School Programming
The Filson offers a variety of educational programs for the 2008-2009 school year. The purpose of these programs is to educate students about history and to allow the past to become an opportunity to learn about the present.
The Filson Museum
The Filson's museum, located in the Carriage House behind the Ferguson Mansion, is a self-guided tour through the rich and varied history of Kentucky. The artifacts currently on display include a bighorn sheep horn, the only known verifiable animal artifact brought back by the Lewis and Clark expedition, a mid-nineteenth-century firefighting hand-pumper, Jim Porter's seven-foot-nine-inch smoothbore musket, a genuine Kentucky still, Daniel Boone's famous "Kill a Bar" tree carving, handmade quilts, and various Civil War artifacts. In addition to the museum's historical items, The Filson's art collection, which is displayed in the Ferguson Mansion and the museum, contains one of the most extensive collections of antebellum portraiture in Kentucky.
Dozens of school groups, Boy and Girl Scout troops, and other educational groups visit The Filson's museum every year as a part of their Kentucky History education. Organized tours of the museum are free. Just call (502-635-5083) for information and to schedule a tour for your group.
History Trunks
Trunks filled with artifacts and museum reproductions offer a hands-on approach to Kentucky history. Plan a trip to The Filson for an on-site lesson, or as part of your in-class teaching. Trunks are available for a nominal charge from these historic eras:
Frontier Kentucky
Lewis and Clark
The Civil War
Lewis and Clark - Have Trunk, Will Travel
This trunk is a chance for your students to discover the history of the Expedition with a hands-on approach that will bring the journey to life. The students will participate in a conversation about this trek and the many encounters along the trail. Students can compare their hand to a cast of a grizzly bear track or learn how a sextant worked for mapmaking on the journey. The trunk can be scheduled as part of your classroom experience or as part of a field trip to The Filson, and is an excellent way to prepare for or review the many adventures that will be available as the nation commemorates the bicentennial of the journey.
House Tour of the Ferguson Mansion
Elements of culture abound in The Filson's headquarters and
serve to define the Victorian lifestyle and allow students to
experience the way of life of an affluent family in the late 19th
century.
Cost: Free
The Kentucky Virtual Art Museum - Filson Collection
The Kentucky Virtual Art Museum is a centerpiece of the Visual Arts Toolkit, one of a series of Arts Toolkits created by KET for Kentucky teachers. Each toolkit includes hours of high-quality instructional video clips addressing Kentucky Core Content in the arts and humanities, accompanied by lesson plans keyed to specific curriculum standards, ideas for additional classroom activities, glossaries, handouts, and a binder full of other resources. The Filson has published our section of the CD-ROM on our website. To view these items, click here. Each Arts Toolkit also includes bonus resources tied to the specific arts discipline. In addition to the Kentucky Virtual Art Museum CD-ROM, the Visual Arts Toolkit includes transparencies of selected works from this collection and a beautiful 24" X 36" full-color Purposes of Art poster. See the Arts Toolkit web site for more information about this exciting instructional resource.
