North Carolina Collection Gallery

Early exploration of North Carolina, the Algonquin culture, the Roanoke Island settlement - these are just some of the exhibits that can be seen at the North Carolina Collection Gallery in Wilson Library on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

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• A visit to colonial North Carolina This lesson plan extends student learning about the colonial period in North Carolina history by incorporating primary sources from the Documenting the American South collection. After reading first-hand accounts of travelers to colonial America, students will create their own travel brochure advertising North Carolina.
• Shadows of North Carolina's past Students will infer past Native American lifeways based on observation, construct a timeline of four major culture periods in Native American history, and compare these lifeways and discuss how they are different and alike.
• Early North Carolina Exploration (warm-up activity) This lesson is intended to be used at the beginning of a unit that examines the early exploration of the North Carolina coast and its inhabitants.
• How do you lose a colony? Explore the region and read some of the legends associated with the Lost Colony of Roanoke.
• The Way We Lived in North Carolina Explores the social history of the Tar Heel State from the pre-colonial period to the present

Related pages

• Haw River Festival Learning Celebration: Don't miss this fun and informative festival celebrating the Haw River, its history, and the creatures that live there.
• Plans for democracy: Instructions to delegates from Orange County, North Carolina, to the Provinicial Congress in November 1776, about what sort of state constitution they should support. Includes historical commentary.
• Occaneechi Indian Village: Enjoy authentic Native American food, dance, crafts, demonstrations, and traditions at the Indian village.

Related topics

• Learn more about North Carolina, Orange County, and history.

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Located on the second floor of the Louis Round Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Collection Gallery provides a variety of exhibitions that feature literature, photographs, and artifacts from the North Carolina Collection’s extensive holdings. The collection includes more than 22,000 museum objects.

Long-term exhibits in the Gallery’s main display area interpret the early exploration and attempted settlement of Roanoke Island by English colonists in the 1580s and depict the Algonquian culture indigenous to that region. Another exhibit on North Carolina’s early nineteenth-century gold rush includes a rare 24-coin set of Bechtler coins. Still other exhibits recount the history of the University of North Carolina, the department’s collection of rare ornithological prints, the lives of the original Siamese twins Eng and Chang Bunker (1811-1874), and much more. The Gallery is also responsible for displays in two special rooms that memorialize the work and contributions of two distinguished alumni of the university: Asheville native and novelist Thomas Wolfe and philanthropist John Sprunt Hill of Durham.

The Gallery is open Mondays through Fridays, 9:00-5:00, Saturdays, and 9:00-1:00, Sundays, 1:00-5:00. It is closed on state holidays. For more information and to schedule a visit for your class contact Linda Jacobson at ljacobso@email.unc.edu or 919-962-1172.