Cape Fear Museum Curator retiring after 30 years

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — After 30 years on the job, Cape Fear Museum Curator Barbara Rowe is retiring.

According to a news release, after working at the Milwaukee Public Museum, Rowe made the move to North Carolina in November 1986 and settled into her new position at Cape Fear Museum.

She worked with Ralph Appelbaum Associates to develop large exhibits and helped contribute to the exhibit process by conducting research. Time spent in the NC State and UNC archives doing original research on Colonial Wilmington for Cape Fear Stories: Land of the Longleaf Pine made her feel like she was making a real contribution to understanding the region’s early history.

Rowe’s memories range from fond ones like finding rare artifacts from the 1700s and early 1800s and negative ones like hurricanes.

“It’s so hard to find artifacts from that time period that were used or made in Wilmington, New Hanover County or the Lower Cape Fear. So when we can acquire a 1760s tea table and an 1820 side board, both made in Wilmington, that’s exciting,” Rowe said. “Hurricane Floyd was an absolute horror. We spent at least two months cleaning storage cabinets and shelving with Lysol to kill mold spores. And we re-housed our entire collection with new acid-free boxes for fear that the old boxes had been compromised by mold spores.”

Rowe’s tenure has seen significant changes to Museum operations including a building expansion in 1991 that improved gallery and collections storage spaces and introduced new standards in exhibition display techniques. But Rowe’s ultimate dream for the Museum as it enters the next decades is more and better storage for the collections.

“We are running out of room and new donath what we have to work with – every day,” said Rowe.

In her retirement, Rowe plans to take a short breather and then explore options for the next phase of her career.