About Step Ino Places

Visit our sister site

your guide to over 550 living history museums

About

Step Into Places is the "home page" part of a projected series of web sites which we call "reverse portals". It is the place where our 12,500+ item resource guide and calendar reside, and all our sites will link to it from every page.

The other sites begin with the idea that when you travel you have a specific interest, want to know where it can be met, and then want to know what else is in the vicinity. There are three basics:

Easy Navigation
Minimal Advertising Clutter

Quick Access to Useful Information

For an idea of what we hope to provide, see our first site, Step Into History, which, with just two clicks of your mouse, can provide detailed information on any of over 550 living history museums in the United States. If you only want to click your mouse once, you can get the basics of all the living history museums in any of the 50 states.

Our Historic Houses, Old Towns, Science, Kids Stuff, and Museums sites will be based on the same easy-to-find premise. Our Step Into Experience site will offer internships, scholarships, classes, volunteer opportunities, and jobs across the country.

The Step sites were conceived of by Robert Riley in the fall of 2000. Bob was a 20 year federal government employee with the VA and Commodity Futures Trading Commission before earning a graduate business school certificate in e-commerce and casting about for a useful, meaningful way to put his research skills to good use. Step Into History came online in May 2001, and Step Into Places posted its first few pages in October 2001. Most of the time in between has been spent in research tens of thousands of web sites, and hundreds of travel and history magazines and books. Basic design for Step Into Places was done in a timely manner (and at very reasonable prices) by 5207 Inc. (unpaid advertisement). We hope they'll forgive the various page elements we've removed to help speed our content pages.

We take your privacy seriously. Click to see our full privacy statement. Since we do not sell anything directly on our sites, we do not collect information about you -- but the companies we are affiliated with may. We detest pop-up and pop-under ads, so if one of our affiliate companies hits you with some, please let us know.

For information about us, our sites, or how you can advertise with us, contact:
Robert Riley
1695 Second St #508
Highland Park, IL 60035
OR
In a dire emergency (e.g.: you can't wait to send us money) call (847) 814-7626
Before calling, please keep in mind that the only way we can get any smaller is by dieting. No sales pitches - we can't afford it.

There are five ways your actions can make this and our other sites better. (1) Please patronize the companies we have affiliated with. That is how we hope to stay in business and continue to improve our sites. When you buy from them after clicking from our site, we get a small percentage of the sale. Since one size does not fit all, we've provided a variety of places to shop for books or travel.

(2) Let us know -- especially about errors, places we left out, information we missed, or even things you like.

(3) Send us money. No kidding. Some of the sites we most admire are part of the Amazon Honor System. So are we. check it out below.

(4) Spread the word. Let others know about us. Link to us, create a buzz.

If you would like to contribute information or have questions about one of the sites described above, contact us. Plans are still being made, and your input could change the contents of a site, or even help us decide which site to activate next.

Step Into
History

Step Into
Historic Houses

Step Into
Old Towns

Step Into
Science

Step Into
Kids Stuff

Step Into
Museums

Step Into Experience