Museums North Carolina
Natural History

Browse Museums

Aurora Fossil Museum Foundation, Inc.
Aurora, North Carolina

Anthropology, History, Natural History, Science

Free museum with 3 buildings of fossils both from Aurora and around the world including 2 whales and shark teeth from the megalodon shark along with minerals from around the world.

Mountain Farm Museum and Mingus Mill
Cherokee, North Carolina

Archaeology, Children's, Culture, General, History, Historic House, Natural History, Nature Centers, Park

Oconaluftee offers both a visitor center and the Mountain Farm Museum—a collection of historic log buildings gathered from throughout the Smoky Mountains and preserved on a single site. Buildings include a house, barn, applehouse, springhouse, and smokehouse.

North Carolina Museum of History
Raleigh, North Carolina

Children's, General, History, Library, Natural History

Explore more than 14,000 years of North Carolina history, from the state's earliest inhabitants through the 20th century. The major exhibition The Story of North Carolina features fascinating artifacts, multimedia presentations, and an interactive format for all ages. Other museum exhibits highlight the state's military history, sports heroes, decorative arts and more. Monthly programs include children's programs, craft demonstrations and family events with things to do for all ages. The Museum Shop, featuring North Carolina crafts, and the on-site restaurant Pharaoh?s @ the Museum are open daily.

Schiele Museum of Natural History
Gastonia, North Carolina

History, Natural History, Planetarium, Science

Located in Gastonia, North Carolina, the Schiele Museum has provided the community with exceptional educational resources and opportunities for exploration since its founding in 1961. Through the generosity of Bud and Lilly Schiele, the museum began with a collection of animals, and has expanded throughout the years to include a variety of exhibits, planetarium, nature trail, farm, and a Catawba Indian village. Accredited by the American Association of Museums and an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, The Schiele is a leading destination for students and families across the region.

Frisco Native American Museum & Natural History Center
Frisco, North Carolina

History, Natural History, Science

An educational facility where objects of artistic and historical interest related to Native Americans are preserved, displayed and interpreted.

North Carolina Collection Gallery
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Art, Culture, History, Library, Natural History, University

A public service of the North Carolina Collection, the Gallery is located on the second floor of the Louis Round Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Gallery, which opened in December, 1989, is part of a long history at UNC of utilizing museum objects as educational tools. Over two centuries ago, in 1795, the university's board of trustees appointed the school's first "keeper of the museum," Charles Wilson Harris. Harris was a native of Cabarrus County, N.C., and recent graduate of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). As keeper, he began to assemble at UNC a collection of artifacts and natural-history specimens, displaying them in his "cabinet of curios" for students and visitors to the small, new campus.

Orange County Historical Museum
Hillsborough, North Carolina

Anthropology, Archaeology, Art, Cemetery, Children's, Church, Culture, General, History, Historic House

The Orange County Historical Museum is located in downtown Historic Hillsborough, one of the early capital cities of North Carolina. The community is steeped in history, from the early Native Americans, the Occaneechi, to the hanging of the Regulators apprehended during the Battle of Alamance, a prelude engagement to the American Revolution. Soldiers from the British Army to Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War have marched through the streets of this quaint town. The Orange County Historical Museum captures many of these spledid stories through more than 1,500 artifacts and exhibits. The museum is located just down the street from the home of William Hooper, a signer of the Declaration of Independence for North Carolina.

MUSEUM CONFERENCES

Small Museum Association 41st Annual Conference 2025

February 17 - 19, 2025

Gaithersburg, Maryland

Small Museum Association 41st Annual Conference 2025

Monday, February 17 - Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center

Gaithersburg, Maryland

Hosted by: Small Museum Association

The annual SMA conference attracts more than 300 museum professionals, board members, and volunteers from a wide variety of small museums. They attend sessions on topics ranging from collections and education to staffing and board issues.

We offer a large Museum Resource Hall and plenty of informal networking opportunities for you to talk with (and get ideas from!) other small museum professionals and volunteers

Theme for 2025: Make It Happen!!!

Is there an exhibit, program, or fundraiser that you've been talking about doing for years? Do you feel stuck because of procrastination, lack of board support, or insufficient funds? It's time to take action

At SMA 2025, small museum professionals will share their tips and tricks of how they made it happen!

2025 California Association of Museums Conference

February 18 - 22, 2025

San Fransico, California

2025 California Association of Museums Conference

Tuesday, February 18 - Saturday, February 22, 2025

San Fransico, California

Hosted by: California Association of Museums

CAM is hard at work planning for the 2025 conference, set to take place from February 18–22, 2025 in San Francisco. We look forward to highlighting best practices and innovative ideas from California's museum community

The California Association of Museums is excited to continue offering in-person programming for 2025. We will not be requiring proof of COVID vaccination/s, but highly encourage vaccination and boosters. For the health and safety of our colleagues, masks are also encouraged (but not required). Capacity and spaces will be thoughtfully considered in the planning of this event.

For more information, please email [email protected].

Virginia Association of Museum's 2025 Annual Conference!

March 15 - 18, 2025

Blacksburg, Virginia

Virginia Association of Museum's 2025 Annual Conference!

Saturday, March 15 - Tuesday, March 18, 2025

The Inn at Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, Virginia

Hosted by: Virginia Association of Museums

2025 Conference Theme: Looking Back to the Future For the past several years, many museums have been deeply involved in planning programs and events to observe the 250th birthday of the United States of America. While this is certainly an occasion to celebrate, this anniversary also forces us as a society to reckon with ongoing inequities and challenges within the US that go back to its inception. As museums ask their audiences to look to the past to understand the present and shape a better future, perhaps now is a good moment in time for Virginia’s museum community to take pause and look back at its own history. We are excited to see you in Blacksburg in March 2025 as we take a moment in our hectic schedules to take pause and visit our diverse pasts. Let’s uncover and share our histories to build a more resilient Virginia museum community.

2025 Am Assoc for State and Local History Annual Conference

September 10 - 13, 2025

Cincinnati, Ohio

2025 Am Assoc for State and Local History Annual Conference

Wednesday, September 10 - Saturday, September 13, 2025

TBD

Cincinnati, Ohio

Hosted by: American Association for State and Local History

The 2025 AASLH Annual Conference, in partnership with Ohio Local History Alliance, will take place as the history field makes the final preparations to kickoff off the 250th commemoration of the founding of the United States.

The 2025 conference theme, inspired by AASLH’s Making History at 250: The Field Guide for Semiquincentennial, is an opportunity to broadly explore one of the guide’s themes, The American Experiment. For many in the American colonies in 1776, independence from Britain represented a “leap into the dark” into an unknown future

We are excited for you to join us in Cincinnati as we encourage discussion about our democracy and civic institutions and how they can help strengthen understanding, inspire action, and reveal ways that all of us can participate in and shape the ongoing American experiment.

For more information, please call 615-320-3203 or email [email protected].

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