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Ours is an all American story - typical of how communities grew up all across our great nation. While our story takes place in the back country of northwestern North Carolina at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is likely to bear many similarities to the development of crossroads, towns, and cities throughout America.
Mount Airy Museum Of Regional History
Museum Hosts New Exhibit - Extreme Sports, Beyond Human Limits
Power of words on display at Read-in
Words can be powerful — especially those expressed on paper by talented novelists or poets which come to life when spoken by others who capture the true spirit of the writers’ thoughts. This was the case Wednesday afternoon during the 15th-Annual African American Read-In at Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, hosted by members of the local Plaid Cloth Literary Society.More than 20 people were drawn to the event, part of a nationwide observance occurring for 35 years. Wednesday afternoon’s gathering at the museum was held in conjunction with Black History Month.Those attending were invited to select works written by African Americans and read a poem or excerpt from a book — or they could just listen. Troubling legacyWhile Wednesday’s event drew a multi-racial group of local residents, the material read focused on the black experience in the U.S. — not always pleasing portraits, but ones making listeners think long and hard about the implications involved. This was reflected in a selection by Olivia Jessup for the Read-In, “Let America Be America Again,” a poem by Langston Hughes. It explores the notion that the American dream is not truly realized because not everyone can attain it, as cited in passages read by Jessup:“Equality is in the air we breathe,” Hughes wrote, yet “there’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free.’” Passages delivered by Bisse Bowman Wednesday addressed racial stereotypes as highlighted in a book from Lisa Jones, “Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex and Hair.” This included use of the word “auntie” in referring to black women in a way that’s disrespectful or diminishes their status, such as the Aunt Jemima pancake image. As rendered by Bowman, the “Bulletproof Diva” author mentioned this in writing about a real-life relative. “You couldn’t put a red bandanna on my Aunt Cora with a 10-foot pole,” according to Jones. “My aunt has never been an auntie.” Roosevelt Pitts Jr., another reader Wednesday, chose the book “Black People Are Indigenous to the Americas” by Kimberly Norton as his topic. It is billed as a research work which makes the case that blacks have existed in this part of the world long before they were thought to be here. Pitts told Wednesday’s audience that his would prove helpful to him after thinking, “who am I — where did I come from?” as a child. “When all is said and done, I realized I was here,” Pitts added. “This is my home.” The power of words themselves also was highlighted at Wednesday’s African American Read-In by Millie Hiatt in reading lines from Marc Worthy, a poet born in Winston-Salem: “Lock me up and throw away the key,” Worthy wrote in part, “because I speak with a vigorous voice.” In view of a takeoff Sunday by Super Bowl halftime performer Kendrick Lamar on the 1970s poem and song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” Olivia Jessup read the original words. “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” is a satirical work that mingles the unrest of the black community with the TV marketing influences of the Seventies.One will not be able to “skip out for beer during commercials, because the revolution will not be televised,” the original states. “NBC will not be able to predict the winner at 8:32,” and “there will be no highlights on the 11 o’clock news,” the song continues. “The Revolution will not go better with a Coke.” Works by Maya Angelou also were among those highlighted Wednesday.
Kids Greet New Year at the Museum
Long before the badge rose in “Mayberry” and the ball dropped in Times Square, the stately walls of Mount Airy Museum of Regional History were rocking with local pre-schoolers and parents celebrating the arrival of 2025.This included the customary countdown toward the arrival of the new year, which those gathered on the third floor of the museum observed at 12 o’clock sharp.Only it was 12 as in noon, with the official arrival of New Year’s Day in the Eastern Time Zone still a dozen hours away.
Which Mount Airy Museum of Regional History was scheduled to do at midnight Tuesday in its courtyard area with the raising of a replica sheriff’s badge honoring the Andy Taylor character.The pre-schoolers got a head start on that with the NoonYear’s Eve Celebration Party, which began at 11 a.m.
“We’ve got 35 in here today,” said museum Director of Education and Programming Seth Gibbons.Looking around the swirl of festivities on the third floor Tuesday, the event seemed just like any other New Year’s Eve party.The kids wore hats and Mardi Gras-type beads as they tooted horns and danced to music provided by local DJ Blanton Youell which resounded throughout the facility.There were flashing lights, screens showing videos and even a bubble machine, among other attractions.
“Our project goal is to provide the young kids with something to do on New Year’s Eve,” Gibbons said of the fact that midnight is after their bedtime.“It’s giving them something to celebrate.” The NoonYear’s Eve party was climaxed with a customary countdown to 12, when an avalanche of balloons cascaded from the ceiling as everyone cheered.
But did the pre-schoolers really appreciate any philosophical concepts surrounding another 365-day period emerging and the sentimental significance of that ala “Auld Lang Syne?”“They don’t,” said Barbara Blood of Mount Airy, who was attending the event for the first time with her grandsons Trevor, 4, and Trace Hudson, 3. “This is a play time,” Blood said of their main motivation, not unlike what adult celebrants would do later that day.
Museum reopens for public
The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History opened her doors for the first time in almost six months last weekend.
We scrambled to put spring decorations away in the gift shop; to set up hand sanitation stations; to shine up the stainless steel of the elevator doors; to make sure the exhibit spaces were fresh and dusted and presentable for our guests. We joked that we’d forgotten how to be open.
And we wondered if anyone would come. Would a history museum be on the list of places to go for the folks out and about for Labor Day?
We needn’t have worried. Come Saturday morning, as we prepared to unlock the doors, there were folks waiting in the courtyard!
This year, 2020, was to have been the beginning of an exciting renovation for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. The first major overhaul and expansion of exhibits in more than a decade.
Work began in December 2019 and we were moving ahead slowly as the New Year’s Eve Pajama Rama Party happened, followed by some birthday party rentals and a wedding. We were carefully packing artifacts away when COVID-19 arrived on American shores.
The work was just getting messy when Gov. Cooper closed museums in an abundance of caution. We hunkered down, determined to take advantage of the down time to barrel ahead with the work.
We got really messy when we had a crew cut through 110-year-old brick walls to make new pathways and doors. We’ve been frustrated the work hasn’t progressed on the original schedule but with so many businesses closed out of safety for their employees or turned to making protective equipment for medical personnel, we understood.
We were, I will admit, caught happily off-guard when Gov. Cooper announced on Sept. 1 that museums could open for the first time since March.
There are more than 35,000 active museums in the US according to the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Most of them are historical societies, historic houses and sites (48%) and Surry County is blessed to have several from the Gertrude Smith and William Alfred Moore houses in Mount Airy to the Edwards-Franklin House out in the county.
Of that number, though, only 7.5% are history museums.
If you’ve never been to the museum or if it’s been a while, we invite you to come back. We have four floors highlighting the stories of the women and men who built the communities in this region, took the risks to establish industries, raised tobacco and cattle, grapes and children.
Some of the earliest history here involves the Saura tribe of Native Americans who lived across the land we call Surry, Stokes, Forsyth, Wilkes, and Yadkin counties today.
Exhibits tell of the momentous industries; the granite quarry that has provided the materials for monuments, houses, and street curbs for 140 years; tobacco farming and manufacture of cigars and snuff that kept families clothed and fed; winemaking from colonial times until North Carolina was the leading producer in 1900; textiles that turned out long johns and baby onesies, socks and blankets that kept American soldiers warm through two World Wars and into Korea.
But there are exhibits here that speak of individuals, Donna’s music, Andy’s laughter, the Bunkers’ resilience. We share the stories of the men who established a much-needed fire department and of the anguish caused by the tragic Flat Rock Elementary School blaze.
We’re adding more stories as the renovation work progresses. Stories that were not as readily accessible when the museum was first conceived and for which we have precious few artifacts. But we know the stories of some of the very early families now who helped open the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia. We know the stories of some of the families who came down that road at great personal peril to carve the communities we live in today from the virgin timberland.
There is still a lot of history to learn and tell and we hope you’ll help us do that. If you have items that tell the stories of this region, the families and businesses, we’d love a chance to scan and record them, to add them to our collection if you are so inclined. Come on out and visit us. We’re so very glad to be open to you all again.
for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History with 22 years in journalism before joining the museum staff. She and her family moved to Mount Airy in 2005 from Pennsylvania where she was also involved with museums and history tours. She can be reached at KRSmith@NorthCarolinaMuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x228
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