's Greatest University—and it's certainly the oldest and most famous American university.
Although the college dates from the 17th century, the oldest buildings in Harvard Yard are from the 18th century (though you'll sometimes see archaeologists digging here for evidence of older structures). Together the buildings chronicle American architecture from the Colonial era to the present. Holden Chapel, completed in 1744, is a Georgian gem. The graceful University Hall was designed in 1815 by Charles Bulfinch. An 1884 statue of John Harvard by Daniel Chester French stands outside; ironically for a school with the motto of "Veritas" ("Truth"), the model for the statue was a member of the class of 1882 and not Harvard himself. Sever Hall, completed in 1880 and designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, represents the Romanesque revival that was followed by the neoclassical (note the pillared facade of Widener Library) and the neo-Georgian, represented by the sumptuous brick houses along the Charles River, many of which are now undergraduate residences. Memorial Church, a graceful steepled edifice of modified Colonial Revival design, was dedicated in 1932. Just north of the Yard is Memorial Hall, completed in 1878 as a memorial to Harvard men who died for the Union cause; it's High Victorian both inside and out. It also contains the 1,166-seat Sanders Theatre, which serves as the university's largest lecture hall, site of year-round concerts by students and professionals, and the venue for the festive Christmas Revels.
Many of Harvard's cultural and scholarly facilities are important sights in themselves, but most campus buildings, other than museums and concert halls, are off-limits to the general public.
The Harvard Information Center, in the Smith Campus Center, has a small exhibit space, distributes maps of the university area, and offers free student-led tours of Harvard Yard. The tour doesn't include visits to museums, and it doesn't take you into campus buildings, but it provides a fine orientation. The information center is open year-round. Students can usually be found standing around the Harvard Square T stop, hawking their guided tours led every half hour for $22. You can also download a mobile tour on your smartphone or purchase a self-guided tour map for $3.
Want to learn a new craft? This school 6 miles from Deer Isle Village offers one- and two-week courses for people of all skill levels in crafts such as blacksmithing, basketry, ceramics, jewelry making, printmaking, weaving, and writing. Artisans from around the world present free evening lectures throughout summer. Tours of the school and studios are available on Wednesday.
Heifer Village is a $7.5 million educational facility built on the site of the world headquarters for Heifer International, a global nonprofit organization whose goal is to relieve world hunger and poverty. The environmental footprint for the ecologically friendly headquarters building comprises a former industrial wasteland that has been converted to thriving wetlands. Throughout the Village, you'll learn about world hunger and other global issues through hands-on exhibits, videos, and activities in either self-guided or structured visits, ranging from one to three hours. A light lunch is available on-site at the Heifer Cafe. Overnight and multiday activity options are available at Heifer Ranch, about an hour west in Perryville.
The 240-acre Hofstra campus includes the Hofstra Arboretum, which basically is spread throughout the entire campus. It counts more than 8,000 trees of 425 varieties, 50 outdoor sculptures, a 2-acre bird sanctuary, and a 40-foot stone labyrinth for meditation. 516/463–6623.
When neo-nazis planned to march in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie in the 1970s, local Holocaust survivors reacted by creating the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois, a group determined to educate the public about the atrocities of World War II. In 2009, the foundation unveiled the 65,000-square-foot Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. The collection includes more than 20,000 items that belonged to Holocaust victims and survivors. Permanent exhibits include the Richard & Jill Chaifetz Family Virtual Reality Gallery, which takes visitors on a journey with Holocaust survivors, and the Spagat Family Voices of Genocide Exhibition, which explores how and why genocide continues to occur across geography and time. The Abe & Ida Cooper Survivor Stories Experience features interactive holograms of Holocaust survivors telling their stories.
On some weekend evenings, rangers give free presentations at the east entrance's campground amphitheater. The topics depend on the ranger's particular interests but always relate to the park's main stories and its geology, plants, or wildlife. Times vary, so check the Pinnacles website or the Activity Boards at the east or west entrances or the Bear Gulch Nature Center.
The school was founded in 1876 with funds donated by Johns Hopkins, director of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Much of the neo-Colonial architecture of the Homewood campus dates from the early 1900s, when the present-day campus was laid out. Dominating the school's main quad is Gilman Hall, which was built in 1904 and named for the university's first president, Daniel Coit Gilman. Pathways lead through campus; maps throughout can help you find your way. The medical school and hospital are in East Baltimore.
The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art has an ever-growing permanent collection of 700 works in a broad range of media.
On the fringes of the University of Alaska campus is a 134-acre home to dozens of musk ox and reindeer. Resident and visiting scientists study these large ungulates to better understand their physiologies and adaptations to Arctic conditions. The station also serves as a valuable outreach program. Once nearly eradicated from Alaska, the shaggy, prehistoric-looking beasts known as musk oxen are marvels of adaptive physiques and behaviors. Their qiviut, the delicate undercoat of soft hair, is combed out (without harming the animals) and made into yarn for scarves, hats, and gloves. The station has this unprocessed wool and yarn for sale to help fund the care of the animals. On tours you visit the pens for a close-up look at the animals and their young while learning about the biology and ecology of the animals from a naturalist. Tours offered in summer at 10 am, noon, and 2 pm. Call ahead to arrange tours from mid-September through mid-May.
Built in 1858, this grand house in Downtown Franklin was home to a family of German immigrants during the years surrounding the Civil War. Even those who don’t care for Civil War history will enjoy touring this house. It contains one of the best antique collections in Tennessee, as well as the art of Matilda Lotz, who became a world-renowned painter of animals after the war.
Chartered by the Jesuits in 1912, Loyola University is a local landmark. Its communications, music, and law programs are world-renowned. The Gothic- and Tudor-style Marquette Hall, facing St. Charles Avenue and Audubon Park, provides the backdrop for a quintessential New Orleans photo opportunity. The fourth floor of the neo-Gothic J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library houses the university’s Collins C. Diboll Art Gallery, open to the public seven days a week (Monday–Saturday 10 am–6 pm, Sunday noon–6 pm).
Founded in 1881, Marquette University provides a Jesuit-based urban education for more than 10,000 students per year. The school's 59 campus buildings are concentrated on the western border of Downtown, and the St. Joan of Arc Chapel is on campus. Marquette is also the home of Jesu Church, a Milwaukee landmark. Marquette Hall's 48-bell carillon is near the center of campus.
Founded in 1861, MIT moved to Cambridge from Copley Square in the Back Bay in 1916. Once dissed as "the factory," particularly by its Ivy League neighbor, Harvard University, MIT mints graduates that are the sharp blades on the edge of the information revolution. It's perennially in the top five of U.S. News and World Report's college rankings. It has long since fulfilled the predictions of its founder, the geologist William Barton Rogers, that it would surpass "the universities of the land in the accuracy and the extent of its teachings in all branches of positive science." Its emphasis shifted in the 1930s from practical engineering and mechanics to the outer limits of scientific fields.
Architecture is important at MIT. Although the original buildings were obviously designed by and for scientists, many represent pioneering designs of their times. Kresge Auditorium, designed by Eero Saarinen, with a curving roof and unusual thrust, rests on three, instead of four, points. The nondenominational MIT Chapel, a circular Saarinen design, is lighted primarily by a roof oculus that focuses natural light on the altar and by reflections from the water in a small surrounding moat; it's topped by an aluminum sculpture by Theodore Roszak. The serpentine Baker House, now a dormitory, was designed in 1947 by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in such a way as to provide every room with a view of the Charles River. Sculptures by Henry Moore and other notable artists dot the campus. The latest addition is the Green Center for Physics, punctuated by the splash of color that is Sol LeWitt's 5,500-square-foot mosaic floor.
The East Campus, which has grown around the university's original neoclassical buildings of 1916, also has outstanding modern architecture and sculpture, including the stark high-rise Green Building by I. M. Pei, housing the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. Just outside is Alexander Calder's giant stabile (a stationary mobile) The Big Sail. Another Pei work on the East Campus is the Wiesner Building, designed in 1985, which houses the List Visual Arts Center. Architect Frank Gehry made his mark on the campus with the cockeyed, improbable Ray and Maria Stata Center, a complex of buildings on Vassar Street. The center houses computer, artificial intelligence, and information systems laboratories, and is reputedly as confusing to navigate on the inside as it is to follow on the outside. East Campus's Great Dome, which looms over neoclassical Killian Court, has often been the target of student "hacks" and has at various times supported a telephone booth with a ringing phone, a life-size statue of a cow, and a campus police cruiser. Nearby, the domed Rogers Building has earned unusual notoriety as the center of a series of hallways and tunnels dubbed "the infinite corridor." Twice each winter the sun's path lines up perfectly with the corridor's axis, and at dusk students line the third-floor hallway to watch the sun set through the westernmost window. The phenomenon is known as "MIT-henge."
MIT maintains a welcome center located at 292 Main Street in Kendall Square, where you can pick up campus maps, grab some water, and charge your phone weekdays 9 to 5.
Founded in 1800, this college was conceived as a more godly alternative to the worldly University of Vermont, though it has no religious affiliation today. The postmodern architecture of the Mahaney Arts Center, which offers music, theater, and dance performances throughout the year, stands in provocative contrast to the early-19th-century stone buildings in the middle of town.
Founded in 1837, Mount Holyoke was the first women's college in the United States. Among its alumnae are poet Emily Dickinson and playwright Wendy Wasserstein. The handsome wooded campus, encompassing two lakes and lovely walking or riding trails, was landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted, the co-designer of Manhattan's Central Park.
At New Mexico State University (NMSU), the home of the Aggies, museums have a decided focus on agriculture, although those on the arts and sciences also receive attention. The buildings themselves tend toward the uninspired, but there are still a few original structures from the 1907 campus design by Henry C. Trost.
At this waterfront educational center you can attend a dinner hosted by a local winery, take wine or food workshop, watch guest chefs in action, get expert advice on the various wine trails, or peruse the gift shop for locally made honey, pottery, and other food- and wine-related items. The center has more than 400 classes each year for the general public, including wine basics, various types of wine pairing, and cooking classes that focus on local foods. Most are a few hours in length and you can often arrange same-day signups. Drop-in classes are always available on weekends. A tasting room offers wine and beer flights, and the on-site restaurant serves a seasonal menu highlighting local food and wine.
Capsicum matters greatly to New Mexicans, and much of the research into this invaluable agricultural product takes place at NMSU's Chile Pepper Institute, where visitors can explore the Hall of Flame and the gift shop as well as the outdoor research garden. Guided tours are available by appointment.
This private university, founded in 1851 by town namesake John Evans, puts Evanston on the map. Its sprawling Evanston campus hugs Lake Michigan. Strolling around its ivy-covered walls while listening to the crashing waves hitting the shore is a delightful experience. The campus is home to highly regarded undergraduate and graduate schools (the Medill School of Journalism and Kellogg School of Management among them) as well as the Block Museum of Art, which has more than 6,000 works in its permanent collection. Northwestern's Big Ten athletics program draws a mix of students and locals to games, especially when the Wildcats football team play.
