The Bluebird Patch

HAVE A HISTORIC SUMMER!  Sign up for a writing or history camp We know it seems a long way until summer, but you know better than most that now is the time for parents to be planning the perfect summer camp experiences for their children. The Atlanta History Center, have been busily planning fun, engaging, smart Summer History Camps and Summer Writing Camps, both kicking off the week of June 5. 

  Every year Atlanta History Center holds the Fall Folklife Festival, an event that allows visitors to experience life back in the old south. The heart of the festival took place at the Atlanta History Center's 1860s Smith Family Farm where festival-goers of all ages enjoyed engaging activities that provide a thorough explanation of the fall harvest and preparation for the colder months ahead – before the invention of central heat. G arden tours, cooking and preserving demonstrations, w oodworking and blacksmithing activities, as well as live musical performances and food truck vendors were some of the many activities offered during the festival.   Founded in 1926, the Atlanta History Center is an all-inclusive, thirty-three-acre destination featuring the Atlanta History Museum, one of the nation’s largest history museums; two historic houses, the 1928 Swan House and the 1860 Smith Family Farm; the Centennial Olympic Games Museum; the Kenan Research Ce...

The Atlanta History Center is ready to keep the summer-fun going! This month families are welcome to attend the Meet the Past Festival on Saturday, August 23, 2014 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Attendees will experience the best of Atlanta History Center Meet the Past museum theatre offerings through interactions with characters that bring to life the stories of people from Atlanta and the surrounding areas. Throughout the campus first-person interpreters share about prominent figures from Atlanta’s past as well as common  individuals  through dialogues and interactive experiences – giving a new understanding of history. Guests will even have the opportunity to take part in historical simulations and learn dances from the mid-nineteenth century. 

Military Timeline Saturday, May 24, 2014  11:00 AM - 4:00 PM  This Memorial Day Weekend, join the Atlanta  History Center in honoring U.S. veterans of generations past,and present. Visitors of all ages are invited to explore the award-winning  Veterans Park before traveling the military timeline from the American Revolution to current conflicts. Meet veterans who share their personal stories and memorabilia and interact with living history interpreters who demonstrate what life was like on the homefront, and battlefront through encampments, demonstrations, and displays. Homeschool Day: The Battle of Atlanta Friday, May 9, 2014  1:00  - 4:00 PM This month’s Homeschool Day and Magic Monday are the last installment of the 2012-2013 school year’s series. Homeschool Day is on May 9th, and teaches kids about the Battle of Atlanta. Magic Monday is on May 12th, and incorporates the traveling exhibition Followi...

Thousands of books have examined the effects of parents on their children. In  All Joy and No Fun award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior now asks: what are the effects of  children  on their  parents ? Senior tackles this question, isolating and analyzing the many ways in which children reshape their parents' lives, whether it's their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self. She argues that changes in the last half century have radically altered the roles of today's mothers and fathers, making their mandates at once more complex and far less clear. She draws upon multi-disciplinary research  to discuss the timeless strains of parenting as well as the those that are brand new. As an active, modern parent, I am sure this is a subject matter with which you are very familiar! I encourage you to attend and to share this lecture with you friends and readers. It will be held at the Atlant...

Looking for fun, FREE things to do this holiday weekend? The Atlanta History Center is hosting a FREE admission day on Martin Luther King Day, and we would like to invite you, your family, your friends, and anyone else you might think of to come celebrate the holiday with us by exploring the history of the region that shaped such an incredible leader. FREE admission includes access to the museum exhibits, living history experiences at the Smith Family Farm and the famous Swan House, and access to the 22 acres of gardens and trails. For more information please visit    www.AtlantaHistoryCenter.com

 "Legend says that the gates of heaven open at midnight, and that the souls of dead children –  angelitos  – are the first to visit their loved ones still on earth. They roam the earth for just one day, and then the following midnight, the gates are opened once again to allow the adult souls to descend". Enjoy a day of cultural exploration during the Atlanta History Center’s annual family program, Day of the Dead or Dia de Muertos. Visitors of all ages enjoy learning about this ancient festival rooted in Mexican heritage and that serves as a way for families to remember their deceased loved ones while celebrating their children and the continuity of life. Smiling faces, swirling brilliant colors, storytelling, elaborately decorated altars designed to honor lost family and friends, authentic Mexican food, music, and variety of performances are highlights of this celebration. The Atlanta History Center has presented this annual family program in collaboration ...

Beginning February 1, 2013, the Atlanta History Center hosts the groundbreaking traveling exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: How the Word is Passed Down . The exhibition explores the lives of enslaved families on Jefferson’s well-known plantation as well as the powerful stories of their descendants brought to light through documentary study, oral history, and genealogy. A page from a record book listing the names of Jefferson's  slaves over the years. They numbered roughly 600 in his lifetime. The exhibition was organized by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and features objects from Monticello’s collection as well as artifacts from archaeological excavations at Jefferson’s Virginia plantation -- the best-documented, best-preserved and best-studied in North America.    The headstone of Priscilla Hemmings, member of a slave family....

It was all smiles on January 6, as hundreds of children celebrated the arrival of the Three Kings at the Atlanta History Center. Sponsored by the Instituto de Mexico in conjunction with the Atlanta History Center , the Three Kings Day celebration is becoming bigger, and better every year.    Visitors of all ages learned about the tradition through music, live performances, workshops, prizes and delicious traditional treats such as tamales, atole (Mexican chocolate) and the traditional “Rosca de Reyes” for children, and an appearance by The Three Kings. New this year, was a live nativity and a petting zoo for the little ones.    Three Kings' Day is an important Christmas holiday in Spain and several Latin America countries. It is called El Dia de los Reyes in Spanish. And in many Latin American countries, Three Kings Day is even a bigger holiday than Christmas. Three Kings Day falls annually on January 6th, and according to the Bible, marks the end of...

Traditional crafts, southern foodways, and environmental sustainability are at the center of this year's Fall Folklife Festival. An assortment of scheduled and ongoing events occurs throughout the museum and onto the History Center's Smith Family Farm. Interact with local chefs and farmers as they discuss current culinary trends that focus on farm-to-table food practices and sustainability techniques. Enjoy the sounds of local musicians performing sets of folk and bluegrass music. Great food and local beers will be available for purchase.  This program is free to members; included in the cost of general admission for nonmembers. See more information about the kick-off event scheduled for Friday, September 21, 2012. Festival Highlights Times provided are subject to change. Please check AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/ Folklife  for update. Ongoing Activities at Smith Family Farm • Blacksmithing • Candle Dipping • Sachets • Natural D...

With the 2012 London Olympics coming to an end the Atlanta History Center Go For The Gold event, seeks to inspire Atlanta's youth to dream their Olympic dreams through history, Olympic sports demonstrations and live interactions with real Olympians.  During the event, visitors were able to meet Kimberly Batten and learn about her experience as Olympic 400 Meter athlete who won silver in the 1996 Olympics games. Also present was Sada Jacobson Baby, Olympic Fencer who is a 2008 Olympic Individual Sabre silver medalist and 2004 Olympic Individual Sabre bronze medalist. Jacobson shred her experiences on how in 2004 she became the first U.S. woman to be ranked No. 1 in the world in sabre.  Other highlights of the event were: A live fencing demonstration and discussion with Nellya Fencers. Participants got a chance to try fencing after the demonstration. Gwinnett Judo demonstration and teaching visitors about the Olympic s...

 "You know what trouble I's talkin' 'bout. I's talking 'bout Mr. Ashley Wilkes.  He'll be comin' to Atlanta when he gets his leave, and you sittin' there waitin' for him,  just like a spider. He belongs to Miss Melanie.. "  Mammy On Saturday, May 14, 2011 from 10:30 AM - 4:30 PM the Atlanta History Center's Margaret Mitchell House celebrates the 75th anniversary of the publication of Mitchell’s acclaimed novel, Gone With the Wind , by sponsoring a day of activities that includes: • Guided tours of apartment #1 where Mitchell lived when she wrote Gone With the Wind • Local historian, Tommy Jones, discusses the restoration of the Margaret Mitchell House and Margaret’s local influences on Gone With the Wind • Dr. Matthew Bernstein, Emory University professor of Film and Media Studies, discusses depictions of slavery in GWTW and the book’s legacy in cinema and segregation in the South.  • Interact with living history interpreters r...