A woman takes a picture of a large painting leaning against a wall.

An Ashland employee gives a virtual tour of Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate.
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2020 was an overwhelming year for educators, and non-traditional instruction/differentiated distance learning posed new challenges. Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, believes that every student deserves to learn from authentic historic sites. As a National Historic Landmark and community resource, the goal at Ashland is to provide value-added educational resources to meet the needs of educators and students across the commonwealth.

Last year, Ashland was able to develop and produce new educational resources for students and educators that draw upon the more than 200-year history of the property and the people who lived and worked on the estate. All the new educational resources can be accessed digitally and live virtual field trips are available.

Even if onsite field trips and classroom visits must wait a while, Ashland encourages educators to enhance their teaching using the new educator resource guides, lessons and activities, and virtual field trips.

Live Virtual Field Trips
These interpreter-led live virtual field trips are interactive experiences. They provide students the opportunity to explore the past from the classroom or home. Students can ask questions of knowledgeable Ashland educators who will help guide them in their learning. Educators can choose from three tour experiences: Henry Clay Signature Tour, Traces: Slavery at Ashland, and Women’s Voices.

Educator Resource Guides
With primary sources, photographs and images of artifacts in the Ashland collection, the new resource guides can help educators bring history alive for their students. The resource guides also include biographies, vocabulary words and terms, guiding questions and more. These guides are excellent pre- or post-field trip resources. Whether your students are taking an onsite or live virtual field trip, these resource guides will aid in their understanding of their own civic identity shaped by historical figures like Henry Clay, Madeline McDowell Breckinridge and Charlotte Dupuy.

Onsite Field Trips
Ashland welcomes onsite field trips on a case-by-case basis. Educators will work with Manager of Education Brenna Pye to create a safe onsite learning experience for students.

Museum Without Walls
Ashland offers 17 acres of outdoor learning. As an accredited arboretum, students can explore more than 600 trees comprising 44 species. Or pick up a brochure from the Museum Store and embark on a self-guided tour of the grounds, which include interpretive signage and exhibits about slavery at Ashland, hemp production and farming, 19th-century transportation and more.

Educator Mailing List
New resources are always being added to the Ashland website. Sign up for the educator mailing list to be the first to receive information about new lessons, activities and more!

To learn more about programming options at Ashland or how to incorporate the history of Ashland into your social studies curriculum, email Brenna Pye or call call her at (859) 266-8581, ext. 205.

Brenna Pye is the manager of education at Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate. Cameron Walpole is the education consultant at Ashland.