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.
Events at North Carolina Museum of History
Check out the complete event calendar. Here are a few upcoming events.
Take-It, Make-It Kit: Corn Husk Doll
Saturday, July 10th, 2021
1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Free
Celebrate summer with safe (and free) hands-on crafts! Visit the museum to pick up a craft bag—complete supplies and instructions—and tour the Toy Boom! exhibit with the included self-guided gallery hunt. Then, take the bag home to share the craft, extra activities, and North Carolina history tidbits with family and friends!
Kits are designed for families with elementary-age children. While supplies last; one kit per family.
Saturday in the Garden
Saturday, July 17th, 2021
10 a.m.
Free (registration required; follow above link)
What’s growing in the garden? Enjoy a FREE informal tour of the museum’s History of the Harvest exhibit along Bicentennial Plaza. Tour group limited in size—pre-registration is required.
Take-It, Make-It Kit: Mini Time Capsule
Saturday, July 24th, 2021
1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Free
Celebrate summer with safe (and free) hands-on crafts! Visit the museum to pick up a craft bag—complete supplies and instructions—and tour the History in Every Direction gallery with the included self-guided gallery hunt. Then, take the bag home to share the craft, extra activities, and North Carolina history tidbits with family and friends!
Kits are designed for families with elementary-age children. While supplies last; one kit per family.
Take-It, Make-It Kit: Bead Basketball and Cup
Saturday, August 14th, 2021
1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Free
Celebrate summer with safe (and free) hands-on crafts! Visit the museum to pick up a craft bag—complete supplies and instructions—and tour the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame with the included self-guided gallery hunt. Then, take the bag home to share the craft, extra activities, and North Carolina history tidbits with family and friends!
Kits are designed for families with elementary-age children. While supplies last; one kit per family.
Saturday in the Garden
Saturday, August 21st, 2021
10 a.m.
Free (registration required; follow above link)
What’s growing in the garden? Enjoy a FREE informal tour of the museum’s History of the Harvest exhibit along Bicentennial Plaza. Tour group limited in size—pre-registration is required.
Take-It, Make-It Kit: Paper Canoe and Glider
Saturday, August 28th, 2021
1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Free
Celebrate summer with safe (and free) hands-on crafts! Visit the museum to pick up a craft bag—complete supplies and instructions—and tour The Story of North Carolina exhibit with the included self-guided gallery hunt. Then, take the bag home to share the craft, extra activities, and North Carolina history tidbits with family and friends!
Kits are designed for families with elementary-age children. While supplies last; one kit per family.
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.
Current Exhibits
- Are We There Yet? North Carolina’s Variety Vacationland, 1930s to 1970s
- Answering the Call: Experiences of North Carolina’s Military Veterans, 1898-1945
- Beach Music: Making Waves in the Carolinas
- The Story of North Carolina
- You Have to Start a Thing
- Toy Boom! Toys from the 1950s and 1960s
- 1920s Drugstore
- North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
- History in Every Direction: Tar Heel Junior Historian Discovery Gallery
- History of the Harvest
- David Marshall “Carbine” Williams
- Meet the Statues
