30 Years of Museum Innovation

By Gareth Evans, Director, Bellamy Mansion Museum

In the late 1980s, Preservation North Carolina (PNC) had the vision to explore social history and design arts through a museum consisting of two side-by-side historic buildings in Wilmington, NC, the 1861 Bellamy house and the 1859 building that housed enslaved workers. Volunteers and staff believed the site was ideally situated to educate the public about preservation and architecture, while discussing interconnected themes in American history like race, wealth, and war.

​Thirty years later, we've accomplished that goal well beyond our initial expectations, routinely seeing over 22,000 annual visitors from across the US and around the world.

These incredible buildings are the artifacts that allow us to show and interpret a complex history. Since the 1994 opening of the museum, we've committed to engaging visitors in thoughtful exploration of the topics at hand. Our volunteers are trained as historical interpreters, and we couldn't function without their generosity and wisdom.

In the beginning, PNC decided that this site should be more of a "museum in a house" than a traditional house museum, which was innovative at the time. Instead of filling space with Victorian ephemera, some rooms are set up as historic vignettes, while others are galleries for rotating art and history exhibits. As a result, the space is dynamic rather than static, and the art shows, family days, lectures, and jazz concerts we host give the community a reason to keep coming back.

Through the years, we've adapted to changing audiences. These days, we offer an accessible, virtual on-site tour as well as neighborhood walking tours. Our self-guided tour features smartphone narration, and written versions are multilingual. Our guided tours use Bluetooth headsets to make sure everyone is able to the hear the guide. We collaborate with teachers across New Hanover County to align our school tours with changing curriculums, and work with neighboring museums on cross-disciplinary programs for the community.

However, the innovation I'm most proud of is the fact that we continually strive to be honest about history. We talk about the history and legacy of both white supremacy and Black achievement. Our daily tours begin the slave quarters and integrate the stories of everyone who lived and worked in the site. We host talks about charged topics like slavery, the Wilmington 10, and the 1898 massacre in the parlor of a house built by enslaved craftsmen for 1898 leaders in front of descendants from all sides of those events. Our volunteers and staff engage in direct discussions about these topics every day, because truthful stories are the most interesting and useful.

Museums like this one provide people with a nuanced, layered understanding of our shared history, which in turn helps to inform our future. We do not and cannot always get the scope and language of social history right. But I am confident that we give it our best shot on a daily basis. We find that almost all our visitors respond positively to a complicated story, truthfully told. One of my favorite quotes is attributed to American anthropologist Margaret Mead. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

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For more visuals, including many before and after photos, check out Our Story on our website here.

Below are two video discussions on the 1859, interpreted, urban slave quarters. One describes the building and its restoration. The other highlights urban and rural enslavement and details the builders and workers originally at the site.

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