How to make a reservation

For student group tour information or reservations please use our Online Registration.
You may also contact Patrick Burgess at 860-280-3130 or email him at Patrick.Burgess@marktwainhouse.org.

Things to note:

• Please call at least 2 weeks in advance of your visit and have multiple dates in mind before calling. All tours are booked on a first come, first served basis.
• We can accommodate groups of 90 students per visit to the Mark Twain House.

Fees
House Tours
$5.00 per student (tour only)
$6.00 per student (tour and program)
$10.00 per chaperone
Teachers admitted free of charge.

School Programs
Guided Tour of the Mark Twain House (Grades 3-12)

Step back in time with a 45 minute guided tour of the 19-room house where Mark Twain lived and worked from 1874 to 1891. During this productive period, he wrote such classics as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Students will see three floors of Sam's house, meet his family, and discuss the life and times of one of Connecticut's most famous residents. Tours last 45 minutes and are led by trained museum teachers and interpreters. A great program for students learning about Mark Twain.

Everyday Life in Mark Twain's Connecticut (Grades 3-5)

Students experience life in 19^th century America during a visit to The Mark Twain House. Combining 45min guided tour of the house with a ½ hour hands-on program about everyday Victorian life, students gain an understanding of the life and times of Sam Clemens and his family. Students meet the family, explore the house, and make connections between their lives and the lives of Hartford residents from over 100 years ago!

Sam's Biography Program (Grades 6-12)

Meet the man that wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Students use copies of primary documents to learn about the people who lived in The Mark Twain House through their own words. Students use letters written by Sam and other family members, photographs taken at the house, newspaper articles, and other documents to write biographies of Sam's family, staff and friends. Students tour the house during their visit. A great trip for students reading any of Twain's novels or studying the late 19^th century.

Fees
$5.00 per student (tour of kitchen only and program)
$10.00 per chaperone
$10.00 per student (tour of house, kitchen and program)
$12.00 per chaperone
Teachers admitted free of charge

Elementary School Kitchen Wing Program

Everyday Life of a Servant in Mark Twain's Connecticut

In addition to the 30-minute tour of the kitchen wing, students will participate in our hands-on curriculum-based program. They will experience what it was like to be a servant in the 19th century, try on period clothing, handle household cleaning products and kitchen utensils, and play with games servants might have used in their free time. Students will make connections between their lives and the lives of the servant class from over 100 years ago!

Middle School & High School Kitchen Wing Program

Servants's Letters

In addition to the 30-minute tour of the kitchen wing, students will participate in a writing program. Each student will receive a character card on one of the servants or family members that lived in the Twain House. By using information about their servant's personality, students will write a letter describing what they believe life was like working for the Clemens family. After sharing these letters with the class, trained museum teachers will read actual letters from and about the Clemens's servants. Students will learn from primary source documents what life was really like for the 19th century servants.

During the 19th century, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain were probably the two most famous Americans in the world. Surprisingly, they for many years lived as neighbors in Nook Farm, the fashionable enclave on the western outskirts of Hartford, Connecticut. In cooperation with the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, the Mark Twain House and Museum now offers your students the opportunity to tour the homes of both these renowned authors, and to participate in a classroom presentation that places their greatest works, Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huckleberry Finn, into historical context. Your students will understand and appreciate how these small books had such a profound influence on race relations in the United States over the past 150 years, and why they continue to have relevance to our cross-cultural dialog even today.

Connecticut Curriculum Standards

Our programs meet some or all of the Connecticut Curriculum Standards as set by the State of Connecticut.

• Social Studies Standard 1: Historical Thinking. Formulate historical questions based on primary and secondary sources, including documents, eyewitness accounts, letters and diaries, artifacts, real or simulated historic sites, and written texts.
• Social Studies Standard 2: Local, US, and World history. Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of major events and trends in US history (Gilded Age, Mark Twain)
• Social Studies Standard 3: Historical Themes. Examine family life and cultures of different peoples at different times in history
• Social Studies Standard 4: Applying History. Be active learners at cultural institutions; display empathy for people who have lived in the past.

Online Registration

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