Bits of History NC Museum of History

John Wertheimer, professor of history at Davidson College, discusses how he worked with his undergraduate students to research and write the story of a small town lawyer whose battles for Civil Rights led to challenging the State’s literacy test—all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

What began in the middle 1800s as a series of public talks that promoted full voting rights for women finally became a national cause during the years leading up to America's involvement in World War I (1917–1918) and after. Although many people today are aware of the radical actions of women in England and in the northeastern United States, museum curator RaeLana Poteat describes a very different, more modest, picture of the suffrage movement in North Carolina and the conservative South in general.

In 1754 war spread from Europe to North American and became a struggle over territory fought between the French and the British and their respective American Indian allies. By 1763 the British had won domination over the colonies—but they also had sown seeds of discontent among American colonists. Historian and author John Maass discusses this critical and fascinating period of America’s past.

From 1946 to 1964, the American birth rate soared. A new child-focused culture emerged alongside a prosperous economy, and the rapid growth of a new medium: television. Katie Edwards, the museum's curator of popular culture, describes how toys of those baby boomers reflected, not just a response to the era’s circumstances, but also the angst, energy, creativity, change, and uncertainties of American society and culture at the time.

The state’s Colonial Records Project cares for thousands of documents that depict the history of the state from its earliest days of settlement by Europeans through ratification of the United States Constitution. Historian Joseph Beatty discusses his work with the project, including some insights he discovered while working, in particular, with the records of Royal Governor Arthur Dobbs.

Dr. Brooks Simpson’s edited collection of more than 120 speeches, newspaper and magazine articles, letters, and other period writings provides a sweeping view of the hope and despair that existed during the tumultuous period in American history following the Civil War, a time known as Reconstruction.