[00:00:00] Speaker A: The Journey Hometown Journal.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: It's the closest we have to a photograph. This man was probably sitting out on his stoop and they walk by and he's drawing them, one of the soldiers who's looking at him so, you know, breaking that wall of he's looking at dougimiter as he's drawing him.
[00:00:18] Speaker C: Welcome to the Hometown Journal. I'm Mark Edwards. On this edition, we're continuing our series on America 250, the celebration of the country's 250th anniversary. Today we're going to hear about some of the events and historical attract attractions in North Carolina. Joining us is Ainsley Wegner, director in the Division of Research and Publications with the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Ainsley, welcome to the program. Give us an overview of what America 250 North Carolina is all about.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Sure. Well, I certainly appreciate your interest in what North Carolina is doing.
North Carolina, back in 2019, decided to place the America250 commemoration in the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
And it's been in the Office of Archives and History all along. But last year, at the end of April, the state archivist, Sarah Koontz, who had been in charge of America 250, retired and it was decided to move America 250 North Carolina into my office, which has traditionally done a number of commemorations. So it was a good fit.
My involvement goes back further than last year. I had been working with the team on several of our initiatives, but I took over officially last year, 1st of May.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: North Carolina has such a rich history, state history, and then, of course, you know, American history there. What are some of the opportunities for our listeners to experience us and North Carolina history this year?
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Sure. So this year pretty much our two biggest things have passed already. Our two big 2026 anniversaries are the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, which was in February. That was the first Revolutionary War battle on North Carolina soil and also the first major patriot victory of the war that was in February. And then the Halifax resolves, which is why we say we were first in freedom. It was the first official sanction of independence. That was April 12 in Halifax. That was when we sent instructions to our delegates saying if independence comes up for a vote, you vote for it. So we weren't declaring independence, but we said, you know, it's definitely vote for that.
So that's why we claim first in freedom on our license plates and things like that. We, we do love to be first in North Carolina. Other things this year there are 12 known eyewitness sketches of George Washington's troops. So that's not just a drawing or a representation of of the troops. It's somebody who is standing there looking at them.
And one of them is of the North Carolina Brigade. It's held by the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. We've got it coming down on loan actually next week we're going to be borrowing that for six months. There'll be a big event at the state Capitol on May 13 with the guy who found it, Matthew Skick is going to come down and give his lecture on the discovery and identifying the artists and everything. It's really an amazing thing.
It's a representation of camp followers as well as the troops. There's injured troops on the back of the cart. There's camp followers in the cart. And this is truly shortly after George Washington sent a memo around telling everybody not to let camp followers in their wagons because it impeded their travel. So of course, there they are.
But it was From July of 1777 when the North Carolina Brigade was going through Philadelphia and Matthew was able to determine through newspapers that they passed right by an artist whose last name is Doucemetier. So they've done all the work to be able to attribute it to Deimeter. So that's going to be coming down here. It will be at the Capitol and then it'll be at the North Carolina Museum of Art. So for about two and a half months. Then Tryon palace for two months and then it'll go up to Halifax State Historic Site for about a month before it returns to Philadelphia. And after that we've got a big event at the state Capitol on July 4th. Of course, another thing that we're doing that I think is going to be really cool is the soccer tournament is a big international soccer tournament that is in Cary, North Carolina every year it's a small sided tournament where teams are competing for a million dollar prize.
Lots of big names in soccer and they wanted to have America 250 North Carolina Day. So on May 27th we're going to be pulling out the stops there. And Carrie, we're even going to have a team, a fake team of costumed interpreters who will walk out on the field as though they're going to play. They're not going to have to play in their uniforms. Those are really great opportunities to maybe catch people who aren't the history tourists. They're there for, you know, for the soccer and maybe with children who enjoy soccer. And it's a great opportunity to engage with people where they are and talk with them about North Carolina history and, you know, maybe get them interested in traveling to our historic sites and such.
[00:05:36] Speaker C: You mentioned you were talking about the sketches of Washington. What's great about that is somebody that lives in North Carolina or will be visiting North Carolina and you may have been to some of the historical sites, some of the museums, but that's something that you may never actually see. And so the great thing about this commemoration is it's bringing those kind of things out for people to really participate in and get to see.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Right. And if you think about it, you know, it's the closest we have to a photograph. This man was probably sitting out on his stoop and they walk by and he's drawing them. There's even one of the soldiers who's looking at him and so, you know, breaking that wall of he's looking at Deuce Imitier as he's drawing him. If you were in the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, that could be your ancestor. You know, we don't know who they were, but they were the North Carolina Brigade in Philadelphia in 1777. And if you had an ancestor who was there, that could be him. And that's a very cool thing to ponder.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Today we are continuing Our Series on America250 and the commemorations in Virginia and North Carolina, focusing on this episode of Journal on North Carolina, we'll have more with Ainslie Wegner with the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources when we come back. To find out more about the upcoming historical commemoration events and historical sites in North Carolina, you can check out america250.nc.gov back with more in a minute.
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[00:07:53] Speaker C: Hometown Journal, Mark Edwards, back with you as we look at how North Carolina is commemorating America's 250th anniversary. Joining us is Ainsley Wegner with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural resources Ainsley I saw where North Carolina has chosen some significant themes for the anniversary. The civil rights movement, women's suffrage, and then technology.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: One of our platforms is called When Are We Us With Us capitalized. I think that's pretty clever.
And that's, that's where we use America 250 to talk about the civil rights movement, suffrage, all of these things.
Because freedom looks different to everybody in North Carolina. It's an opportunity just to engage people with North Carolina history more broadly than just the revolution. One of the things we have done, and it's an amazing legacy project for us, are these pop up exhibits, traveling exhibits, where it says the panels that are kind of like screens that you pull up and a couple of them are about the civil rights movement and suffrage.
And we make them free to people as long as they can get them from us and get them returned to us somehow they can borrow those for a few months. And you know, we're putting them in libraries, retirement communities, high schools, anybody that wants them and has a place to display them. And those have been really incredibly popular. They're reserved into 2028 at this point throughout the year.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: What are some of the education opportunities for students to learn more about North Carolina's involvement and their significant role in American history?
[00:09:43] Speaker B: So we do have, we have one of our staff members is doing education and civics engagement.
So she has done a number of events with students where they've been encouraged to come to like we've got a site behind our building called the North Carolina Freedom park and it's about the civil rights movement.
And they've had an event back there where we have an America 250 table to talk with people about America 250, but then also get to tour the Freedom park and learn about that.
There are a number of civics related events. Another thing, and this is not high school, but we did a county flag challenge with fourth graders around the state where they were encouraged to submit a county flag that would represent their county. And we had a ton of entries. That's been one of the most fun things too is watching those, those really cool flags come in. They had to do a flag and then a short essay about what it was representing.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: I know there are a lot of partnerships involved in the 250th celebration. Tell us a little bit about some of the partnerships that you are working with with museums and the historical sites in North Carolina.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: The North Carolina Office of Archives and History is an umbrella organization for our history museums and our state historic sites, also the state archives.
So we are working regularly with all of those folks. In fact, state historic sites are they deserve a medal or a raise or something for what all they're doing this year. We are regularly leaning on them for costumed interpreters and reenactors to bring living history to events because I think that's really what people want to see. Our state history museum is closed this year for renovation. It's been closed. It's going to be closed for another couple of years and that's unfortunate. But they are partnering with us to bring some exhibits out.
We're going to have some artifacts traveling with the Brigade sketch, which is really exciting.
We're also working, you know, with the art museum. The art museum will be partnering with us for the brigade sketch.
They're in our broader department, but they don't generally work with us on history related things. But they are going to be the art handlers for this tour. So we couldn't do that without them.
[00:12:09] Speaker C: People can find out more about America250NC when they visit the website. I've been on that. The website looks really fantastic and it's a great place for people to start and find out more about it, read some of the history and then plan a visit.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Right. And we've got almost a thousand events on our event calendar, so people should be able to find things. They're not things that we're doing necessarily. They're just things that we're helping to
[00:12:35] Speaker C: amplify and I encourage you to visit that website. It's america250.nc.gov My thanks to Ainsley Wegner with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources for being with us today. And thank you for joining us for the Hometown Journal.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: You've been listening to the Journey Hometown Journal. If you're a part of an organization or know of one in the communities we serve and would like to be considered as a guest, please make your
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