A hand-stitched replica of George Washington’s sleeping and office tent, which served as the command center for the Continental Army, will be on display March 26-28 at Tryon Palace historic site in New Bern.

The First Oval Office Project travels the country providing interactive education and outreach programming that brings George Washington’s wartime headquarters to life. The full-scale replica of Washington’s Revolutionary War tent, often referred to as the “First Oval Office,” is the centerpiece of the project.

“Tryon Palace will be the only site in North Carolina to host the First Oval Office Project during 2026,” North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell said in a release. “This immersive living history program can provide us a deeper understanding of the Revolutionary War by telling the story of General Washington and all those who served alongside him.”

The Museum of the American Revolution’s First Oval Office Project and its adjoining educational programming is a signature event for DNCRs’ America 250 NC initiative that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and celebrates the state’s important role in the American Revolution.

A team of interpreters from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, where the original sleeping and office tent is on permanent display, will be on site to guide visitors and answer questions about Washington’s military life while on campaign.

Tickets to tour the First Oval Office Project are $20 for adults and $10 for youth, and may be purchased online or at the North Carolina History Center Ticket Desk on Front Street or at the Waystation Ticket Office just across from the Palace’s front gates on Pollock Street.

Tryon Palace in downtown New Bern will bloom with potential for green thumbs Friday through Sunday during its annual spring heritage plant sale and Spring Garden Lovers’ Weekend.

Part of its celebration of National Gardening Month, the plant sale is set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Friday and Saturday on the Daves House Lawn just inside the palace’s main gate.

Organizers said that there will be a selection of plants grown locally and in the historic site’s nursery yard, as well as a wide variety of annuals, heirloom vegetables, perennials, herbs and other spring favorites.

Admission to the gardens is being waved as part of Spring Garden Lovers Weekend from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Also on Saturday, the Craven Consort woodwind group are scheduled to perform under the palace colonnades. The five-piece woodwind group performs pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries on period instruments.

Plein air artists will be painting in the gardens on both Saturday and Sunday, as well.

Tryon Palace was built in 1770 and served as the first permanent capitol of North Carolina and was home to Gov. William Tryon and his family. The Georgian-style structure was the site of the first sessions of the General Assembly after the American Revolution and housed state governors until 1794. In 1798, fire destroyed the original building. The palace was rebuilt in the 1950s, opening in 1959, according to the historic site’s website.

Tryon Palace is launching a new Community Class Series “that reach beyond the pages of history books.”

The first of three educational programs on eastern North Carolina is scheduled for Thursday evening at the North Carolina History Center at Tryon Palace.

Nancy Strickland Fields-Chavis, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, will present “North Carolina Before Tryon: Eastern North Carolina’s Indigenous Communities.”

Director and curator of The Museum of the Southeast American Indian at the University of North Carolina Pembroke, and a commissioner for the North Carolina American Heritage Commission, Fields-Chavis will begin the program with a moment in 1491, long before any European explorer set foot on what was to become Eastern North Carolina.

The land was the home of the Tuscarora, Secotan, Chowanoke, Aquascogoc, Neusiok, Dasamongueponke, Pamlico, Chesapeake, Roanoke, Weapmeoc, and many other Algonquin, Iroquoian and Siouan speaking peoples. Fields-Chavis will go into the politics, lifeways, and culture of a people who governed this land for time immemorial.

A light reception is to kick off the evening at 5:30 p.m., featuring a menu influenced by the food sources known available to the Indigenous peoples, followed at 6 p.m. by a call to order and cultural presentation by Reggie Brewer of the Lumbee Tribe. The main presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Cullman Performance Hall.

All are welcome to attend. Community Class is free, but advance registration is required as seating is limited. Plan to arrive by 6 p.m. to secure a seat. To register, call 252-639-3527, or go to www.tryonpalace.org/events.

The next Community Class Series will be on Sept. 26 on “A Tangled Web of Trade: 16th and 17th Century Atlantic Trade and American Indians in Eastern NC” and on Nov. 19, “Tuscarora: The Indian War that Reshaped Eastern North Carolina.”

The United States’ 250th anniversary is July 4, 2026, and Tryon Palace is jumpstarting the celebration.

“Rev War Day: Here Comes the 250th!” is set to start at 10 a.m. Saturday with a parade that will begin at the intersection of George and Broad streets, in downtown New Bern onto the Tryon Palace grounds and to the South Lawn.

The 1st Regiment of the North Carolina Continental Line will lead the parade followed by the Tryon Palace Fife and Drum Corps, and area chapter members of Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution.

After the parade, the Fife and Drum Corps will perform, and the 1st Regiment will fire the Verbruggen 3-pound cannon. Attendees will be able to engage with soldiers at the military encampment on the North Lawn, watch and participate in musket drills, and about the horseracing that was going on in New Bern and vicinity during the 1770s.

At the neighboring North Carolina History Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., there will be crafts and activities for all ages, including mapmaking, watch spinning, weaving, knitting and sewing demonstrations, as well as apothecary and medicinals in the American Revolution, which took place in the 1770s.

Two lectures are scheduled for that afternoon in Cullman Hall inside the center.

Frank McMahon, assistant site manager for Historic Halifax site, will present at 1 p.m. “North Carolina’s Black Soldiers in the American Revolution.” Hank Parfitt, Chair, Farewell Tour Bicentennial Planning Committee of Fayetteville, will speak at 2:30 p.m. on “Lafayette, the French, and Yorktown.” 

For more information, visit Tryon Palace’s website.

Goldsboro native Chrystal Regan is leaving her position as education section chief at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh to begin her new role June 26 as executive director of Tryon Palace in New Bern.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announced Wednesday that Regan had been selected for the position.

The previous Tryon Palace Executive Director was William “Bill” McCrea, who retired on April 1 after holding the position for five years. Shenetta Fields is currently serving as interim executive director as well as human resources and admin support coordinator, according to the website.

“I am extremely excited about the opportunity to serve the people of New Bern and North Carolina in this new role,” Regan said.

“I’ve enjoyed my time at the North Carolina Museum of History and am honored to have worked with such an amazing and talented group of people,” she continued. “I look forward to working with the Tryon Palace staff, Commission, and Foundation to continue the good work of educating and engaging all people on the rich, relevant, and important history of Colonial and Eastern North Carolina.”

Regan led efforts to expand two of the museum’s festivals, the American Indian Heritage Celebration, and the African American Cultural Celebration, to include additional virtual educational programming for people across the state.

“In her role at the North Carolina Museum of History, Chrystal Regan has provided outstanding leadership in the development of programs that have helped to expand and diversify the audience that the museum serves,” Reid Wilson, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing her bring that same innovative approach to her new role at Tryon Palace.”

Before joining the North Carolina Museum of History, Regan worked in North Carolina’s public school system both as a teacher and as an assistant principal.

Regan holds a bachelor’s in history and secondary education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a master’s in school administration from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and a master’s in history from North Carolina State University.

The Tryon Palace Foundation has been given property at the corner of S. Front and Craven streets, locally referred to as the “Talbots lot,” to be a community park in downtown New Bern.

The property was donated by Betty Wilson of Trent Wood. She requested that gift be recognized as given by Betty and William G. Wilson, her late husband. The foundation will name the area Wilson Park.

Tryon Palace Foundation will hold at 4 p.m. Tuesday a dedication ceremony for Wilson Park that will include a procession led by Tryon Palace’s 1st NC Regiment of the Continental Line and the posting of colors by the 35th United States Colored Troops.

Wilson donated the land to Tryon Palace Foundation on the condition that the property be developed and maintained as a park and green space for art, education and community programs.

Tryon Palace’s vision for the property includes developing a community park that can be used for Fife and Drum Corps performances, reenactments of the 1st NC Regiment of the Continental Line and the 35th United States Colored Troops, Jonkonnu performances and other educational programming, officials said. Other ideas involve art and displays to engage visitors more deeply in the stories of this region and state.

The historic site will announce more details as plans emerge.

The Tryon Palace Foundation supports the Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens by protecting, preserving and developing the legacy of its historical past.

Garden Lovers’ Weekend will be in bloom Friday through Sunday at Tryon Palace in downtown New Bern.

The public will be able to view the gardens on the historic site at no charge from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Garden enthusiasts will have a chance to purchase herbs, vegetables, native plants, hanging baskets, annuals and perennials grown at the palace during the plant sale set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday just inside the palace gates.

Area artists are expected to be painting in the gardens as part of the citywide Arts in April events that weekend and on Saturday, under the Palace Colonnades, there will be music from the 17th and 18th centuries performed by the Craven Consort, a recorder ensemble.

Tickets are required to tour inside the buildings and see exhibits.

For more information, visit the Tryon Palace website or call 252-639-3525.

Tryon Palace will celebrate the Fourth starting at 9 a.m. Independence Day.

On the grounds of the palace at George and Pollock streets in New Bern, there will be a live reading of the Declaration of Independence signed in 1776 to unify the 13 Colonies and sever their political ties to England.

The free event is sponsored by First Citizens Bank.

The following is a schedule of the festivities:

• 9 a.m. Palace gates open to the public. Admittance to the gardens is free all day.
• 10 a.m. Parade of Fife and Drum Corps and 1st North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line will march to the Palace’s South Lawn. Following the parade, there will be a reading of the Declaration of Independence on the palace’s south steps.
• 10:30 a.m. The Fife and Drum corps will perform, and the 1st North Carolina Regiment will fire their muskets.
• 11:30 a.m. The 1st North Carolina Regiment will again parade to South Lawn followed by a firing of their muskets.

Throughout the day representatives from the 1st North Carolina Regiment will be demonstrating at the military encampment on the palace grounds.

From 9 a.m. to noon there will be free water and Pepsi products available for all attendees at the Pepsi Beverage Can, courtesy of Minges Bottling Group.

For a palace tour, or admittance to all exhibits at the North Carolina History Center, one-day passes that include a palace tour and galleries and gardens passes are available.

Book online at www.tryonpalace.org, stop by the ticket desk, or call 252-639-3500.

NEW BERN — A lesser-known story of the Underground Railroad is beginning to become clearer some 160 years after the Civil War began. Increasingly historians are viewing the waterways of the South as perhaps the most important component of that journey to freedom as enslaved people fled their bondage.

Although in the past much of the story of the Underground Railroad has emphasized terrestrial escape, Pathway to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in North Carolina Symposium held Saturday at Tryon Palace in New Bern, refocused that attention on escape by water.

Keynote speaker Dr. Timothy Walker, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, framed the discussion, giving substance to the idea that the ports of Southern towns and cities were significant players in the quest for freedom.

“The overwhelming majority of attention on the Underground Railroad story up to this point, has been focused mainly on terrestrial escapes, and that’s extremely important,” Walker said. “But it’s only half the story.” He added that there’s a need to “shift our approach to the Underground Railroad, and change the way we think about it. The sea is a major central component of that Underground Railroad story.”

He pointed out that by a considerable margin the documented escapes using terrestrial routes of the Underground Railroad were from slaveholding states that bordered free states and very rarely came from the Deep South. And, he noted, there were practical reasons for that.

“Escaping over land to a territory that was unknown to people and the logistics of organizing food and shelter, traveling at night in an area that was essentially hostile territory, where there were organized slave patrols to pick you up, it was very, very difficult to do that successfully over a long distance,” he said. “The great majority of overland escapes that are documented as successful began within just a few days walk of the Ohio River and other places in Maryland, western Virginia, northern Virginia and eastern Missouri.”

For Walker, whose research includes maritime history and the slave trade of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, there was a practical reason why so little emphasis has been placed on the seaboard of the Southeastern states and the Underground Railroad.

“Historians have tended to look at the overland routes,” he said, “because many historians don’t have a lot of training in maritime records and documentation. They don’t come into the profession with an understanding of how and where those maritime documents can be found and how to analyze them and what they mean.”

There are also other reasons why the documentation of Underground Railroad escapes are often difficult to find.

“We’re talking about activity that was illegal, for which there were very serious repercussions,” Walker said. “So it’s illegal activity, and it was clandestine.”

He said the lack of documentation has made the job of historians more difficult. “They were doing this in ways that they didn’t want anyone to know about and they tried not to leave records.”

But if direct records of escape do not exist, circumstantial evidence abounds that points to water routes as significant pathways to freedom.

One of the best resources for historians trying to understand how enslaved people fled their situation is in the newspaper advertisements owners placed in hopes of recapturing the humans who were their property.

“There are approximately 200,000 runaway slave advertisements that are available in archives from North American newspapers. Beginning in the middle of the 1700s, 18th century, right up until the time of the Civil War,” he said.

Ads like these placed by President George Washington are among the documentation of his status as slaveholder.

“Absconded from the household of the President of the United States, Oney Judge, a light mulatto, much freckled with very black eyes …” read the 1796 advertisement, which went on to suggest that “she may attempt to escape by water.”

Oney Judge, who lived from 1773 until 1848, did, in fact, escape by water, probably sailing directly to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after being hidden by free people who were Black. Much of her story is known because of an 1845 interview in the Concord, New Hampshire, Granite Freeman, an abolitionist newspaper.

Neither the ad nor her story, however, were unique, Walker said. In analyzing the ads, he found a disproportionate number mention a suspected escape by water.

“As we start to go through them and look closely, a very large proportion of them provide information about how the person escaped, and that information indicates that it was in a state of water,” he said.

There is additional evidence of the importance of coastal ports to the Underground Railroad. William Still’s 1872 collection of narratives of escape from enslavement, “The Underground Rail Road,” has a significant number of stories focusing on fleeing in ships plying the East Coast.

Wilbur Siebert, one of the first historians to extensively research the Underground Railroad, wrote in his 1898 book, “The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom,” “The advantages of escape by boat were early discerned by slaves living near the coast or along inland rivers. Vessels engaged in our coastwise trade became more or less involved in transporting fugitives from Southern ports to Northern soil.”

And, Walker said, it was not surprising that enslaved people were able to use waterways for their escape. All the labor to move goods and products along the waterways of the South was supplied by enslaved people. They were the longshoremen and stevedores, the ship pilots — everyone who handled cargo and worked the docks was an enslaved person.

“The absolute fundamental bedrock reason for why escape by water worked and the conditions existed to get people out of places very, very far away from the free states was the labor force on the waterfront of the entire Southern Seaboard, every little inlet and port city and tidal waterway and river … down to the ports for loading onto larger ocean going vessels to take them to market. All of that labor was enslaved African American labor,” he said.

Research has also shown that, although most enslaved people fled north, not all of them did and there were significant communities of formerly enslaved peoples that come into existence in the Spanish-controlled areas of Florida, Texas and Mexico.

Dr. Maria Hammack of the University of Pennsylvania, also part of the symposium panel, has studied the phenomena. What she learned was that, although there were differences between how the United States’ Underground Railroad was implemented and that of the Mexican version, the human element remained constant.

“I have come to understand that the Underground Railroad was this organized network of assistance that led north with conductors and safe houses. And I wanted to know if the Underground Railroad to Mexico materialized in the same way,” she said. “What I have learned is that it did materialize very differently, but essentially, it was people who led it.”

Because so much of how the Underground Railroad operated was not recorded—could not be recorded—there is no way to know how many people found their way to freedom. But Dr. Adrienne Israel, retired Guilford University professor of history and another member of the panel, noted that the number was less important than what it symbolized.

“It doesn’t matter so much how many people actually escaped,” she said. “It’s the perception of the slave folks that really gave this underground railroad it’s impact.

“It is the notion that we should be free, we can be free,” she said.

“Bees and Blooms,” a new photography exhibit at Tryon Palace, celebrates the art of nature, and the beauty and wonder of bees and their relationship with blooms.

The new exhibit opened Tuesday in the Cannon Gallery in North Carolina History Center in New Bern and closes Aug. 28.

The collection by photographer and beekeeper Deana B. Marion features large images of colorful bees and blooms. The large glossy metal and metallic canvas prints use high-definition photographic imaging to enhance the details, depth of field and background illumination.

Marion began studying macrophotography in 2002. Since 2010, she has specialized in photographing bees on blooms in detail, taken from only several inches away. 

The plight of pollinators, their value to food supply, and the causes for their declining population have received national attention. Honeybee pollination is responsible for one-third of the country’s food and nearly $20 billion in value to agricultural crops each year, officials said. Having witnessed the alarming population decline of pollinators firsthand, Marion understands the importance of these issues.

The North Carolina History Center at 529 S. Front St., New Bern is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information visit www.tryonpalace.org or call 252 639-3500.

A symposium on the Underground Railroad featuring scholars and special programming that explores the complex network of secret routes, safe houses and courageous and caring people is scheduled for this spring in New Bern.

“Pathways to Freedom: The Underground Railroad” is set for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 21, in Tryon Palace’s Cullman Performance Hall at the North Carolina History Center.  

Registration for the event is $5 plus tax and includes lunch. Space is limited. To register, call 252 639-3524, or purchase a ticket at the North Carolina History Center ticket desk at 529 S. Front St. in new Bern.

The Underground Railroad is a term describing efforts of enslaved African Americans to escape bondage.

Speakers and panelists will review what is known and unknown about the Underground Railroad, both nationally and more specifically in eastern North Carolina.

The agenda includes a film presentation, academic speakers, a performance of “Songs of Freedom about the Underground Railroad” by the Craven Community College Choir and three panel sessions. Panel sessions include the following: The First Underground Railroad in North America; The Second and Last Underground Railroads, 1800–1865; and Legacies of America’s Underground Railroads.

Dr. Timothy D. Walker, professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, is the keynote speaker. Walker serves on the executive board of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture. The Tryon Palace African American Advisory Committee has assisted with the presentation of the symposium.

“The executive director, staff and planners at Tryon Palace are to be commended for offering the public this full view of this country’s popularly named Underground Railroad.”  Dr. David C. Dennard, Chairman, Tryon Palace African American Advisory Committee, said in a statement.

For more information, contact Sharon Bryant, African American outreach coordinator, at 252 639-3592, or sharon.bryant@ncdcr.gov.

Witches, ghosts and other creatures are taking over Tryon Palace in New Bern later this month for “All Hallows’ Eve.”

The event is set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 23.

The brave children who attend “All Hallows’ Eve” will be treated. Event is geared to ages 12 and younger, who can attend at no charge if dressed in their Halloween costume. Otherwise, cost is $4 for ages 13-18, $10 adults and free for members of the Tryon Palace Foundation.

While checking out the haunted grounds, visitors will be able to meet friendly witches and ghosts, and organizers say there may even be an encounter with the Headless Horseman in search of Ichabod Crane, the fictional protagonist in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Last tickets will be sold at 1:30 p.m. that day. Passes for All Hallows’ Eve include admission to the palace gardens. Tickets can be purchased at the North Carolina History Center, located at 529 S. Front St., New Bern, by phone at 252-639-3524 or on the Tryon Palace website. There are no refunds or exchanges on event tickets.

NEW BERN — Tryon Palace is ushering in the cooler weather with a special weekend just for garden lovers and a heritage plant sale.

The fall heritage plant sale will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 8-9 on the palace grounds, just inside the gates on the Daves House lawn. There will be perennials, herbs and shrubs either grown locally or in the Palace Garden’s nursery yard.

Garden Lovers’ Weekend is taking place in conjunction with the plant sale. Tryon Palace’s 16 acres of gardens will be open free to the public to come explore and enjoy the vibrant mums, and other fall blooming plants.

Garden Lovers’ Weekend at the palace is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 8-9 and from noon to 5 p.m. Oct. 10.

Daily tours of the palace and the exhibits at the North Carolina History Center are also available with the purchase of admission.

Garden Lovers’ Weekend coincides with New Bern’s Mumfest, a festival celebrating chrysanthemums and featuring entertainment, shopping and dining.

For more information, www.tryonpalace.org or call 252-639-3500.

Looking for plants that are sustainable and can withstand eastern North Carolina weather?

That’s the focus of the next “Heritage Plants of ENC and Trade Specials” garden lecture series at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, in the Cullman Performance Hall at the North Carolina History Center in New Bern.

After a hiatus of more than a year, the monthly garden lecture series resumes.

Co-hosted by Tryon Palace and the Craven County Agricultural Center, the talk will focus on plants best adapted to face the weather challenges of eastern North Carolina and trade specials, or the sneak peek of plants at the Tryon Palace Fall Heritage Plant Sale 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 8-9, just inside the Palace Gates.

Hadley Cheris, Tryon Palace gardens and greenhouse manager, will be joined by Jennifer Knight, community gardener, Craven County Master Gardener, and owner of Knightscapes, a local design/build landscape firm.

The annual plant sale next month offers a selection of plants grown locally and in the palace’s nursery yard, as well as a wide variety of perennials, herbs and other fall favorites. 

The program is sponsored by Mitchell Hardware of New Bern. While the lecture is free, a $3 donation is suggested. Call 252-639-3500 or visit www.tryonpalace.org for more information.

Tryon Palace is part of the Office of Archives and History, under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Home of the Governor’s Palace, North Carolina’s first Colonial and first state capitol, visitors can take in historic buildings, gardens and the North Carolina History Center.

More than two centuries ago, prominent New Bern lawyer John Stanly Jr. met his political rival, Richard Dobbs Spaight, for a lethal duel on the streets of New Bern Sept. 5, 1802.

Tryon Palace is set to reenact the Stanly-Spaight duel at 4 p.m. Sept. 4 on the front lawn of the New Bern Academy, 514 New St., New Bern. The New Bern Academy Museum is an 1809 building four blocks from Tryon Palace in the historic residential district. 

Spaight, a Jeffersonian Republican, was North Carolina’s first native-born governor and helped write the U.S. Constitution. Stanly, a Federalist, was a young and upcoming member of Congress.  

The two met at the arranged time of 5:30 p.m. Sept. 5, 1802, behind the Masonic Lodge in New Bern, armed with smoothbore flintlock pistols and ready for the challenge. They then fired at each other, both missing. The rivals fired again, one bullet hitting a tree and the other clipping Stanly’s collar. A third exchange followed, they both missed again, according to a Tryon Palace announcement.

The crowd of more than 300 shouted for the duel to end but Stanly and Spaight continued. On the fourth round, Spaight was hit in the side, dying the next day from his wounds. Stanly fled New Bern to avoid a murder charge but was pardoned a year later by then-Gov. Benjamin Williams.

The reenactment is to include black-powder firings and feature replicas of period weapons, which are loud and sudden.

Tryon Palace in downtown New Bern will reopen to visitors Monday for palace tours and museum exhibits in the North Carolina History Center.

Tryon Palace suspended public operations March 17 in accordance with Gov. Roy Cooper’s Executive Order 117, and to help limit the spread of COVID-19.  The gardens were opened on June 9.

The new guidelines under North Carolina’s “Safer At Home Phase 2.5” executive order will be followed, including limited tours of the Palace and visiting the History Center. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Cullman Hall, Duffy Gallery, the Pepsi Family Center and the Orientation Theatre will remain closed due to insufficient space to allow social distancing and interactive exhibits. Notable Women of New Bern, in honor of the 100^th anniversary of the 19^th Amendment is a new exhibit that guests can visit in the Gateway Gallery.

Guided tours will follow strict occupancy limits, social distancing protocol and additional sanitation procedures between tour groups, according to palace officials. Tours will be limited to the first floor and cellar. The Gardens and Palace grounds remain open for self-guided tours.

Ticket prices reflect the changes and can be purchased at the Waystation, 610 Pollock St. across from the Palace front gate, and at the History Center Ticket Desk in the lobby next to the Museum Store.

For more information call 800-767-1560 or 252-639-3500 or visit www.tryonpalace.org for the most up-to-date information on programs, events and activities offered.

NEW BERN — Tryon Palace helped visitors Saturday morning get a glimpse of everyday life on a hot, muggy August day in 1771, shortly after the Battle of Alamance and the small window of time between Gov. William Tryon leaving to be governor in New York and Josiah Martin arriving to serve as governor.

Like the lead characters of the “Outlander” series, Claire and Jamie Fraser, the two groups of 10, all wearing masks, saw what the palace in New Bern was like as unrest brewed before the American Revolution.

Dressed in period clothing, historic interpreter Susan Griffin explained to the group outside Tryon Palace that while fans of “Outlander” would have read about Tryon from the Frasers perspective,  they would during the sold-out event, Discovering Tryon Palace: The Spark of Rebellion, hear from Tryon’s side. Saturday was the first time this event was offered.

“We’ll give you a taste of what it was like to be here,” Griffin said, “Tryon has left, the Battle (of Alamance) is a couple of months behind us, and we’re waiting for a new governor.”

The eight-book “Outlander” series, on which the Starz series is based, is historical romance fiction created by author Diana Gabaldon. The series follows the life of a British World War II nurse, Claire Randall, who accidentally travels through a stone portal in the Scottish Highlands from 1946 to 1743, where she meets and falls in love with Jamie Fraser, a Highland Scot.

The first three novels weave through the 18^th and 20^th centuries, eventually taking the couple to North Carolina in the fourth novel, “Drums of Autumn,” and subsequent books. In addition to the North Carolina mountains, Tryon Palace in New Bern and Alamance Battleground in Burlington, site of the battle between the Regulators and Tryon’s troops, are featured.

Several characters and events in the book are fictionalized accounts of real people and events, such as Tryon, who served as Colonial North Carolina’s eighth governor from 1765-1771, and is prominent in “Drums of Autumn” and “The Fiery Cross,” the fifth book.

Many North Carolinians in the 1760s and 1770s were angry about the tax levied to build a capitol and governor’s residence in New Bern, which they called “Tryon’s Palace,” dishonest officials and lack of representation for the western part of the state, so they formed the Regulators, according to the state Natural and Cultural Resources. Tryon led militia into the backcountry in 1768 and 1771, defeating the Regulators at the May 16, 1771, Battle of Alamance. Tryon soon left for New York to serve as governor there.

The state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources sites featured in the series have seen a boost in tourism and offer “Outlander” themed tours.

“We have definitely seen something of an ‘Outlander’ effect on visitation at N.C. State Historic Sites associated with the ‘Outlander’ books and television series – especially since the TV series characters crossed the Atlantic in season four to take up residence in North Carolina,” Michele Walker, public information officer for the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, told Coastal Review Online.

“Visitors to Tryon Palace, Alamance Battleground and other sites associated with the story are excited to take special ‘Outlander’ tours and learn more about the real history behind the books. The series’ author, Diana Gabaldon, even joined us at a number of N.C. locations last year for fundraising events.”

“Outlander” themed tours at Tryon Palace continue to be one of the sites most popular offerings, regularly selling out. Special outdoor-only tours are currently scheduled monthly, she added.

Having been closed since March, the gardens at Tryon Palace starting Monday are now open seven days a week to ticketed visitors. The state is still following Gov. Roy Cooper’s Phase 2 orders, so the palace, North Carolina History Center and historical homes remain closed. Tickets to view the gardens are available at the Waystation ticket office, 610 Pollock St. Visitors can also expect onsite historic interpreters with live demonstrations of Colonial living. Visit the website for new programs  and updates.

Zaneta Padilla, marketing manager for Tryon Palace, told Coastal Review Online that the shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic have severely limited the events the site usually offers, “but we’ve approached the situation creatively by adjusting our procedures. We try to do as much as we can outside. By segregating groups into smaller numbers, we can offer our visitors a richer experience with more face-to-face time with our interpreters, allowing more engagement.”

At the event Saturday, a few gossipy wives and a militia member – portrayed by interpreters — from the militia encampment had set up camp under a tree near the front of the palace. The interpreters walked the crowd through the everyday items on display, including what a militia man would carry in his sack.

There was also a replica of a redcoat that would have been worn by the British Army, which Sarah said Jamie Fraser didn’t seem pleased with the idea of wearing.

“The Colony of North Carolina had the largest population of pardoned Jacobite colonists in all of the Colonies, something about the mountains seemed to call home,” she said. “Col. Fraser, being a pardoned Jacobite, didn’t seem to enjoy putting that coat on very much although he did very much enjoy taking it off.”

Early in the “Outlander” series, Jamie Fraser is part of the Jacobite movement and fights in the 1746 Battle of Culloden in the Scottish Highlands, which the British won. Jacobites wanted to restore the Catholic king, James VII of Scotland and II of England, in favor of his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, Mary II and William of Orange, according to University of Dundee.

“During the late 17th and 18th centuries, the Jacobites were responsible for innumerable plots and conspiracies against William and Mary and their successors. They also fought a devastating civil war in Ireland during the 1690s, and mounted four armed insurrections in Britain – mainly Scotland – in 1689-91, 1715, 1719 and 1745-46. The movement effectively came to an end with the Jacobites’ defeat at the battle of Culloden in April 1746,” according to the university.

The group made their way from the encampment through the kitchen gardens on the muggy Saturday morning to seek medical advice from the apothecary. He told the crowd he found the methods of Claire Fraser questionable, who applied her 20^th century medical training to healing in the 18^th century.

The apothecary said he understood that Claire Fraser had a rather large collection of moldy bread in her house, and while there are some medical uses for moldy bread, she was injecting “a sign of decay” into the body, which is something he would try to avoid.

After learning about medicine during the 1770s, Griffin led the group through the stables to hear about Tryon and his horses from the palace’s groom.

The groom showed the parts of saddle that Tryon likely would have used. He mentioned that Tryon was an excellent horseman and insisted that the stables be filled with horses while he served as governor. The stables were currently empty while waiting for the new governor.

He said Tryon was a “harsh but fair man” but left a bit of a mess for Gov. Martin to clean up but did credit Tryon for improving the road system between Virginia and South Carolina.

In a follow-up interview, Griffin said she was glad to learn the guests enjoyed the newest addition to Discovering Tryon Palace series, Outlander: The Spark of Rebellion.

“Happier still, to report we outlandish ‘servants’ of the palace are thrilled to be back sharing North Carolina’s rebellious history,” she said.

Griffin explained that Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series, while fiction, offers many real, factual moments of our state’s history.

“She has helped to remind us of the Southern voice and perspective of our American Revolutionary history. Today, as we approach the 250^th anniversary of the Battle of Regulation in Alamance, North Carolin,a next spring — and our nation’s 250^th anniversary in 2026 — the ‘Outlander’ series also reminds us that we share many of the same issues of the generation, which began the pursuit of ‘liberty and justice for all’ in 1776,” Griffin said. “Traveling through time since then, each successive generation of our diverse and resilient American family has spiritedly continued the conversation just as we, now in the 21^st century, determine our definition of those revolutionary words and how we will carry the light of liberty onward.”

An admitted bookworm, Griffin said she very much enjoys literary-based tours and is a fan of the “Outlander” series.

“Whether fact or fiction, I am ready to travel in literary footsteps both real and imagined. Spoiler alert: We docents of Tryon Palace get to walk in the historical figures as well as the fictional Frasers and their friends every day,” she said. “As a teacher of civics and history, I want to know that facts as they relate to the fiction, ever a student, always seeking to learn more.”

Her favorite aspect of the “Outlander” tours is that they seem to be like attending an extended family reunion. “We may not recognize one another on sight, but we fall into instant kinship when we begin to compare notes of the familiar events of the characters we know well.”

She encourages visitors to make their way to Tryon Palace to hear more real voices from the past through the present to learn the history of North Carolina, and beyond.

In addition to Tryon Palace and Alamance Battleground State Historic Site, NCDNR compiled this list of North Carolina’s Outlander Connections in the series or connected to Colonial life, frontier life and Native American culture:

• Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson, Winnabow, mentioned in “A Breath of Snow and Ashes.”
• Historic Bath, The books feature fictional pirate Stephen Bonnet. Actual pirate Stede Bonnet had ties to Bath.
• Historic Edenton, mentioned in “Drums of Autumn” and “The Fiery Cross.”
• Historic Halifax, in “Drums of Autumn” and “The Fiery Cross.”
• Grandfather Mountain State Park, Linville, is the estimated location of the fictional Fraser’s Ridge, where Jamie and Claire settled, in the western part of North Carolina.
• Cape Fear Historical Complex, Fayetteville. This location was the historic epicenter of Scottish migration during the Colonial era. Fayetteville was once known as Cross Creek, in “Drums of Autumn” and “The Fiery Cross.”

NEW BERN —  What plants thrive best in Eastern North Carolina?

Tryon Palace and Craven County Agricultural Center will try to answer that question during the free program “Heritage Plants of ENC & Trade Specials” set for 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 21, in Cullman Performance Hall, North Carolina History Center.

Tryon Palace Gardens and Greenhouse Manager Hadley Cheris and Craven County Master Gardener Jennifer Knight, community gardener and owner of design and build landscape firm Knightscapes Enterprise, will highlight plants that are best adapted to face the weather challenges of Eastern North Carolina, with a special focus on agricultural adaptability, according to Tryon Palace.

There will also be a preview of plants available at the Tryon Palace Fall Plant Sale  Oct. 11-12. During the plant sale on the Daves House Lawn inside the Palace main gate, the annual plant sale offers a selection of locally grown plants in the palace’s nursery yard, as well as a wide variety of perennials, herbs and other fall plants. Visitors can also purchase honey from the Tryon Palace bees. There is no fee.

For more information, contact info@tryonpalace.org or 252-639-3500.

NEW BERN — National Pollinator Week is this week and Tryon Palace is offering free tours, lecture and movie to celebrate the importance of pollinators.

Palace guests learn how to help pollinators with posters and take-home items as well as meet the bees in the observation hive at the North Carolina History Center.

The palace is offering pollinator garden tours starting at 10 a.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Waystation, across the street from the palace gate. The tours are free of charge with purchase of one-day, galleries or gardens pass or free of charge for Tryon Palace Foundation members.

On Saturday, “Intro to Apiculture: So you want to be a beekeeper” will start at 10 a.m. in Cullman Performance Hall in the North Carolina History Center. Hadley Cheris, Tryon Palace Apiary beekeeper, and D.J. Moran, educator liaison with the Craven-Pamlico Beekeepers Association and the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association Master Beekeeper Program committee member, will be on hand to discuss the importance of honey bees and what becoming a beekeeper entails.

And at 2 p.m. Saturday, “Disneynature – Wings of Life”will be shown in the Pullman Performance Hall in the North Carolina History Center. Movie screening is free and appropriate for visitors of all ages. Seating is first come first seated.

#PollinatorWeek has officially begun and every day we’ll be featuring a new pollinator! Today’s is the honey bee! Tryon Palace is the proud owner of 3 honey bee hives. Learn more about this week and join us for Pollinator Tours, Tuesday – Friday at 10am! https://t.co/bKaRXSGBD8 pic.twitter.com/qxhForXJJ5

— Tryon Palace (@tryonpalace) June 17, 2019

NEW BERN — Learn about the key role pollinators play June 18-24 during Tryon Palace’s National Pollinator Week celebration.

The state historic site will show how pollinators thrive during several free pollinator-themed events at Tryon Palace and the North Carolina History Center.

There will be an opportunity to meet the bees in the observation hive at the history center, learn about pollinators at tours, lectures and movies throughout the week, and take home information and items. All free, the events are sponsored by the Duke Energy Foundation.

Events include the following:

• Pollinator Garden Tours: Tours will be at 10 a.m. June 18, June 20 and June 22 and at the Tryon Palace Waystation at the corner of George and Pollock streets. The tours are led by Hadley Cheris, gardens and greenhouse manager and beekeeper for the palace. During the tours, Cheris will discuss her favorite pollinator plants and the pollinators those plants attract. The tour will also show how the palace has been working to create a pollinator prairie and the benefits of honey bee hives.
• “Monarch Butterflies” with River Bend Community Organic Garden Lecture: Learn about the role monarch butterflies play in pollination and discover how to create your own monarch garden. The event is at 10 a.m. June 3 in the North Carolina History Center’s Cullman Performance Hall.
• “Disneynature – Wings of Life” Movie: The free film that begins at 2 p.m. June 23 explores butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, bats and moths that pollinate a third of the world’s food supply. The film will be shown in the North Carolina History Center’s Cullman Performance Hall.

Tryon Palace began with two honey bee hives in March 2013, adding two more in 2018. The intention is to expand to the historic six hives that Gov. William Tryon was recorded to have.

Tryon Palace was awarded a Duke Energy Foundation grant for its pollinator program in January 2018, which allowed the palace to expand its National Pollinator Week program by offering take-home seeds, informational materials and a screening of the Disneynature film. The grant also allowed the palace to purchase a pollinator curriculum to be incorporated into children’s programming.

“We look forward to adding more events to celebrate pollinators throughout the year,” Cheris said in a statement. “We’re working on creating our very own pollinator prairie garden so that visitors can see the idea in practice and implement similar things in their own yards. With the growth in our Tryon Palace apiary, we’re even hoping to supply Tryon Palace honey in our Museum Store, as well as our regular honey sale at the Tryon Palace Fall Plant Sale in October.”

Learn More

• Tryon Palace’s National Pollinator Week