Teachers

Poe Museum Group Tours

To schedule a group tour of the Poe Museum email jamie@poemuseum.org or call the Museum at 804-648-5523 or toll-free at 1-888-21E-APOE.

» Download Tour Request Form (DOC)

Educational Programs and Tours

The Edgar Allan Poe Museum offers educational tours that can be customized to any grade level. All our programs are specifically designed to meet Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOLs) for English and History. A complete SOL list and program descriptions are available upon request to help you plan your trip.

Standard Tour

The standard tour lasts approximately one hour and includes a guided tour of the Poe Museum with emphasis on Poe’s life and times. Our standard tour costs $5 per student. We admit one chaperone for free per 10 paying students. Additional chaperones pay the $5 student rate. The standard tour is recommended for ages 12 and up.

If you have students younger than 12, we recommend our:

Poe’s Pipsqueak Poets Tour

Introduce your primary school students to Poe and poetry at the Poe Museum. Our special primary school tour introduces students to young “Eddy” and what it would have been like to grow up in antebellum Richmond in a 40 minute guided tour. Students will also participate in a 30 minute activity designed to introduce them to poetry via Poe’s most famous poem, “The Raven”. Students will make a raven puppet to take home. This tour is appropriate for students ages 6 through 11. The cost of this tour is $6 per student. We admit 1 chaperone for free per 10 paying students. Additional chaperones pay just $5 each.

Customize Your Tour

The Poe Museum also offers other options to create the tour that will best fit your students. The activities below encourage teamwork and group dynamics among students. They will be having too much fun to know they are learning. Add any or all of the following to your tour. Check each activity for costs and considerations.

Tell-Tale Heart Mock Trial - $3 per student – Lasts approximately ½ hour
After a performance of “The Tell Tale Heart,” students are given evidence in a “trial” against the protagonist and are asked to determine if s/he is innocent by reason of insanity or guilty as charged.

The Death of Poe - $3 per student – Lasts approximately ½ hour
Students are given the opportunity to solve the mystery surrounding Poe’s death. Thirteen clues are provided and the most creative and original theory is awarded with a small prize.

Poe: Man of Mystery – $3 per student - Lasts approximately ½ hour
A scavenger hunt through the Museum’s exhibit galleries to debunk many common myths about Poe.

Poe: Fact or Fiction – $3 per student - Lasts approximately ½ hour
An interactive sharing session gives students the opportunity to share what they have learned.

OR

Walk in the footsteps of the Poet

Add to your Edgar Allan Poe experience by taking this 45 minute long walking tour of Poe’s Richmond. The tour includes stops at Richmond sites associated with Poe including: the Masonic Lodge, where Poe’s actress mother is said to have performed, the Craig House – childhood home of the inspiration for Poe’s poem “To Helen”, the Henrico County Courthouse – where Poe’s parents were married, and the 17th Street Farmer’s Market. Walking tours can be added to a regular guided tour for $7 more per student.

Extend your tour to 90 minutes in length and add stops at St. John’s Church and the Elmira Shelton House, home of Poe’s first and last fiancée, for just a dollar more per student

Tour Tips

• Please note that a portion of your Poe Museum tour will take place outside. Have students dress appropriately for the weather.
• Please plan to arrive a few minutes before your scheduled tour time to allow students to stretch their legs, visit the restroom, etc.
• Please inform students that photography is not allowed in the museum exhibits. However, students are welcome to take photos in the garden or in the shop.
• If you are running late, please call the Museum at 1-888-21E-APOE and let us know. Bear in mind that if you are more than an hour late for your tour, your group may have to self-guide through the museum as we often have more than one tour booked in a day.
• If tours are booked and a group fails to arrive on the date agreed without 24 hours advance notice, the group will be billed a fee of ½ of the projected cost of the tour.