CMTS RESOURCES FOR FIELD TRIPS AND WORKSHOPS FOR LOCAL TEACHERS
Guidelines for All CMTS Field Trips to The Study and Quarry Farm
The staff of the Center for Mark Twain Studies is happy to accommodate local school field trips all at no cost to the school. The Mark Twain Study and Quarry Farm constitute one of the cornerstones of this region’s cultural and historic legacy. CMTS endeavors to instill an appreciation of the importance of Mark Twain’s legacy in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions to the young people of the area, hopefully instilling in them a sense of pride of their local community. CMTS can accommodate groups comprised of 2nd grade students all the way through to undergraduates at the college level. The maximum size of a group is 40 students. Contact Director Joseph Lemak (jl****@****ra.edu) if you are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity.
Mark Twain Literacy Project
Open to all grade levels. A special program sponsored by WENY Newschannel 36, the Mark Twain Literary Project brings a collection of Twain’s most memorable books to local classrooms, all at no cost to the school, teacher, or student. Classrooms who take advantage of this opportunity often complement the Twain-focused lessons in the classroom with a visit to the Mark Twain Study and Exhibit on the Elmira College campus and Quarry Farm. Contact Director Joseph Lemak (jl****@****ra.edu) if you are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity.
2026 Quarry Farm Fireplace Creative Writing Contest
The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 24, 2026
The Center for Mark Twain Studies encourages local elementary school teachers to discuss Mark Twain’s legacy in Elmira and the Southern Tier region of New York State. 2nd grade to 6th grade students from local schools are encouraged take part in this writing contest and submit their creative writing stories. A “local school” is defined as being no more than 25 miles away from Quarry Farm. Quarry Farm is the home where Mark Twain lived for over twenty consecutive summers and is the place where Twain penned The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and many other important texts. Three winners from three different schools will be chosen by the CMTS Staff. Winners will be able to read their stories on the Quarry Farm porch. Winners will also be able to bring a section of their class or entire classroom (depending on overall size). The tour of Quarry Farm will conclude with Mark Twain’s favorite dessert: gingerbread, vanilla ice cream and lemonade! Contact Director Joseph Lemak (jl****@****ra.edu) for more information. Click HERE to view the Quarry Farm Parlor Fireplace tiles.
Watercolor Landscape Workshop at Quarry Farm
See More Information and Past Workshops
Sometime toward the end of July or the beginning of August, when Quarry Farm is in its fullest splendor, CMTS holds a watercolor workshop at Quarry Farm for local art teachers. Teachers who participate in the event receive professional developmetn credit from Greater Southern Tier BOCES, which provides monetary support for the event.
Mark Twain Studies Resource Pages
CMTS is committed to giving accurate, accessible information related to Mark Twain, his literature, his circle, and his world. These resource pages have been written by Mark Twain scholars, often times experts in the particular field. These are meant to be reliable, efficient resources for teachers, students, enthusiasts, and the general public.
“Mark Twain in Elmira” Resources
Virtual Tour of Quarry Farm
See it here
This virtual tour shows the entirety of Quarry Farm, the Quarry Farm grounds, the Mark Twain Study, and many other locations locations associated with CMTS. One of the major highlights is the Quarry Farm parlor, Mary Ann Cord’s stove in the Kitchen, and the Porch where Mark Twain set “A True Story, Word For Word As I Heard It.”
Interactive Map of Elmira 1901
See it here
This map from the Library of Congress highlights the people and places that made up the Elmira community in Elmira, NY in 1901. The map emphasizes buildings and historical figures that were important to Mark Twain and the Langdon family.
Interactive Map of Woodlawn Cemetery
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This online resource shows the final resting place of Mark Twain, his wife, and all his children. It also contains the Langdon family funeral plot, as well as the individual grave sites of important people in Mark Twain’s life, including Mary Ann Cord, John T. Lewis, Thomas K. Beecher, and other Elmira community members.
Mark Twain in Elmira, Second Edition (2013)
See / Download the PDF here
In an expanded collection of primary and secondary documents and photos, Mark Twain in Elmira recounts the story of Sam Clemens’ time in Elmira and underscores the importance of Elmira in the development of American literature. Mark Twain in Elmira (1977) was first compiled by Robert D. Jerome, an Elmira businessman and Mark Twain researcher and collector, and Dr. Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr., and Elmira College Professor of History. As information about Mark Twain’s life in Elmira grew, Jerome and Wisbey created a list of pieces they proposed for inclusion in a second edition. This expanded second edition contains those suggestions as well as additional new content and photographs of interest to mark Twain scholars and enthusiasts. Dr. Barbara Snedecor is the editor of the second edition.
Mark Twain’s Kid’s Activity Book
See / Download the PDF here
For grades K-2. An activity book created by CMTS, focusing on Mark Twain’s biography and his legacy in Elmira.
Elmira College Performance of “A True Story, Repeated Word for Word As I Heard It”
See it here
In September 2019 members of the Elmira College community organized and performed a revised reading of Mark Twain’s “A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It (1874). The following are thoughts and reactions from faculty and students. CMTS has included the script of the stage reading, a slide show, and a rehearsal video.
Elmira College Performance Celebrating Sam and Livy’s 150th Anniversary
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In February 2020 students of Elmira College performed dramatic readings of from Mark Twain’s imagined “Diaries of Adam and Eve,” Twain’s own recollection of the wedding after Livy’s death, and Ida Langdon’s discerning thoughts about her aunt and uncle. Resources include videos from the night’s performance, as well as the script.
Educational Websites for Use in the Classroom
Mark Twain Papers and Project Online, University of California, Berkeley
Visit the website
This site applies innovative technology to more than four decades’ worth of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project. It offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents. The site’s ultimate purpose is to produce a digital critical edition, fully annotated, of everything Mark Twain wrote. MTPO offers not only the edited texts of more than 2000 letters and several book-length writings, including Autobiography of Mark Twain, but a catalog of all Clemens-related correspondence known to the Project staff and a variety of digital research resources.
Educational Resources from the Mark Twain House and Museum (Hartford, CT)
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Collection of resources includes a virtual tour shows the majestic home of Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) and and his wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens.Samuel and Olivia “Livy” Clemens were married in 1870 and moved to Hartford in 1871. The family first rented a house on Forest Street‚ in the Nook Farm neighborhood‚ from Livy’s friends‚ John and Isabella Beecher Hooker‚ and later purchased land on Farmington Avenue. In 1873‚ they engaged New York architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design their house. Mark Twain and his family enjoyed what the author would later call the happiest and most productive years of his life in their Hartford home. Financial problems forced Sam and Livy to move the family to Europe in 1891. Though he would complain about other places the family lived compared to the Hartford house (”How ugly‚ tasteless‚ repulsive are all the domestic interiors I have ever seen in Europe compared with the perfect taste of this ground floor”)‚ the family would never live in Hartford again.
PBS Learning Media: Teaching Mark Twain
In this media gallery, students will interact with clips from the Ken Burns’ Mark Twain. Through these curated clips and associated discussion questions students will gather information to analyze how the themes of choice and voice were factors in Twain’s personal life and in his literary works.
In the support materials you will find videos from Jocelyn Chadwick, a Mark Twain scholar featured in the film, in which she offers guidance to educators on using the film as a tool to teach theme and style. We have provided transcripts of these instructional videos.
“The ‘N-Word’ in the Classroom (A C19 Podcast)
Teachers at all levels may be intrigued by this recent episode of the C19 podcast featuring (and produced by) Koritha Mitchell of Ohio State University. The episode is not exclusively about Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mitchell considers a range of texts by authors from various historical periods and with various racial identities. But Twain’s novel is prominent and she also alludes to the NewSouth edition of the novel which replaced the n-word with slave. Mitchell says, “The Huck Finn example is important because C19 scholars likely believe its more directly related to their work than the aforementioned books by [Randall] Kennedy and [Jabari] Asim. But what makes it even more important is that people working on the 19th century also seem to view the debate in terms of whether Twain is being censored, rather than considering how they might hold themselves to a higher standard as teachers and scholars.”
Mark Twain’s Memory-Builder
Visit the website / play the game
A board game invented by Twain and patented in 1885 is supposed to help players remember the dates of important historical events. The TimeOnline project at University of Oregon has created a web-based version of the game for up to four players. The game is quite adaptable. Players can be limited to a single century or region, or they can play an open-ended version.
Lesson Plans Related to Mark Twain and His Literature
“The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” (CMTS 2023 Summer Teachers Institute)
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The target text for 2023 is Twain’s “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” a short story which first appeared in Harper’s Monthly in December of 1899. Once a fixture of U.S. literature anthologies, in the story Twain takes a characteristically dim view of human nature and American institutions. Though some scholars have claimed that Hadleyburg is thinly-veiled stand-in for towns Twain actually visited, the story has the potential to resonate with contemporary students, especially with its themes of political division, unreliable sources, and cycles of betrayal and revenge.
“The Journey Motif: Mark Twain and Poetry” (CMTS 2021 Summer Teachers Institute)
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Mark Twain identified as a poet, a bad poet. “When the great poet laureate, Lord Tennyson, died,” Twain wrote, “I found that his position was open and I tried to get it…but I did not get it…It is a very difficult task making the second line rhyme with the first.”
All joking aside, Twain really did frequently and enthusiastically experiment with verse. He read and recited poetry with friends and family. He composed short poems, both serious and silly, to be included in letters and telegrams. He wrote and fastidiously revised poems in his journals and notebooks, even though many of them never made their way to publication. And he sometimes used poetry, both his own compositions and lines written by others, to punctuate his speeches.
Twain’s relationship to poetry reveals a lot about how poetry circulated in the nineteenth-century United States. In what follows, we provide and contextualize two of Twain’s poems, “Genius” and “These Annual Bills,” which we think can be productively scaffolded into teaching units build around one of the most popular poems in the Common Core, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”
“The New Normal: The Past Speaking to Our Student’s Present” (CMTS 2020 Summer Teachers Institute)
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Before any book or story appears in print—traditionally, digitally, audial—the author exists—breathes, lives, experiences, witnesses life all round. Every author takes in life—recording, listening, jotting notes, even actively participating in it—nothing is lost; nothing is not appreciated. Authors’ letters, journals, notes, for example, lend insight into their world and its times: social, cultural, political, and yes, even moments in life when health crises affect them and the time around them. From the Greeks to the present, authors have used health crises to their audience—present and future—to identify with and better understand how to make meaning of and from their “here and now.”
Mark Twain is no exception. Health issues and challenges followed Mark Twain and his family, as well as America during Twain’s lifetime.
The 2020 Institute sought to enable students to understand that what they have been experiencing, feeling, and fearing during COVID-19 is not singular, a “thing” that makes them different and alone. Health crises and issues from those arising during the Cvil War all the way to the present work their way into the fiction and nonfiction of our authors. Aligned with the current pandemic, the Institute will explore the killing of Mr. George Floyd and the ensuing massive protests in all 50 states – protests that have included so many of our students while the pandemic rages on.
The instructional aim here is not only to illustrate how Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens confronted and dealt with these challenges but also to examine and explore with our students how we as a nation had and are continuing to confront and deal with such challenges—from the illness or virus itself, to how day-to-day living and interacting and once-taken-for-granted routines and assumptions can suddenly, without warning not only change but potentially dissolve before our eyes.
In addition, teachers worked on and created several Interactive Student Activities (from elementary to high school) which they can take directly into their classrooms and on which they can build additional instructional lessons and activities, as well as scaffold other texts, both fiction and nonfiction.
Resources associated with the 2020 Institute include:
- Instructional modules on Mark Twain and typhoid fever, Mark Twain and the San Francisco police, Mark Twain’s view of history, and civil disobedience in Elmira. These modules come with short videos, an assortment of primary resources, and suggested Common Core pairings
- Instructional exemplars for the Pre-K to 12th grade classrooms with primary and secondary resources suggestions
- Video archive of the entire 2020 Summer Teachers Institute
“Mark Twain and Generation Z” (CMTS 2019 Summer Teachers Institute)
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The aim of the 2019 Summer Teachers Institute was to explore, discover, and reflect on how Mark Twain reads and speaks to this generation of students – Generation Z. In addition, the Institute examined how educators can leverage and realign what Mark Twain/ Samuel Clemens wrote that elucidates our students’ here and now from a “safe-literary distance” of both his nonfiction and fiction.
Resources associated with the 2019 Institute include:
- An Institute reader with a large number of primary and secondary sources
- Teaching resources associated with Mark Twain in Elmira, Mark Twain’s Memorization Strategies, and Teaching with Sensitive Texts
- A Recap of the 2019 Summer Teachers Institute can be found HERE.
Lesson Plans from the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford , CT
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For Middle and High school Students. For the past several years, The Mark Twain House & Museum has been the host of National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Teacher Workshops at which educators from across the nation have written lesson plans to assist their colleagues in teaching the life and works of Mark Twain. The site contains a selection of these lesson plans that have been updated to specifically reference their connections to the new Common Core Standards as well as edited to conform to the “Understanding by Design” (UBD) format for curricular units commonly used by educators today.
Lesson Plans from the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, MO
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The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum has developed lesson plans to go along with some of Mark Twain’s books and short stories. The plans were developed during teacher workshops held at the Hannibal museum beginning in the summer of 2006. The lesson plans are organized by books/stories and by the concept that is emphasized in the lesson. Lesson plan groups included are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Following the Equator.
Library of Congress: “Mark Twain’s Hannibal”
Writers are influenced by their environment including their family, community, lifestyle, or location. One such writer was Mark Twain. In this project the learner will become familiar with and analyze life around Hannibal, Missouri, during the latter half of the nineteenth century using various resources to determine what effects this location had on the writings of Mark Twain. The curriculum context will be within a Lesson on Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Segments of this lesson might also be integrated into a study of Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The lessons could be presented with introductory material prior to reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or integrated while reading the novel. Even though these activities center on Mark Twain and his writings, they could easily be adapted to almost any author and his environment.
National Endowment for the Humanties: “Mark Twain and American Humor”
When Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” first appeared in 1865, it was hailed by James Russell Lowell, the Boston-based leader of the literary elite, as “the finest piece of humorous literature yet produced in America.” This was high praise for a tall-tale from a hitherto little known San Francisco newspaper humorist, but Lowell aimed precisely at the most distinguishing feature of Twain’s first nationally acclaimed work of fiction: its transforming relationship to the long tradition of American humor. In this brief masterpiece, Twain combines the vibrant, loquacious storytelling tradition rooted in folk tale, fable, and gossip with the more calculated literary tradition of satire, irony, and wit. This lesson plan frames “The Jumping Frog” in this context, introducing students to both aspects of American humor in order to deepen appreciation of Twain’s achievement.
Miscellaneous Videos
Edison Film of Mark Twain (1909)
“Mark Twain: The Musical”
Mark Twain: The Musical is a stage musical biography of Mark Twain that had a ten-year summertime run in Elmira, NY and Hartford, CT (1987–1995) and was telecast on a number of public television stations. The book was written by Jane Iredale with music and lyrics by William P. Perry. Dennis Rosa was the director and choreographer, and William David Brohn was musical arranger and music director. Throughout its run, the title role of Mark Twain was performed by William Perley and the primary singing role of ”Jim” was played by Jack Waddell. The role of Olivia Langdon Clemens, Mark Twain’s wife and editor, was played in the film and stage version in 1988 by Bernadette Wilson.
Hal Holbrook in “Mark Twain Tonight!”
In this YouTube clip, Hal Holbrook performs from his famous one-man show. In this section, Holbrook as Twain expounds upon Man, “the reasoning animal.” Inarguably, the best impersonation of Twain.
Mark Twain’s Journey to Jerusalem: Dreamland
“Mark Twain’s Journey to Jerusalem: Dreamland”, narrated by Martin Sheen, retraces Twain’s steps as he traveled the Holy Land, highlighting his letters that were turned into his best-selling book “The Innocents Abroad”.
“The Adventures of Mark Twain”
The Adventures of Mark Twain is a 1985 American stop motion claymation fantasy film directed by Will Vinton and starring James Whitmore. It received a limited theatrical release in May 1985. The film features a series of vignettes extracted from several of Mark Twain’s works, built around a plot that features Twain’s attempts to keep his “appointment” with Halley’s Comet, with particular attention to Twain’s later works. Nationally known TV critic Mark Dawidziak presented a paper on Will Vinton’s animated groundbreaking work at Elmira 2013: The Seventh International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies.
“The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”
A 1980 film about a stranger who descends on the small town of Hadleyburg to teach its deceitful residents a lesson. Inspired by writer Mark Twain’s short story. Directed by Ralp Rosenblum; Teleplay by Mark Harris. Starring Robert Preston, Tom Aldredge, Fred Gwynne, and Henry Fonda.
“Life on the Mississippi”
A young Mark Twain trains as a steamboat pilot with a captain on the Mississippi River. Introduction by Kurt Vonnegut. First aired in 1980. Directed by Peter H. Hunt. Starring Robert Lansing, David Knell, and James Keane.
“The Private History of A Campaign That Failed”
First aired in 1981. Directed by Peter H. Hunt. Starring Joseph Adams, Gary McCleery, and Ray Cockrum.
“The Mysterious Stranger”
First aired on PBS in 1982. Directed by Peter H. Hunt; teleplay by Julian Mitchell. Starring Chris Makepeace, Bernhard Wicki, and Herbert Fux.
“The Innocents Abroad”
Starring Brooke Adams. Filmed in 1982 in France, Greece, Egypt and Italy. Released in 1983.
“Puddn’head Wilson”
This movie is an adaptation of Mark Twain’s novel of the same name about mistaken identity, in which a slave woman cradle-switches her own light-skinned son with her master’s white son and the child grows up raised by whites. The ruse is eventually uncovered by Pudd’nhead Wilson, the local lawyer. With Alan Bridges (Director) and starring Ken Howard and Lise Hilboldt, this adaption was originally produced for public television in 1984 in association with American Playhouse.
“The War Prayer”
Animated YouTube Clip of Twain’s “War Prayer” (1905). Directed by Markos Kounalakis. Featured at Animation Film Screening at OSA Archivum in Budapest, Hungary to commemorate UN Human Rights Day, December 9, 2010.
“The War Prayer”
In this YouTube Clip, Twain’s “War Prayer” (1905) takes place in present day, during Sunday services at a church in Any Town, USA. This short film is directed by Michael Goorjian and stars Jeremy Sisto.
The Edge Ensemble Presents “The Diaries of Adam and Eve”
The Edge Ensemble presents “The Diaries of Adam and Eve,” based on Mark Twain’s novel. This is the Edge Ensemble’s first video production as we strive to keep the creative arts alive during a time when live performances are not possible. Filmed at Granite Lake in Munsonville, New Hampshire, “The Diaries of Adam and Eve” is a romantic comedy about the first marriage and the first differences between men and women as far back as Eden. A romantic comedy with an unexpected emotional punch, “The Diaries of Adam and Eve” was directed by Kim Dupuis from a script adapted from Twain by Catherine Behrens.
“Mark Twain and Me”
Emmy-award winning children’s film. Dorothy Quick, a young girl, befriends the famous writer, Samuel “Mark Twain” Clemens, during the final years of his life. Directed by Damile Petrie. Starring Jason Robards, Talia Shire, and R.H. Thomson.
“Huckleberry Finn and the N-Word”
A Youtube clip featuring a 60 Minutes story concerning a Southern publisher’s sanitized edition of “Huckleberry Finn” that replaces the N-word with “slave” over 200 times. This becomes the focal point for a debate on the use of the controversial word in American society. Byron Pitts reports. Published on June 12, 2011.
“Born to Trouble: Adventures of Huck Finn“
A YouTube Clip. PBS’s Culture Shock produced this 90-minute documentary on the heated debate surrounding Twain’s famous book. The program features a dramatic retelling of the novel’s plot, compelling interviews, and historical artifacts to ask the questions: “Why does this universally admired book offend so many? How do we distinguish between a critique of a social problem and the perpetuation of the problem? Does the required reading of prior generations have relevance for today’s students?” Clip is not the best quality.