Welcome to our blog, Sit A Spell: Stories from the Museum's Porch!
For history buffs and non-history enthusiasts, alike, this blog will continue telling the stories of North Carolina beyond the physical walls of the NC Museum of History! Sit A Spell will show the reader how drastically things have changed (or haven’t) in this wonderful state, and shed light on lesser-known figures and events from North Carolina, bringing their history to life.
Virginia Dare's Birthday
By Chelsea Weger
Virginia Dare was born on August 18, 1587, and was the first English child born in the New World. Dare’s parents were part of Sir Walter Raleigh’s expedition to explore and settle land in North America. Their fate is a mystery that historians and tourists still clamor to know more about.
Fli-Back to North Carolina
By Katie Edwards
Have you ever played with a paddle ball? Did you know that the toy became popular thanks to a High Point, North Carolina toy company? While versions of the paddle ball had been around since the 1920s, it took James Emory Gibson and his Fli-Back toy company to really make the toy a hit!
North Carolina's First Craft Brewery
By Kerry Burns
With over 300 breweries in North Carolina, it's almost impossible to believe that less than 35 years ago, the state outlawed them. Before 1985, it was illegal in North Carolina for a brewery to sell beer directly to a consumer.
North Carolina Women Making History Educator Notebook
By Sally Bloom
Women have made history in the land we call North Carolina for thousands of years. Women of the first peoples were essential and equal partners in their societies.
Juneteenth: Freedom Day
By Earl Ijames
On June 19, 1865, enslaved African American men and women were to be emancipated throughout the former Confederate States of America.
Lee Jacobs’s Quilt Can Speak
By Diana Bell-Kite
Lee Jacobs, like many North Carolina women, quilted to remember. She commemorated life’s milestones by making wedding quilts, baby quilts, and housewarming quilts.
NC A&T Trained Black Pilots During WWII
By Andre Taylor
Yes, there were blacks trained to fly in North Carolina and it happened in Greensboro, North Carolina. Few people know that the very program that paved the way for flight training at Tuskegee Institute opened the same door for five other black colleges in the United States.
Krispy Kreme's Delicious History
By Kerry Burns
They say there’s nothing like the first time. Can you remember who you were with when you first smelled a “hot” Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut? Well, we all have a man named Vernon Rudolph to thank for the creation of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
Guest Blog: My Acceptance Of Living With PTSD
By Jeff Smith
For many years, society, the media and social norms have pushed the world to believe that PTSD is a unique issue facing all military members and veterans. This is totally false. Every day, I see and meet people who are suffering from PTSD, including myself. Like them, I am not a military veteran either.
Facing Their Ancestral Legacy: The Pottery of Ben Watford and Jim McDowell
By Michael Ausbon
Ben, who is 86 years strong, lives in New Bern and has been throwing pots for decades. Jim, 73, hails from Weaverville and calls himself the “Black Potter”; he has been behind the wheel for over 30 years. Both potters produce a wide variety of ware, but it is their face jugs that bind them together in a timeless spirit of shared culture.
Junior Johnson: Moonshine Legend
By Kerry Burns
Bootlegging moonshine was essentially a hereditary trait for Junior Johnson, a Wilkesboro, North Carolina native.
Secession of North Carolina
By Earl Ijames
North and South Carolina’s “split,” decreed from the British Crown, was complete by 1729. Since 1663, “Carolina” had a strong and independent spirit among all citizens.
Beyond the Exhibits
By Chelsea Weger
Educators, this one’s for you! You probably know the North Carolina Museum of History as a field trip destination, but you might not know about the wealth of educational resources we offer for use outside of the building.
Buck Leonard Knew Baseball
By Kerry Burns
Adversity, by definition, means “a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.” Born in Rocky Mount on September 8, 1907, the boy who became known as Buck Leonard was familiar with the term.
Why Have a Film Festival at a History Museum?
By Sally Bloom
It’s simple. Making films is making history. Watching films is participating in shared culture and history. Stay with me here, because this is a subject near and dear to my heart. I am an educator at a history museum. And I am a film festival director at a history museum.
Madelon "Glory" Hancock
By Charlie Knight
Although the United States did not officially enter World War I, or the Great War as it was known at the time, until April 1917, Americans were involved in the conflict almost from the beginning. One of the first was a nurse from Asheville named Madelon Hancock.
Life in Death: Ronald E. McNair’s Inspiration on My Life
By Andre Taylor
Inside, I cheered as the shuttle soared into space, still paying close attention to what I was witnessing. And then, a voice from inside the shuttle reported back to mission control, “Throttle up.”
North Carolina's Connection to Star Wars
By Kerry Burns
May the Fourth be with you! No, we’re not using an old Jedi mind trick on you; that really is a picture of a street called Yoda Drive, located in the town of Grover, North Carolina. In fact, this isn’t the only street named after a beloved Star Wars character in Grover.
Rockin’ and Reminiscing
By Michael Ausbon
Growing up as a young lad in Martin County, I passed many an afternoon into evening out with my Grandmother on her front porch. To this day, I still recall the perfume of the gargantuan gardenia bushes surrounding the porch like a fortress and the staccato cadence of raindrops performing their free concert on her tin roof.
Flu Pandemic of World War I
By Kerry Burns
One of the most deadly pandemics in modern history took place during World War I, from 1918 to 1919. Nearly one-third of the planet's population became infected with this horrible sickness, resulting in life expectancy dropping by over 10 years.