Start your visit to the Frontier Culture Museum in the Visitor Center with a short film that will orient you with the Museum. Then, discover the story of the early immigrants and the life they created in the Shenandoah Valley as you tour moved and reproduced examples of traditional, rural buildings from West Africa, England, Ireland, Germany and America brought to life by costumed interpreters.
Old World
Old World exhibits at the Frontier Culture Museum demonstrate rural life and culture in different homelands of early immigrants to the American colonies.
1700s West African Farm
Representing life in a free Igbo household in the Biafran hinterlands in the 1700s, the West African Farm is the first stop on the tour. Enter the compound and speak with costumed interpreters who will provide you with information about the nearly 250,000 Africans brought to colonial America to serve as enslaved agricultural workers, domestic servants and artisans.
1600s English Farm
Next, you will come to an English yeoman’s farm from Worcestershire. Explore the two story farmhouse and learn about life on an English farm during the 1600s. A small stable houses live animals representing those that would have lived on the 17th century farm.
1700s Irish Forge
The Frontier Culture Museum’s Irish Forge is a blacksmith shop from County Fermanagh, in the Irish province of Ulster in what is now Northern Ireland. Step inside to discover how the blacksmiths and their skills immigrated to colonial America along with other Ulster Scots.
1700s Irish Farm
Down the road from the Irish Forge is the Irish Farm from County Tyrone in Ulster. At the farm, learn about the migration of Irish Protestants from Ulster, to the American colonies, beginning in 1718 as well as their contributions to American culture.
1700s German Farm
The last stop in the Museum’s Old World is the 1700s German Farm. Originally from Southern Germany, the German Farm features a garden and a kitchen where cooking is done several times week using the garden’s bounty.
New World
New World exhibits at the Frontier Culture Museum illustrate the life colonists and their descendents created in the colonial American backcountry, how this life changed over more than a century and how life in the United States today has been shaped by its frontier past.
American Indian Hamlet
Start your time in the New World in a 1700s American Indian Hamlet, illustrating just how small Native American groups, living west of the Blue Ridge around the 1730s, might have been. No tribal recognition is given to the native people of the Shenandoah Valley, but are explored through their Eastern Woodlands culture and the impact colonial trade, disease and territorial expansion had on their way of life.
1740s American Settlement
Learn about the settlement of America’s Appalachian river valleys that began in the late 1740s. The 1740s American Settlement explores early life from how families secured land and built shelters, to what they ate and how the backcountry women made clothes.
1820s American Farm
See the changes that occurred from the 1740s to the 1820s at the 1820s American Farm. By the 1820s, the people who settled the Valley of Virginia had lived together for several generations, shaped by common experiences such as the American Revolution, the founding of the United States and the market revolution.
1850s American Farm
Learn about the change the 1850s brought to the Shenandoah Valley at the Museum’s 1850s American Farm. The area was integrated into an expanding national market for agricultural and manufactured products. An improved road network supplemented by water and rail not only meant the farmers in the area could easily ship their products to eastern cities, but that manufactured goods from Europe and other parts of the United States became available to Valley consumers. Additionally, mass communication, in the form of newspapers and books, made Valley residents more aware of events occurring throughout the world.
Early American Schoolhouse
Also included in the New World exhibits is the reconstruction of the Shuler School, originally located near the hamlet of East Point in Rockingham County, Virginia. Step inside the Early American Schoolhouse and learn about its rich past dating back to 1796.
Be sure to stop by the Frontier Culture Museum Store. Items unique to the Frontier Culture Museum including wooden buckets handmade by the Museum’s on site cooper, plantation dolls, coonskin caps, books, DVDs and other items related to frontier culture are available to purchase.
Travel Tips
- Snacks and drinks can be purchased from vending machines located in the Museum Store.
- Maps are available in the Visitor Center to assist in planning your visit to the Frontier Culture Museum.