New NC Museum of History Permanent Military Exhibit Opens

By Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist, State Archives of North Carolina

The North Carolina Museum of History opened its new permanent military gallery exhibit Answering the Call: Experiences of North Carolina’s Military Veterans, 1898–1945, on April 6, 2021. More information on the exhibit is available on the Musuem’s website here: https://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/answering-the-call. The new exhibit replaces a long-standing military gallery A Call to Arms, that many North Carolinians had experienced over the years. The new exhibit aims to bring focus on the individuals who got involved in war periods from North Carolina, giving visitors a local and state connection to some of the most trying times in world history.

In addition to the numerous artifacts and photographs from the Museum’s own holdings, the exhibit features new and old archival materials from the holdings of the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina. The State Archives is partnering with the Museum of History on a U.S. Department of Defense WWII history grant as part of the exhibit design, which supported the description and digitization of a set of WWII veterans oral history interviews on analog recordings and original WWII home front posters that have not been seen by the public since 1947.

Military Collection Archivist Matthew Peek is working with the State Archives’ Digital Services and Collections Management Sections to get these materials online throughout 2021 as part of the grant, with the results to be used by the Museum of History for further online and in-person education in connection with the new exhibit.

WWII 11.F8.P1: Original small poster printed on regular paper, entitled “‘Fighting Fifth’ War Loan Rally,” advertising the Fifth War Loan Rally held at the high school in Edneyville in Henderson County, NC, on June 26, 1944, during World War II. This is one of the original WWII home front posters being supported for description and digitization by the NC Museum of History’s DoD WWII history grant for the new exhibit Answering the Call [North Carolina WWII Home Front Posters, WWII 11, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.].

Answering the Call features numerous photographs of North Carolina veterans or those taken by North Carolinians overseas during WWI and WWII. Also included are segments of oral history interviews from WWI and WWII veterans in the Military Collection’s Veterans Oral History Collection, used to highlight individual experiences during the wars — such as playing baseball in France in WWI or sailing to Iwo Jima in WWII. Biographies of a number of the veterans featured in the exhibit are based on the collections’ descriptions and biographies for their papers in the Military Collection.

James O. Lawson Interview, 2002-06-13 [MilColl OH 502] : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

The above James O. Lawson Interview, from the Veterans Oral History Collection, has a segment playing in the new exhibit Answering the Call at the Battle of Iwo Jima exhibit section, where Lawson recounts heading to the Battle of Iwo Jima aboard a ship in 1945.

MilColl.WWI.Posters.12.19.c2: Original WWI U.S. Marine Corps recruiting poster, painted by famed artist James Montgomery Flagg, entitled “First in the Fight,” featuring a Marine standing in front of an American flag. This particular copy of the poster used in Wake County, NC, in WWI and advised interested recruits to apply at the Citizen’s National Bank Building in Raleigh, NC. This poster is currently on display in the new NC Museum of History exhibit Answering the Call.

Many of the reproduced WWI posters in the exhibit are from the original WWI Posters Collection at the State Archives, all of which are available to view online in the North Carolina Digital Collections (NCDC). The exhibit also features a number of new artifacts brought in as donations by Peek and Museum of History Military Curator Charlie Knight working together on collections having both artifacts and service papers over recent years, with the papers going to the State Archives and the artifacts to the Museum. All of the posters and photographs from the State Archives’ Military Collection used in the new exhibit are available online through the NCDC or the State Archives’ Flickr page.

WWII 153.F2.1: Photobooth photograph of Mary C. Davenport of Mackeys, N.C., wearing her summer Marine Corps uniform and hat, taken while she was serving in the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve during World War II. The photograph is believed taken while she was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. This photograph is on display with Davenport’s original Marine Corps Women’s Reserve uniform in the Answering the Call exhibit.

So, visit the new exhibit and enjoy learning about the first-hand experiences of North Carolina veterans of all backgrounds from the Spanish-American War through World War II. If you are interested in learning more about the people you see in the exhibits, we encourage you to come over to the public Search Room at the State Archives of North Carolina and look at the original papers of the veterans featured in the exhibit. All of the collections can be located in the State Archives’ online catalog DOC, by searching the veteran’s name and selecting the collection for its finding aid and inventory.

Resources

1. WWI Posters Collection, WWI Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, viewed in the North Carolina Digital Collections at https://www.digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/search/collection/p15012coll10!p16062coll11/searchterm/POSTERS/field/publia/mode/all/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc
2. WWII Posters Collection, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, viewed in the North Carolina Digital Collections at https://www.digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/search/collection/p16062coll10/searchterm/POSTERS/field/publia/mode/all/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc
3. Veterans Oral History Collection, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, available online at https://www.digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/custom/veterans-oral-history-collection
4. NC Spanish-American War Images collection, State Archives of North Carolina Flickr, available online at https://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/collections/72157691847308080/
5. NC WWI Photographs collection, State Archives of North Carolina Flickr, available online at https://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/collections/72157691847308080/
6. NC WWII Photographs collection, State Archives of North Carolina Flickr, available online at https://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/collections/72157661422108878/
7. Search the Military Collection’s holdings and read full biographies of veterans featured in the new Answering the Call exhibit in the State Archives of North Carolina online catalog DOC. Search a veteran’s name and selection “Military Collections” in the side bar menu to find collection inventories for that veteran’s papers: https://archives.ncdcr.gov/doc/search-doc