Operated by the DeSoto County Historical Society, the Howard and Velma Melton Historical Research Library is open in the John Morgan Ingraham Seed House, 120 W. Whidden Street, Arcadia, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursdays (except the second Thursday of the month) and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of the month.
The Research Library includes historic photographs, newspaper articles, letters, receipts, family histories, and many other documents.
Open to the public is the adjacent John Morgan Ingraham House Museum, 300 N. Monroe Avenue, Arcadia.
This restored, late 19th century home is a memorial to all early pioneer families of the City of Arcadia and DeSoto County. It showcases a simple kind of “Florida Cracker” architecture and lifestyle and includes furniture and artifacts from that period.
The DeSoto County Historical Society, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of DeSoto County, Florida for future generations.
Educational Field Trips
FIELD TRIPS to the John Morgan Ingram House and Seed House
The DeSoto County Historical Society welcomes teachers to bring their students for a “field trip to the past!"
The Society provides hands-on activities for the students so that they may “learn by doing.” For example, they may experience washing clothes using a scrub board, bar of laundry soap, and wash tubs. Or, they may learn how to write using a pen dipped in a bottle of ink or type their name on a manual typewriter.
The Society will ask the teacher to divide the class into groups of 4 or 5 students, and the small groups will rotate through the activities, so that each student will have an opportunity to do each hands-on activity.
The activities can be tailored to fit with the class’s curriculum. For example, a class studying geometrical shapes may have an activity that invites students to make their own quilt square pattern using geometrical shapes.
Middle-school and high-school students will also enjoy hands-on activities that are the same tasks but designed to be more complex. For example, instead of simply learning to use a pen dipped in ink, the students will use that skill as if they were a U.S. Census taker in 1920, the same year as Mrs. Ingraham completed the federal census for West Arcadia.
To schedule a field trip, please contact Carol Mahler at 863-445-0789 or online at HistoricDesoto.org/museum/.
Curious to know more? Click here to enjoy a mobile-friendly, online, self-guided tour of Historic Downtown Arcadia.
Contact: Carol Mahler
Phone: 863-266-5774
Phone: 863-266-5774
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Website: https://historicdesoto.org/
120 W. Whidden Street
Arcadia, FL 34266
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