Spartan at NC Museum of History

The North Carolina Museum of History tells a story that includes a multitude of communities across thousands of years. This year, with the nation’s 250^th anniversary approaching, attention is on late colonial and Revolutionary War-era history, says Kimber Heinz ’09 MA, ’16 MA, curator of political and economic history.

“North Carolina was the first colony to call for independence formally, in Halifax, in April 1776. We have the key to the building where the Halifax Resolves were signed.” This story, she says, is the origin of North Carolina’s “First in Freedom” license plates.

For Heinz, it’s about preserving historic artifacts and serving today’s North Carolina communities. “Being a curator is fun because you do community work meeting with people who want to share a story or donate things to the collection. Artifacts are some of our best ways of learning about people of the past across communities.”

Preserving history for the public is important, she says. “As a state institution, we’re trying to steward North Carolina’s many histories. When we think about the permanent exhibition we’re working on now, we realize North Carolina history is multiple and includes many voices.”

That exhibition will cover nearly 20,000 square feet of space and around 16,000 years of history. It will present familiar artifacts and also bring forward items that have not been shown in the past.

“Our last exhibition only covered history up to around 1960. We’re excited to tell a more literally up-to-date story,” Heinz explains.

She discovered public history at UNCG. “The public history program set me on my path toward taking all the things I learned about the world through my studies and applying them. I want to help communities tell their own collective histories, and I hold those histories sacred now in my role at the state level.”

The North Carolina Museum of History is currently closed for renovation. Information is available at https://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/. Artifacts from the museum will be on display and open to the public in “Witnesses to the Revolution” from June 12 to Dec. 12, 2026, at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library.

by Mercer Bufter ’11 MA

Photo courtesy of North Carolina Museum of History