The Cape Fear Museum’s collection is a time capsule of sorts of Wilmington, NC. Random, strange, and rich in local history, it’s a place where you never know what you’ll discover but it’s guaranteed to be fascinating and fun.
A sample of what’s to be found: A 1929 photo of the winner of the Feast of Pirates’ baby parade (Margaret Coleman Getty Wilson (1927-). Architect Henry Bacon’s wooden pantograph and straight edge (he’s best remembered for his final project, the Lincoln Memorial in DC). A clear glass nipple guard dating back to 1850; Wilmington native Betty Desjardins’ ancestor used it to nurse all eight of her children. A bathing suit worn by North Carolina’s first female head lifeguard Hannah Solomon Block, who btw performed in New York City’s Stage Door Canteen under the stage name Nina Rhodes. And a six-foot-tall tree stump that has been tapped for turpentine. (Tapping trees to collect raw resin became the foundation of the Lower Cape Fear’s naval stores industry.)
