EXHIBIT ON THE DAY THE LIGHTS CAME ON
OPENS AT MUSEUM OF THE ALBEMARLE
The Day The Lights Came On
The Museum of the Albemarle opens its newest interactive exhibit April, 2020. The Day The Lights Came On is an interactive exhibit featuring how the power of electricity changes people’s lives and businesses in the Albemarle region.
Large towns in northeastern North Carolina were introduced to electricity around 1890. Electricity became more widespread to rural communities by the 1950s. Power meant access to new inventions. Electricity was new, especially to those who had lived their entire lives without it. Homes could use electric appliances such as radios, irons, refrigerators, washing machines, electric stoves, and vacuum cleaners. Farms began using electric milking machines, electric coolers, electric heaters, and automatic waterers. Florists, morgues, candy factories, ice plants, textile mills, saloons and other businesses in the region all changed the day the lights came on.
In the exhibit, you can explore how electricity and its resulting inventions impacted people: Did these new forms give people more leisure time?
Today, numerous methods can generate electricity, including windmills, solar panels, hydroelectric plants, nuclear reactors, natural gas, and coal-burning stations. New energy-efficient and renewable-energy standards are being set throughout the nation.
(For optimized viewing, press the full-screen icon in the bottom navigation of your screen, upon opening the experience.)
Experience the exhibit for yourself below:
This exhibition is produced by The Museum of the Albemarle located at 501 South Water Street, Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The museum is the northeast regional history museum of the N. C. Division of State History Museums within the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
