Charlotte, NC, 28202
704-333-1887
URL : http://www.museumofthenewsouth.org
overview : Levine Museum of the New South is an interactive history museum housing the nation's most comprehensive interpretation of post-Civil War southern history. Through an award-winning permanent exhibit and changing exhibits, Levine Museum explores the meaning of the New South and tells the stories of the people who have reinvented and shaped the South since the end of the Civil War.
collections : Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers - Levine Museum's permanent exhibit includes over 1000 artifacts, images, video clips, music, oral histories, and more, presented in interactive environments: 1.Farming Transformed, 1860s-1920s. life-size photo-murals and a diorama of a cotton field and learn about the commercializing of rural life. a cotton gin, and dip your hand in a basket of seed cotton and ginned cotton. a tenant cabin filled with the objects of everyday life, view photographs of black and white farm families, and read their stories. the story of political upheaval during Reconstruction and the late nineteenth century, and learn about disfranchisement and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. 2. Bring Mills to the Cotton, 1880s-1930s photos and artifacts highlighting entrepreneurs who brought industrialization to the South. re-created sections of a textile factory and a millhands house. vintage films of life in mill villages and workers using carding machines, spinning frames and looms. photos and artifacts, and accounts reflecting conflict in the mills child labor, union organizing activities and strikes, and exclusion of African Americans. 3. Building Cities, 1900s-1940s. main street" and the urbanization of the Carolina Piedmont. recreated sections of a department store, an appliance store, a radio store, a barbershop, a newsreel theater, and the re-assembled chapel of Good Samaritan Hospital, one of the first African-American hospitals in the South. audio clips of radio and recording stars who performed in Charlotte. footage of President Franklin Roosevelt visiting Charlotte in 1936 and newsreel footage showing southern involvement in Roosevelts New Deal. movie trailer featuring Charlotte native Randolph Scott and a WWII short film Cotton Goes to War. 4. We Shall Overcome, 1940s-1970s. the separate but equal world of Jim Crow featuring artifacts and images of life in the segregated South. national television networks coverage of civil rights demonstrations in the South. an actual lunch counter with oral history videos from sit-in participants. Civil Rights songs, artifacts and images depicting different strategies to achieve equal rights. an actual school bus with televised coverage of the Swann decision, which set the national Supreme Court precedent for busing as a means of desegregation. 5.Banking Boomtown, 1970s-2000s. images and artifactson the rise of Charlotte as a banking center, 1850s gold coins and one of Americas first on-line Automatic Teller Machines both made in Charlotte. issues associated with the whirlwind of growth transportation and urban sprawl. a hands-on play area where children can build their own city. recreated sections of a Hispanic bakery and an Asian grocery store and learn about todays new immigrants to the New South. New South gone national, from fast-food breakfast biscuits to NASCAR racing. Watch a 10 minute multi-screen video Voices of the New South exploring what the South means to people today.
hours (subject to change) : Tuesday - Saturday 10am-5pm Sunday 12-5pm. Closed Monday.
topics : American history, north, carolina, charlotte, new, south, southern, history, civil, rights, cotton, farming, textiles, banking, post civil, war, general, european, interactive, agriculture, local history, music, religion
