History museum to open new kid-focused exhibit exploring N.C. governors

Discover Your Governors will introduce kids to the office and feature hands-on interactives, artifacts, photographs and other items that explore the state's more than 200 years of gubernatorial history. The exhibit opens Oct. 22 and will run through Aug. 6, 2017. Admission will be free.

“This is the first time the Museum of History has aimed a gubernatorial exhibit toward elementary students, and we’re excited about engaging children and helping them learn about civics and history,” says RaeLana Poteat, the museum's curator of political and social history, in a press release. “We also enjoyed collaborating with students from Raleigh’s A. B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary for one of the exhibit’s video interactives. The children asked great questions about what it is like to be governor, and the video features answers from several former North Carolina governors. There’s nothing like hearing answers straight from the source!”

The exhibit will showcase artifacts - from personal items to inaugural gowns and political campaign materials. Among the gowns is a yellow dress worn by "First Kid" Merle Umstead, daughter of William B. Umstead. She wore the dress at age 10 to her father’s Inaugural Ball in 1953.

As part of the opening of the exhibit, the downtown Raleigh museum will offer some special events for students and educators. Here's what's planned:

What do our state’s governors do? One thing they have to do is communicate, but how did they do that before our electronic age? Learn how as you visit the Discover Your Governors exhibit in the lobby, then try out quill and steel-nib pens or a typewriter.

Discover North Carolina’s governors in our current exhibit, and learn how that job has changed since the 1700s. Could you have voted in the elections for William Tryon? David Reid? Joseph Broughton? or Bev Perdue? Find out, and experiment with communication tools of the different times.