North Carolina Museum of History, 5 East Edenton Street in Raleigh, is free to visit. It’s open every day, with the following exceptions:

Closed New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

As of September 10th, 2020, the North Carolina Museum of History has reopened.

It will be operating at 50% of capacity, but tickets are not required.

In addition, it’s set up some special hours for people who are immune-compromised, and senior citizens.

Tuesday to Saturday: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.: For immune-compromised and senior citizens
Tuesday to Saturday: 11 a.m. to 5 pm.: General public
Sunday: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.: General public

Here’s a summary of the new safety procedures:

Limiting visitors to 250 people at a time in the museum, to allow a comfortable visit to the museum.
Requiring cloth masks to enter the museum, as outlined in Executive Order 163.
All exhibits will be open except the smaller Tar Heel Junior Historian Discovery Gallery.
Installing hand sanitizer stations and increasing the frequency of cleaning high touch public areas and restrooms.
Installing protective barriers at sales counters and information desks.
Museum Shop will be open with reduced hours and limited capacity.
Interactive exhibit features will be paused or modified.
A map will highlight safety measures (sanitizer stations) and paused or “no-touch” (removed or blocked) visitor experiences. A QR code will be available for a touchless experience.

History at Home

For those who need to explore from home, or who would like to supplement their visit to the Museum, there is History at Home, a collection of online resources for anyone interested in experiencing the North Carolina Museum of History digitally.

Some of History at Home:

Digital tours of exhibits
Videos on demand bring history to life through conversations with historians across North Carolina
At-Home Learning Packets include background information, articles, videos, and activities which meet North Carolina Social Studies and English/Language Arts standards on topics in North Carolina history. These at-home packets are designed for individual student use at home.
Coloring pages from artifacts from the collections
Bits of History podcasts cover a wide range of subjects related to North Carolina’s history and culture
A Storied Past: North Carolina’s African American History is a video series that offer you a closer view of the American story shaped in North Carolina
Carolina Cover to Cover is a resource for students in Kindergarten through third grade
Collections: search for the museum’s artifacts in the collections
Blog: Discovery how drastically things have changed (or haven’t) in North Carolina, and learn about lesser-known figures and events from North Carolina

You can find all of the above on the History at Home page.

Online Events with North Carolina Museum of History

History + Highballs: Chasing My Cure
Thursday, September 17th, 2020
7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Free (follow above link to register)

Presenter: David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, groundbreaking physician-scientist, disease hunter, speaker, and author of the national bestselling memoir, Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action

When a twentysomething med student starts experiencing overwhelming fatigue and organ failure out of nowhere, it’s no ordinary case. What do you do when doctors tell you they have no approved treatment for your condition, and you’re read your last rites? That’s what former Georgetown quarterback David Fajgenbaum (Forbes’ 30 Under 30) was faced with—five times. Nicknamed “The Beast” for his strength and stamina, his body was ravaged by an illness that made him unrecognizable—so he dedicated his life and career to finding innovative treatments for mysterious conditions: all while fighting one firsthand.

After being diagnosed with Castleman disease—a deadly illness that presents like a mix of cancer and autoimmune disorder—and relapsing after chemo, it became clear the treatments available weren’t going to be enough: Fajgenbaum was going to have to take matters into his own hands. His radical approach to conducting original medical research with crowdsourcing and treating himself made him a champion for not only the community of those with Castleman, but for the 30 million Americans living with rare conditions. He turned wild, ambitious hope into real action—and the treatment he identified and prescribed himself has brought about a lasting, yet tentative, remission.

Now the co-founder and Executive Director of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, Fajgenbaum’s persistence in the face of incredible obstacles has turned into a revolution on rare disease research. Sometimes there are even solutions hiding in plain sight; like how the drug that saved his life was developed 25 years earlier for another illness, and had never been tested for Castleman before. Fajgenbaum’s brand of innovation and determination are inspirational: warm and engaging, he explores how we’re all living in overtime—and what we can do about it. His story of harnessing relentless hope and putting it into action is remarkably compelling, universal, and powerful.

Fajgenbaum has been profiled on the Today Show and Good Morning America, featured in Science, and had a cover story by The New York Times. His memoir Chasing My Cure is a Publisher’s Weekly nonfiction national bestseller. Fajgenbaum is one of the youngest people ever appointed to faculty at UPENN, and is in the top one percent youngest grant awardees of an R01, one of the most sought-after grants in biomedical research.

Current Exhibits

You Have to Start a Thing
Toy Boom: Toys from the 1950s and 1960s
Collecting Carolina
Law and Justice: The Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1819-2019
The Green Book Lobby Case
The Story of North Carolina
1920s Drugstore
North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
History in Every Direction: Tar Heel Junior Historian Association Discovery Gallery
History of the Harvest
David Marshall “Carbine” Williams
Meet the Statues