Orange County Historical Museum

Take a tour of the Orange County Historical Museum to see the collection of artifacts from pre-history through the early twentieth century.

Preview your trip on the web: Orange County Historical Museum

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• Documenting the American South Ten thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs for the study of Southern history, literature, and culture.
• The Mississippian Moundbuilders and Their Artifacts Virtual display of artifacts left behind by Mississipian moundbuilders beginning in the 10th century A.D.
• Lesson plan: Learn about your county This activity will allow fourth grade students in North Carolina to learn more about the counties that surround their home county. Using online images, students will create a multimedia presentation to share with others.
• Lesson plan: Why is the past important? As an introduction to the study of North Carolina's archaeological heritage, students will use personally owned object to share the importance of their past and connect this importance with reasons why the human past is important.
• Lesson plan: Interpreting Diaries of the American South Students will read diaries of individuals who lived in the American South from 1865-1917. After reading these diaries the students will use a visual means of displaying their interpretation. Visual presentations will be one of the following: shadow box, poster, PowerPoint using drawings done by the student, brochure, or presenting an item that would have been used during the time that their diary was written.

Related pages

• North Carolina Museum of History: Get a sneak preview of the Museum before you visit! You can search for artifacts, preview the exhibitions, and read about important events in North Carolina history. The Museum offers teachers a variety of resources--many are online! Find lesson plans, information on history in a box kits, professional development workshops, and more!
• The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough: Take students on a guided walking tour through Hillsborough's historic district and go inside the Norwood Law Office, the Orange County Historical Museum, the Burwell School Historic Site, and the Hughes Academy. Along the way they will also see the Old Orange County Courthouse, historic churches, cemeteries, colonial and antebellum homes, and much more.
• Polk County Historical Association Museum: The artifacts found at the Polk County Historical Museum include pioneer tools and clothing, railroad memorabilia, military artifacts, a newspaper editor's office, and much more.

Related topics

• Learn more about American Indians, American Revolution, Civil War, Indians, North Carolina, Orange County, colonial, history museum, istory, and local history.

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Located at 201 North Churton Street in historic Hillsborough, the Orange County Historical Museum contains historical collections ranging from pre-Colonial through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars to the early 1900s. Exhibits at the museum change periodically. "Some highlights of the collection include: a key from the jail which held leaders of the largest pre-revolutionary revolt in the colonies, the Regulator uprising (1766-1771), tools which built the first state university, University of North Carolina (1792), a very rare complete set of colonial era weights and measures dating to 1760, documents from William Hooper, signer of the Declaration of Independence from North Carolina, and large textile and ceramic collections."

There are several curriculum based programs offered by the museum. In addition, the museum has a Traveling Trunk program which provides hands-on objects and specially designed lesson plans for teachers to use in their classrooms.

Contact the museum at (919) 732-2201 or send email to info@orangecountymuseum.org to arrange a visit.

See these photographs of the Orange County Historical Museum from NC ECHO

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