Google Map of the Raleigh and North Carolina

We have created a map of some of the important locations in Raleigh and North Carolina on Google Maps.

Please follow this link view the map.

The map identifies locations according to the following key:

• A blue circular pin with a black dot in the center -- The Raleigh Convention and Conference Center. The location of the conference.
  
• A yellow house -- The three conference hotels
• A knife and fork -- Dining areas or specific restaurants
  
• A coffee cup -- (New!) Local coffee bars and cafés
  
• A purple push pin -- The Raleigh City Museum & Visitor's Center
• A green push pin -- Libraries and archives
  
• A yellow push pin -- Historical sites
• A red push pin -- Historic cemeteries
  
• A light blue push pin -- Other sites of interest
  
• A blue letter P -- Parking (New! The map now includes the locations of the Convention Center, Cabarrus and Archives parking lots.)
  

We will continue to update the map with additional locations, including parking locations.

North Carolina Museum of History -- Update -- New Exhibits!

With the conference fast approaching -- it's time to give you an update on what exhibits will be at the NC Museum of History in May!


Free Exhibits ....


ELECTED TO SERVE: NORTH CAROLINA’S GOVERNORS


This exhibit offers an insightful look at nearly 300 years of gubernatorial history. The state’s foremost leader has always faced challenges, from pirate encounters during colonial times to today’s budget concerns. Many twists and turns along the way have left a colorful history.


It explores how governors have shaped our state and improved Tar Heel life in areas such as agriculture, industry and education. The exhibit also highlights the contributions of several first ladies to North Carolina. Additional sections focus on political campaigns, voting and inaugural traditions.

EVERYDAY ARTISTRY


For centuries, many people in North Carolina made what they needed with what they had on hand. They transformed flour-sack cloth into clothing, tobacco twine into crocheted bedspreads, local wood into household furniture, and other available materials into useful items. Sometimes they adorned their creations with decorative embellishments.

This exhibit showcases a variety of utilitarian, yet decorative, items made by North Carolinians. Spanning three centuries, the exhibit features more than 50 items ranging from handcrafted furniture and toys to kitchen utensils and a variety of quilts.



MUSEUM SLEUTHS: WHATCHAMACALLITS AND THINGAMAJIGS

An 8-year-old accompanies her mother to an antique shop, and she spies an odd-looking contraption. “What’s this?” she asks, while reaching for a 1960s record player. Before you know it, items like record players or rotary-dial phones become objects of mystery for the next generation.
This exhibit spotlights a selection of unusual items that will befuddle or bemuse you. It features 21 objects from the museum’s collection of more than 150,000 artifacts. This small exhibit includes items ranging from a large object shaped like an elephant’s trunk to a gadget resembling a miniature water tower. Try to guess the identity of each one before revealing the answer. However, this may be quite a challenge because some artifacts date to the 1700s.


Paid Admission Required ....


KNIGHTS of the BLACK FLAG

Marauders. Plunderers. Bloodthirsty sea-thieves. Whatever their name, pirates have wreaked havoc on the high seas since waterway travel began. This exhibit will explore the legacy of pirates, from ancient times to the present, through intriguing artifacts, legends and history that bring their ruthless adventures to life.

It traces the history of piracy from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome through today’s pirates in Somalia. Artifacts, some dating to the early centuries A.D., represent tangible links to a violent past.

Central to the story are the fearless exploits of sword-wielding, pistol-toting characters such as Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonny, Mary Read and the most famous of all — Blackbeard. Hundreds of artifacts, including cannons, a ship’s bell and gold dust, will be on view from the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the shipwreck discovered at Beaufort Inlet in 1996. Blackbeard and his crew terrorized victims along North Carolina’s coast from this ship that ran aground in 1718. Amid tools, diving equipment, and videos of underwater archaeologists at the shipwreck site, visitors witness the discovery, excavation and conservation of one of the largest pirate ships ever to sail in the Spanish Main.

The exhibit allows young visitors to step inside a pirate’s life, to handle pirate weapons, to capture ships and try on pirate clothes. They can watch for pirates from the crow’s nest, defend their ship from a pirate attack, and experience firsthand what it is like to be a pirate.

Ticket and Group Tour Information -- Admission is free for ages 18 and under. The fee is $5 for ages 19 and up; $4 for senior citizens, active military personnel and adult groups of 10 or more.

NOTE: This exhibit will be open (free of charge) for those attending the Dessert Reception at the museum on Thursday, May 14th!


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Check here for a complete overview of the current exhibits.

All images courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History.

Dessert Reception at the NC Museum of History

NC Museum of History Reception

Thursday, May 14th 6:00-9:30p
Cost: $19.50 per person

Co-sponsored by the North Carolina Genealogical Society and the North Carolina Museum of History, we will have the NC Museum of History all to ourselves this evening to explore the many and varied exhibits relating to North Carolina history.

There will be a dessert reception in the museum lobby featuring delicious selections from Irregardless, a popular downtown Raleigh restaurant. Coffee and iced tea will be included.

The museum gift shop will be open and there will be talks given by William Alexander Haley (The Making of Roots), Earl Ijames (Colored Confederates, Myth or Reality?), and Jeffrey Haines (North Carolina People Finders).

NOTE: As a special treat, the exhibit "Knights of the Black Flag" will be open (for free) to those attending this wonderful event! Click here for details on the exhibit.

Planned Local Event #4 -- Historic Tour -- Life in the Old South Tour

Historic Tour -- Life in the Old South Tour

Tuesday, May 12 8:15a-5:30p

Cost: $55 per person (lunch not included in price)

Experience the Old South at Historic Stagville Plantation, one of the largest in antebellum North Carolina. From the halls of the plantation house to the dirt floors of the slave quarters, you will learn about the realities of a much storied era.

As a contrast to plantation life, we also explore the life of a small tobacco farmer at Duke Homestead. From this humble site, Washington Duke built a tremendous tobacco company. Costumed interpreters will demonstrate 19th century life and southern farming techniques.

After lunch on your own at Cracker Barrel, we tour Bennett Place, the site of the surrender between Generals Sherman and Johnston that ended the Civil War for the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.

The final stop is the charming and authentic Patterson’s Mill Country Store. In addition to their vast collection of mercantile antiques, you may browse their rich offerings of down home foods, crafts and nostalgic collectibles.

Depart by tour bus from conference center

The Lost Colony

Before the pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock and before Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in North America, a group of colonists arrived at Roanoke Island. With the assistance of his friend, artist John White, Sir Walter Raleigh made plans to start an English settlement in America. More than a dozen families signed up for the adventure that would send them across the ocean. They set sail from England on 8 May 1587. The ships made their way to what is now the North Carolina outer banks by mid-summer after sailing through the Caribbean. The 150 brave men, women, and children settled on Roanoke Island in July 1587 and were left to build a community.

Roanoke Island lies between the mainland of North Carolina and the barrier islands of the Outer Banks. A small island, it is eight miles long and two miles wide. When the colonists arrived, they found woods of cedar, cypress, and gum trees. Deer, rabbits, and wild birds were abundant. Grapes grew wild in the dunes at the water’s edge. After three days on the island, a group a American Indians peacefully approached the group. The settlers offered the Indians gifts and the Indians returned the gesture by using their canoes to paddle into the sound to provide a catch of fresh fish.

When ships returned to Roanoke Island three years later to check on these early colonists there was no sight of them. Their village was ransacked, burned, and abandoned. Four hundred years later, it remains a mystery as to what happened to the Roanoke colonists. Some theorize that they abandoned Roanoke Island to live either with the Indians or to move further north into Virginia. Other believe the settlers died from disease or starvation. Recent research has revealed that North Carolina suffered its worst drought in eight hundred years at the time the Roanoke colonists arrived. Surely they would not have survived the hot, dry, rainless summer and fall if they had not moved on.

The Lost Colony is commemorated at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, which is a part of the National Park Service. In addition to North Carolina’s natural beauty, the Site preserves the history of the early Roanoke colony. For more information, visit the park’s website at http://www.nps.gov/fora/.

Annually, the Roanoke Island Historical Association, produces the outdoor drama "The Lost Colony."

And, don't forget to checkout The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research.

Reference: The Mysterious Disappearance of Roanoke Colony by Zachary Kent, Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2004.