Education : School & Teachers : Tours & Programs

The Philadelphia Museum of Art currently administers two colonial houses, Cedar Grove and Mount Pleasant. Two new programs taking place at these extraordinary homes provide students with a first-hand glimpse of life in the 18th century.

Cedar Grove
Please note: Cedar Grove will be closed for renovations for the 2012-2013 school year.

Mount Pleasant

Colonial Life at Mount Pleasant (grades 3–6) Experience colonial life at Mount Pleasant, the grand country retreat and plantation of Captain John Macpherson and his family, built between 1762 and 1765. Learn about daily life on a working plantation and how Mount Pleasant served to protect the household from the frequent threat of yellow fever. Students will participate in hands-on activities as they learn about what life was like for the Macpherson family and the enslaved people who kept the household, as well as the tenant farmers who worked the surrounding land.

Discover Classical Architecture at Mount Pleasant (grades 5–12) Recently restored with a new roof and only partially furnished, Mount Pleasant is an excellent laboratory for the study of Classicism in colonial architecture. Activities include reviewing the basic vocabulary of Classicism, sketching details both inside and outside the house, being a detective who identifies classical carving details, and learning to read an eighteenth-century design book. Students come away with an understanding of how architecture can communicate lifestyle.