64   TRADITIONAL STYLES IN HOUSES
OLD HOUSE MUSEUMS
The most interesting and vital way to study traditional styles,
both period and cottage types, is to visit original old houses that
have been preserved as museums. Massachusetts has about one
hundred such houses; some states have none. Motorists should
inquire about the old house museums located on their routes.
These houses are owned by the nation, states, counties, cities, uni-
versities, museums, organizations, or private individuals.
Among the most famous of our house museums are the homes
of George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt John D.
Rockefeller's restoration of the entire city of Williamsburg, Vir-
ginia, converted every building in the town into a house museum
of esthetic and historic interest. At Natchez, Mississippi, many
beautiful old homes are open to the public.
Henry Ford's Edison Institute at Dearborn, Michigan, is pre-
serving many buildings that are of great educational value in the
study of Americana. The Wayside Inn of Longfellow's poem is
one of Henry Ford's preservations in its original location. See
page 101. A group of Norwegian pioneer log cabins is now
located on the campus of Luther College, at Decorah, Iowa. Old
house museums are usually self-supporting through admission fees.
Every county in the United States should have as a local museum
at least one typical early dwelling in which the original furnish-
ings of the locality and other historical material can be preserved*
Future Americans can best understand and appreciate the manner
of life of their ancestors through the observation of their houses
and furnishing. The sacrifices and hardships of the brave pioneers
who created the new nation are evident in their homes. This
evidence should be preserved, especially that which illustrates the
two great American dramas which can never be repeated here, the
immigration of European settlers founding a new nation and the
westward drive of the pioneers on the frontiers*
Those interested in the preservation of old historic or typical
houses and their furnishings should study the great outdoor mu-
seums, Miahaugen in Norway and Skansen in Sweden. Here even
the caretakers are in the garb appropriate to the houses they show*
French provincial house museutfcs are among those which are of
great benefit and interest to citizens and tourists.