Women Making History Traveling Exhibit

North Carolina Women Making History traces the lives of ordinary women from 1585 to the mid-1990s. Throughout time, women have traditionally held private roles in our society including caring for the sick, raising families, maintaining households and educating children. Over the years a woman’s role extended beyond the home to include roles in politics, economics, and even the military.

In the exhibit, visitors will catch a glimpse into the lives of women such as Elizabeth Horniblow (tavern operator in Edenton, NC), Harriet Jacobs (former slave and author also from Edenton), Charlotte Hawkins Brown (who opened the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, NC), and Lillian Exum Clement (first woman elected to the NC General Assembly).

Photographs on the exhibit panels reflect young girls working in textile mills, students at Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School, female nurses during World War II, women protesting the use of nuclear power, and a Cherokee woman in her mountain home. The Museum thanks the Friends of the Museum of the Albemarle and the North Carolina Museum of History for making this traveling exhibit possible.