WSHM Arch Washington State History Museum on Tacoma's Pacific Avenue color block Children enjoying the History Lab Time Connector The History Museum and the Museum of Glass color block Washington State History Museum

Field Trips

Our field trips require a minimum of 15 students per reservation. Field trip reservations must be made two weeks in advance. For groups of fewer than 15 students, please go directly to our admission counter upon arrival, or consider purchasing a membership.

Self-Directed Tours

Children enjoying the Natural Settings area

Are your students studying a particular topic in Washington's history? Are you interested in exploring the museum at your own pace? If so, a self-guided visit is the option for you! We even supply a teachers' field guide.

Exhibits at the museum are interactive and self-paced. We don't give guided tours of the museum, but your class will receive an orientation to our galleries, along with information about the featured exhibits on view during your visit. Students will have the opportunity to view artifacts up close. Our volunteer gallery interpreters will help students in their search for information, answer questions about the museum, and provide insight about objects and exhibits.

For the 2012-2013 school year, we are scheduling self-directed visits Wednesday through Friday through the first week of June.

Additional information on the Great Hall of Washington History.

Make a reservation for a self-directed tour of the Great Hall of Washington History. Admission prices are $4 per student. The museum admits one chaperone per five students for free.


History Lab

Students in the History Lab investigating clues

Thank you for your interest in History Lab. Due to high demand, the History Lab is booked through the end of the school year. If you would like to be added to our waiting list, particularly for a 9:30 slot, please fill out the History Lab reservation form. We will contact groups on the waiting list if any spaces should open.

From the moment a class walks into the History Lab, the excitement begins. Students become detectives in this engaging, one-and-a-half hour facilitated field trip where they learn about historical evidence by using the "Tools of the History Trade." Artifacts, ephemera, images, and electronic media are all tools that your class will use to solve a particular mystery in Washington state’s history. Armed with a map, a clue, and a code, students must crack the case and find the answer to one of the many secrets in Washington's past.

For the 2012-2013 school year, we are scheduling History Lab at 9:30 and 11 am (15-35 students per Lab) on Thursdays in December and Thursdays and Fridays in January through the first week of June.

Additional information on the History Lab Learning Center.

Make a reservation for a facilitated visit to the History Lab Learning Center. Admission prices are $6 per student. The museum admits one chaperone per five students for free.


Ghosts of the Great Hall

D.B. Cooper, FBI sketch

Our Ghosts of the Great Hall programs capture the imagination of your students while building a foundation for studying history in the classroom. While your students are here, they will be introduced to program themes through listening to a series of dramatic monologues performed by local professional actors.

At the conclusion of each, the actors encourage students to ask questions about the event and/or life of their character. Students will have opportunities to explore the museum exhibits before and/or after the guided portion of the tour. This facilitated program can accommodate large groups.

Please note: History Lab facilitated visits will be unavailable during the run of these programs.

Daredevils and Disaster
Wednesdays in March, 2013

Is there a lost fortune in the woods of southwest Washington? Who sang show tunes as the SS Queen went down in flames? What Washingtonian earned a Guinness World record for “the most bones broken in a lifetime”?

Find the answer to these questions and more in Daredevils and Disaster, an exploration of great adventures in state history. Your students will journey through Washington’s past with these notorious northwesterners, pondering their amazing mysteries and death defying acts. After all… history is not for wimps!

Make a reservation for a facilitated visit to a Ghosts of the Great Hall program. Admission prices are $6 per student. The museum admits one chaperone per five students for free.

Washington State History Museum Logo
1911 Pacific Avenue
Tacoma, WA 98402
(253) 272-3500
1-888-BE THERE
(253) 272-9518 Fax
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