Fan Mail

The exciting revitalization of Durham is grounded in its rich traditions. Unfortunately, Durham is one of a very few communities in North Carolina without an institution that celebrates its heritage. The Museum of Durham History will allow people to learn about our past and use that knowledge to look to the future.
. . . Mayor Bill Bell

I'm just a proud Durham native (I'm 30, so I've been here 30 years) who loves history and I've been hoping for a museum like this in Durham.  I have particularly enjoyed the Museum of Life and Science since I was a very young kid.  I don't have much museum experience, but if at any point now, or in the future, you need volunteers to help with anything at all, please let me know.  From grunt work and background work to help with bigger projects, I'd love to get involved any way I can. 
. . .Jessica Harris

In 1959, when I was a senior in high school, my father and I flew south to look at a couple of North Carolina colleges. I ended up attending Wake Forest, but what I remember about that trip was walking around Durham and staying at the Jack Tar Hotel. I guess it was a good old hotel. The hallways were dark, the breakfast was big, and the smell of tobacco was everywhere. I was impressed, but I doubt my father was. He liked up-to-date hotels, not the old places. We were different that way. A sense of history made me feel I was somewhere. Naturally I didn't realize at the time that the Durham I saw then had been a very different city in the past, and that it was in the process of forgetting its own history. Urban renewal was wiping out old historically significant African-American neighborhoods, and who was celebrating the Piedmont Blues in 1959? Now I hear that the city that encouraged the music of Sonny Terry and Blind Boy Fuller might be celebrated in a Museum of Durham History. Good. It's about time. There are old stories to be told, old photographs to be seen. Historically, the place is amazing. Faulkner said it best:"The past isn't dead. It isn't even past."
. . .John Rosenthal

We would love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@MuseumofDurhamHistory.org