American Heritage: Historic Sites, Museums and Battlefields across the US

On the front porch of this Queen Anne Victorian home, Joel Chandler Harris penned many of the Brer Rabbit tales.

The famous pioneer of literary realism, William Dean, stayed at this house in the winter of 1916.

The boyhood home of one of America's foremost 19th-century poets, the William Cullen Bryant Homestead is a National Historic Landmark.

Pulitzer-Prize winning author and nationally known newspaperman, William Allen White, built this home often called "Red Rocks," in Emporia.

The adult home of John Greenleaf Whittier is the place where he produced a number of his famous works and led his life as a poet and abolitionist.

Offering comfort and hospitality to travelers along the Boston Post Road since 1716, Wayside Inn is the oldest operating Inn in the country, with a rich history that includes Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Henry Ford.

Washington Irving's self-designed home provides a three-dimensional autobiography of the noted American writer.

Step back in time to the humble dwelling of the "Good Gray Poet," Walt Whitman.

This newly restored farmhouse, built in 1819, is the birthplace of one of America's most famous poets, Walt Whitman.

Henry David Thoreau lived at Walden Pond from July 1845 to September 1847 and his experience there provided the material for the book Walden, which is credited with helping to inspire awareness and respect for the natural environment.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) grew up in this Portland house and went on to become one of the most famous men of his time.

The home of author, humorist, and New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber and his family when Thurber was a student at Ohio State University, Thurber House is now a literary center and museum of Thurber materials.

The Thornton W. Burgess Museum features a variety of memorabilia relating to the life and times of Thornton Burgess - the famed children’s author and native son of Sandwich, MA.

Depicted as "Dixieland" in Wolfe's novel Look Homeward, Angel, this historic Old Kentucky Home boarding house, run by Wolfe's mother, was home to the author for ten years.

One of America's foremost playwrights, Eugene O'Neill, purchased the Tao House in Danville using his Nobel Prize award of $40,000. The site now celebrates O'Neill's vision and legacy.

Founded in 1849, the 90-acre cemetery is the final resting place for many famous personnages, among them Andrew Carnegie, Walter Chrysler, William Rockefeller, Elizabeth Arden, Leona Helmsley, and Washington Irving himself.

From 1885 to 1902, this was the home of Sinclair Lewis, the first American author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Poet, musician, and soldier Sidney Lanier was born in this cottage on February 3, 1842, and lived in Macon for much of his youth.

In 1931, American author William Faulkner purchased this large primitive Greek Revival house and named it Rowan Oak.

Exhibited at the Rosenbach Museum and Library are a number of historic literary artifacts, as well as valuable antiques and art pieces.

In the town to which the famous American author escaped as a respite from foggy San Francisco, the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum provides a glimpse into his legacy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of America's best known thinkers, spent most of his adult life at this home in Concord, MA.

Living history at this 18th century farmstead reenacts Sleepy Hollow's agrarian past and the riveting yet little-known story of enslavement in the colonial north.

The Pearl S. Buck House, home to the celebrated author and her international family for 38 years, now promotes her legacy.

Born on this farm in 1892, Pearl S. Buck grew up to become the first American woman to receive both the Nobel and the Pullitzer Prize for Literature.

The historic home of the extraordinary Alcott Family, Orchard House is where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set Little Women.

History fills the walls of the Old Manse, from the house's construction in the 18th century to its inhabitance by famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose friend Henry David Thoreau planted a vegetable garden there.

This is the 17th Century church and 3 acre churchyard from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" where, it is said, the Headless Horseman tethers his horse nightly among the graves.

Known as "the master of the short story," O. Henry lived in this 1886 Queen Anne-style cottage from 1893 to 1895.

Noah Webster’s birthplace helps to tell the story of one man’s vision and his impact on American culture.

Landscape gardener, suffragist, and pacifist Ruth Standish Nichols lived in this townhouse from 1885 to 1960.

In the tradition of John Steinbeck, the center draws its inspiration from the diverse people and the land of the Salinas Valley to tell its history.

Exhibits about the National Road and Western author Zane Grey are housed in the Museum.

Situated in New London, Connecticut, Monte Cristo Cottage is the boyhood home of Eugene O'Neill, America's only Nobel-Prize winning playwright.

The Mark Twain House and Museum provides a rich treasury of Twain's triumphs and tragedies, contemporaries and the Gilded Age.

Discover how young Samuel Clemens grew up in the small village of Hannibal to become one of the world's most beloved authors, Mark Twain.

The cabin in which Mark Twain has been born has been preserved for visitors the world over to see.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a prolific journalist and an environmental and women's rights activist, whose house stands as an architectural landmark and as a testament to her life's work.

The Cracker architectural style home characterizes the former residence of Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

In the rolling countryside of Richland County, Louis Bromfield, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and dedicated conservationist, created his dream -- Malabar Farm.

Learn about Henry W. Longfellow, his poetry, and his impact on the development of an American identity at his home in Massachusetts.

The extensive collection of this state library illuminates the lives of prominent Virginians and their relationships to reading.

Laughing Brook was once the home of beloved children's author Thornton Burgess and the beautiful brook inspired many of his timeless tales.

John Muir National Historic Site preserves the Victorian home of the noted author and preservationist.

As the birthplace of Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier and home to his family for five generations, the Whittier Family Homestead houses decades of American history.

Nebraska's poet laureate John G. Neihardt called Bancroft, Nebraska home from 1900 to 1920, and it was in this building that he wrote many of his works.

Serving as both a museum and a memorial to the Fox family, the John Fox, Jr. House celebrates the life and work of the noted author.

The house of Hoosier Poet James Whitcomb Riley embodies the sophistication of society life during the late-Victorian era.

This historic house is the birthplace of James Fenimore Cooper, novelist of the American wilderness.

The park is a memorial to writer and adventurer Jack London, who made his home at the site from 1905 until his death in 1916.

The Humanities and Social Science Library contains a number of collections that explore important contributions to literary history.

The majestic and mysterious House of the Seven Gables inspired author Nathaniel Hawthorne to write his legendary novel of the same name.

Famed American author Herman Melville lived, farmed, and wrote at Arrowhead for 13 years.

Portions of one of Ernest Hemingway's most famous novels, A Farewell to Arms, and several short stories were written by the noted author during his stay in this studio in Piggott, Arkansas.

Built in 1744 as a country summer home by wine importer John Wister, Grumblethorpe was originally known as "John Wister's Big House" because it had multiple stories.

The museum's 17,000 square feet of exhibition space offers hours of entertaining, educational enjoyment.

The Fruitlands Museum, located on the grounds of a 19th-century Utopian experiment, explores the ideas of American Transcendentalists, Shakers, and Native peoples.

Author Ernest Hemingway finished "A Farewell to Arms" in this Key West house.

The roots of Ernest Hemingway's life and art can be found at his birthplace in Oak Park.

Many historians attach Washington Irving's "coquettish" Katrina Van Tassel to the Elizabeth Van Tassel house, a tavern before and during the Revolutionary War which Irving frequented.

Edgar Allan Poe's life on Seventh Street is recreated through exhibits dedicated  to his life and work at his former home.

The Poe Museum provides a retreat into early 19th century Richmond where Edgar Allan Poe lived and worked.

Edgar Allan Poe and his family lived in this Baltimore house before he traveled to Richmond, Va., in 1835 to pursue his career.

Edgar Allan Poe spent his final years in the old village of Fordham, living in this tiny cottage which he and his wife leased for $100 per year.

This Italianate turn-of-the-century structure was the final home of the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Purchased in 1843 by famed poet and newspaper editor William Cullen Bryant, Cedarmere became a place where the writer could retreat from the pressures and congestion of New York City.

In 1871, Casa del Rey became the home of Manuel Alonso y Pacheco--Puerto Rico's notable romantic writer.

Poet and author Carl Sandburg was born in this home in Galesburg and its garden now serves as his final resting place.

The great Outer Beach described by Thoreau in the 1800s is protected within this national seashore. Forty miles of pristine sandy beach, marshes, ponds, and uplands support diverse species.

Author and orator Booker T. Washington was born in this small plantation, where he eventually took his "first breath of freedom."

Edward Bok, the late-19th-century periodical pioneer, commissioned the architect Frederick Law Olmstead to construct these gardens.

The Armstrong Browning Library is a research library devoted to the study of the lives and works of the Victorian poets, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Andalusia provided for author Flannery O'Connor not only a place to live and write, but also a functional landscape in which to set her fiction.