How to make a reservation

For student group tour information or reservations please use our Online Registration.
You may also contact Caitlin Thayer at 860-280-3154 or email her at Caitlin.Thayer@MarkTwainHouse.org.

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.

Fees

Teachers admitted free of charge.

House Tour or Servants' Wing Tour:
Students $5
Chaperones $10

House Tour and Program:
Students $7
Chaperones $10

House Tour & Servants' Wing Combo
Book both and receive a student program free!
Students $10
Chaperones $12

Twain and Stowe House Tours Combo
Students $10
Chaperones $10

Twain and Stowe House Tours Combo
With "Effecting Social Change" program:
Students $14
Chaperones $10

School Programs

Time Travel!
The Mark Twain House & Museum invites students to learn more about the life and legacy of America's greatest writer at his "Gilded Age" home in Hartford, where Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and a Connecticut Yankee were born. After a tour of the historic house, also be sure to take advantage of one of our many new classroom programs for students grades 3-12!

Guided Tour of The Mark Twain House (Grades 3-12)
Step back in time during a 45- to 60-minute tour of the 19-room mansion where Samuel Clemens ("Mark Twain") lived and worked from 1874 to 1891, a very productive period in which Twain wrote such classics of American literature as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Students will see three floors of Twain's elegantly decorated home while a tour guide discusses the life and legacy of one of Connecticut's most famous residents.

Guided Tour of the Servants' Wing (Grades 3-12)
Your students can take a 30-minute tour of the Mark Twain House Servants' Wing, which will give them greater insight into the lives of the immigrant and African American servants who worked for the Clemens family and the nature of domestic labor during the Gilded Age.

NEW! Hands-On Tour: Everyday Life in Mark Twain's Hartford (Grades 3-5)
This special 60-minute tour for younger students lets them experience life during the Gilded Age by combining a house and kitchen tour. Students can try on Victorian clothing and, if time permits, participate in an additional timeline activity in the Museum Center that will enhance their knowledge of the importance of Hartford and Mark Twain in United States history. This will draw deeper connections between their lives and the lives of Hartford residents over 100 years ago!

Hands-On Writing Programs

Serving the Clemens Family (Grades 6-12)
Older students who tour the Mark Twain House and servants' Wing can experience this 45- to 60-minute writing program in which small groups of students analyze period photos and images of manual labor typical of the Gilded Age, and then co-write a short story that describes the drudgery inherent in the lives of the African American and immigrant servants who maintained the affluent lifestyle of the Clemens family. Students will appreciate the difficulty of working class employment during the period and the theme of social and economic stratification caused by industrialization.

Sam's Biographies (Grades 6-12)
During this 45- to 60-minute program, small groups of students are given binders containing primary and secondary source materials related to an individual who knew Samuel Clemens very well - a family member, a friend, and/or a servant of the Clemens family. Drawing from conclusions that the students reach during a discussion of these sources, they then co-write a biography of their subject that explains how that person's relationship with Samuel Clemens enhances their understanding of both individuals.

NEW! Advanced Placement Program: Mark Twain: An American Life, 1835-1910
This two-part classroom program is designed to give A.P. students of U.S. History an in-depth "jigsaw" exercise in the analysis of primary sources as they prepare an essay response to questions related to the life and legacy of Mark Twain. Two major themes of American History are explored: race and imperialism. Part I is titled The Shame is Ours: Mark Twain from Slavery to Jim Crow, and Part II is titled Mark Twain and the Rise of American Power. Parts I and II are each 90 minutes in length. One or both parts may be done during a visit to the Mark Twain House & Museum, or for an additional fee one part may be done as an outreach program at your school.

Interactive Presentations

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: An American Story (Grades 7-12)
This 45-minute Power Point presentation underscores the importance of Twain's masterpiece by placing it within the context of the larger history of race relations in the United States from slavery to the modern Civil Rights movement. The program demonstrates how the book continues to be a catalyst for positive social change when properly framed within a larger curriculum.

Stowe & Twain: Effecting Social Change (Grades 7-12)
During the 19th century, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain were two of the most famous Americans in the world. Surprisingly, they lived as neighbors in Hartford. In collaboration with the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, this program offers students the opportunity to tour both of their homes and experience this 45-minute classroom presentation that places their greatest works, Uncle Tom's Cabin and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, into historical context. Your students will understand and appreciate how these small books had such a profound influence on race relations 150 years ago and today.

Can't come to us? We can come to you!

Arrangements can be made to bring our writing programs and classroom activities as an outreach program to any middle of high school in southern New England.

Professional Development: Teaching Mark Twain in the Modern Classroom (Teachers, grades 4-12)
Although twain's life offers many useful avenues for the study of American History, Literature and Social Studies, they are often avoided because Mark Twain was so deeply involved with many of our nation's most controversial subjects, especially with regard to race relations. The Mark Twain House & Museum can craft a professional in-service program to suit the specific instructional and budgetary needs of educators who are interested in enriching the resources and techniques available for teaching the life and works of Mark Twain to diverse students in the modern classroom.

Connecticut Curriculum Standards

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

Social Studies Standards: #1 Historical Thinking; #2 Local, U.S. and World History; #3 Historical Themes; #4 Applying History.

English Language Arts Standards: #2 Writing, #3 Reading Literature; #4 Reading for Information; #6 Materials for Instruction; #8 Teaching Strategies.

Online Registration

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