School Programs

Historic Cold Spring Village Specializes in Field Trips & Educational Presentations

Field Trip Program

While visiting a selection of historic buildings students will gain first-hand exposure to life as it was for our ancestors of the early 19th century. Included in their visit, students will meet with a blacksmith, potter, basketweaver, school teacher, as well as visit the woodshop, Country Store, and Ice Cream Parlor. The Village is open exclusively for school and homeschool groups, Tuesday through Friday from May 14 to June 7.

The cost is $10 per person for Cape May County schools, $12 per person for schools from outside the county. One teacher or chaperone is admitted free for every 10 students.

Presentations

The Village offers in-class school visits or Zoom Webinars. An HCSV staff member presents your class with one of the following presentations:
Contact HCSV staff for rates and additional information.

• The First Frontier
  Whaler Yeomen in Colonial New Jersey- The story of the first permanent European settlers of Cape May County and their efforts to establish a whaling industry in the Delaware Bay.
• Native American Folkways
  Learn about the customs, traditions, and original stories of the Lenni Lenape, the original residents of what would become Cape May County.
• Past Versus Present
  A comparison of contemporary objects with their Early American equivalents. For example, a flashlight vs a lantern; a digital camera vs a daguerreotype.
• The Story of Old Glory
  The origins and early history of the flag of the United States, using a collection of reproduction historic flags from the 17th century through the Civil War.
• Travel and Transportation
  A discussion of the evolution of travel to Cape May from horse and carriage to steamboats and railroads that helped make Cape May America’s first seashore resort.
• Fiber Arts in the Home
  Learn about the role of fiber arts in the home. From spinning, weaving, and quilting, observe how housewives and their daughters constructed the quilt, shawls, socks, and other products to keep their families warm.
• Hearth and Home
  An exploration of the role of the domestic arts practiced by an 1800s housewife with an emphasis on food preparation and open-hearth cooking.
• Revisiting the Country Store
  An Important Community Resource- A look at the vital role of a general store in the life of rural America as a purveyor of goods, social center, and communications hub.
• A Visit with Mehitable, Cape May’s Last Mitten Knitter
  This first-person interpretative program introduces you to Mehitable Vanaman Wade Simpson, a 19th-century resident of Cape May County. Mehitable was one of the last women in the county to raise sheep, shear the wool, spin the yarn, and knit her own mittens, a once popular trade with Philadelphia merchants.

Please contact John Ryan, Chief Operating Officer, at (609) 898-2300, ext. 18, or by e-mail at jryan@hcsv.org