Historical Society

The Blair County Historical Society was chartered in 1906

as a non-profit organization to preserve, promote, and

interpret the history of Blair County. Since 1922, the Society

has had its headquarters in the Baker Mansion, an 1849 ironmaster’s home.

At the Baker Mansion location the Society operates a

museum and library designed to preserve artifacts and documents relating to local history. This facility permits the local residents and visitors to the area an opportunity to learn more about Blair County’s past.

The Blair County Historical Society’s Education Committee

has developed this web site to meet the needs of local

teachers and students to encourage an understanding and

appreciation of our heritage, while helping them to meet the

State Academic Standards for History.

The Traveling Trunk and Video

The traveling trunk and video have been designed both as a means to provide materials to be used by area students who will visit Baker Mansion as well as resources to enhance the study of history.

The video and traveling trunk focuses on the daily life in the

mid-nineteenth century and provides students with hands-

on examples of artifacts, games, and lessons. The trunk

will contain both reproduction and original artifacts used in

food preparation, clothing, home, and leisure pursuits. For

teachers, the trunk will include student activity sheets, read

aloud storybooks, and sample lesson plans. The materials

will reflect a range of social classes by including examples

from the lives of the well-to-do Baker family as well as from

the lives of their servants and iron furnace workers.