Libraries, museums and media
The Orange County Historical Museum was founded by the Hillsborough Garden Club and opened in November 1957 on the second floor of the 1845 Orange County Courthouse. Since 1983 it has occupied the 1934 Confederate Memorial Library building on Churton Street, and in 2007 it merged with the Hillsborough Historical Society.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.
People named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.
Books, articles, records, and images about Orange County Historical Museum. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.
Annie Sutton Cameron's short account of Hillsborough during the Regulator uprising of 1766 to 1771, when backcountry farmers protested colonial officials and courts and Hillsborough, as the seat of Orange County, stood at the center of the conflict. Published by the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough in 1964, 36 pages with illustrations.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Exhibit publication from the Orange County Historical Museum for its special exhibit on working life, shown in Hillsborough from March to December 2024 and concerned with the county's trades and industrial arts. Produced by the museum in 2024, it documents Orange County and Hillsborough history through the work people did.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Four-page folded brochure from the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, printed in 1975 with illustrations and a map, the last page carrying a walking tour of Hillsborough. Topics include historical museums in Orange County and tours of Hillsborough. 22 cm.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Sign outside the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, photographed on 6 April 2002 for the North Carolina ECHO project.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Exterior of the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough on 6 April 2002. The building went up as a Confederate memorial and later housed the public library before becoming the museum. A North Carolina ECHO photograph.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Portrait of Eliza Evans Turner in the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, photographed for North Carolina ECHO on 6 April 2002.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Josiah Turner Sr. in a portrait at the Orange County Historical Museum, Hillsborough, from a set of North Carolina ECHO photographs taken on 6 April 2002.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Flag of the Orange Guards, a local militia company, dated 1874, as shown at the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough. Photographed on 6 April 2002 for North Carolina ECHO.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Museum exhibit on the musical traditions of Orange County at the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, photographed on 6 April 2002 for the North Carolina ECHO project.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Close view of labels and archival storage for objects at the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, photographed on 6 April 2002 for North Carolina ECHO.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Hillsborough's official weights and measures, bought by the town in 1760, on exhibit at the Orange County Historical Museum. The set is thought to be the only complete colonial set surviving in the United States. North Carolina ECHO photograph, 6 April 2002.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Antique china, porcelain and tableware at the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, photographed on 6 April 2002 for the North Carolina ECHO project.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Explanatory text panel for the Hillsborough colonial weights and measures exhibit at the Orange County Historical Museum, photographed on 6 April 2002 for North Carolina ECHO.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Ernest Dollar, curator and executive director of the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, holding an issue of The State magazine with the town's colonial weights and measures on its cover. Photographed on 6 April 2002 for North Carolina ECHO.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
A picture book by Courtney Soling Smith about a Boston terrier named Hooper and a glee club at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Published in 2022 by the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, 35 unnumbered pages with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Picture book by Courtney Soling Smith, published by the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough in 2022, about a collie named Minnie and an African American family in Cedar Grove Township. Twenty-nine unnumbered pages, chiefly color illustrations, with portraits that point to a real family behind the story.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Companion picture book about Minnie the collie by Courtney Soling Smith, again from the Orange County Historical Museum in 2022, following an African American farm family in Cedar Grove Township. Thirty-seven unnumbered pages, chiefly color illustrations, with a facsimile. Written for children, with the museum's local history interest behind it.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
An illustrated history of youth sports in Orange County, produced in 2025 in connection with the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough. 76 pages.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
The catalog of Working for a Living, prepared by Courtney Soling Smith, an exhibit at the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough that ran from March to December 2024 on the trades and occupations people followed in the county. 113 pages with illustrations, some in color, 28 cm.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Not about Orange County Historical Museum alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.
Survey of Hillsborough's historic buildings by Heather Wagner Slane of hmwPreservation, completed in September 2017. The 40-page report covers the town's architecture and history with color illustrations and maps.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Cheryl Davis Warren's 2005 study of history and sense of place in Hillsborough, 216 leaves with illustrations, maps and a bibliography. Written as human geography, it treats the town's past alongside its social conditions and the ways residents understand where they live.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
Fire insurance map of Hillsborough, spelled Hillsboro, drawn by the Sanborn Map Company in January 1905 on two sheets, from the Sanborn Maps collection.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
Bird's-eye view of Hillsborough looking east, with houses and industrial buildings, on a postcard published by A. C. Bosselman & Co. of New York about 1905 to 1915. Card number 11116.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection at the Main Library in Hillsborough whose titles, catalog subjects or descriptions are about this site. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.
Exhibit publication from the Orange County Historical Museum for its special exhibit on working life, shown in Hillsborough from March to December 2024 and concerned with the county's trades and industrial arts. Produced by the museum in 2024, it documents Orange County and Hillsborough history through the work people did.
Annie Sutton Cameron's short account of Hillsborough during the Regulator uprising of 1766 to 1771, when backcountry farmers protested colonial officials and courts and Hillsborough, as the seat of Orange County, stood at the center of the conflict. Published by the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough in 1964, 36 pages with illustrations.
These books don’t necessarily mention Orange County Historical Museum, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.
A 1982 revision of Allen Alexander Lloyd's history of Hillsborough, now written with Pauline O. Lloyd and carried forward from the town's founding in 1754 to 1982. Published in Hillsborough by A. A. Lloyd, 310 pages with illustrations and a bibliography.
J. Chris Holaday's Images of America volume on Hillsborough (Arcadia, 2002), built mostly from photographs and postcards. Chapters cover homes, churches and schools, business and industry, local people, scenes around town, and sports, entertainment and events.
Elizabeth Shreve Ryan's combined histories and tour guides for Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the three towns of Orange County, with the University of North Carolina treated alongside Chapel Hill. Each town gets a narrative history and a tour of its streets and buildings. Published by Chapel Hill Press in 2004, 369 pages with illustrations and maps.
Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.
An inventory of the buildings in the Hillsborough Historic District, dated 2006. It concerns historic buildings and the buildings and structures of Hillsborough. Useful for anyone checking a particular property in the town's historic district.
Susan McArtor Bellinger's photographic survey of the buildings in the Hillsborough Historic District put up before 1950, self-published in Hillsborough in 1991. Arranged as a guidebook, it records houses and other structures in photographs. 142 pages with illustrations.
Lucile Noell Dula's guidebook to Hillsborough and its historic buildings, published by Pelican in 1989. It pairs a tour of the town with notes on its history, in 128 illustrated pages with a bibliography. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.
Stewart E. Dunaway worked through Hillsborough, N.C., lot by lot, giving each town lot a synopsis of its history, a plat showing where it sits and transcripts of the deeds he could locate for it. The second issue runs to 720 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles.
Stewart E. Dunaway's 2015 addendum to his history of Hillsborough's town lots, adding deed records arranged by lot number and further town history, with the expansion of the 1890s covered for the first time. Self-published in North Carolina as version 1.0, 446 pages with illustrations, facsimiles and maps. Topics include deeds, court records, land titles and real property in Hillsborough.
An index to the town lots of Hillsborough, Orange County, compiled in 1982 as a guide to the deeds and court records that trace each lot's ownership.
Storyline about this site, with a page of its own:
Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.
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