Our Collections.

Preserving the families, legacies, and stories behind every object.

Some of our Highlighted Collections

A closer look at some of the collections shaping our story, from recent additions to longtime favorites. Explore these and many more.

John T. Biggers

[FEATURED]

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The Nell Yates Collection

[FEATURED]

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Costner Family Bible

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Lincoln Academy Graduation Photo

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“Uncle Ned’s Music” by Nellie Ashford

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Sumner Hosiery

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Services

The Gaston County Museum’s collection is a resource for the whole community to use. Whether you’re researching your family’s history, working on a historical project, or representing another institution, we’re here to help you access what you need. We offer:

Research Requests — Have a question about a specific object, photo, or piece of Gaston County history? Reach out to our team and we’ll help you on your research journey.
Loan Requests — We partner with museums, colleges, and other organizations to loan pieces from our collection for exhibitions and educational use.
Community Partnerships — We collaborate with local businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities to extend the stories of Gaston County beyond our walls.
Digital Access — We’re actively working to digitize collections and make them available online. In the meantime, explore many of our holdings online at https://www.digitalnc.org/.

Have a specific request?
Any museum staff member can answer questions about collections and point you in the right direction. Give us a call or email, anytime.

Collections & Archives Center

Behind every exhibit you’ve seen is a much larger story, one that lives in our Collections & Archives Center. It’s where centuries of Gaston County’s history is housed, cared for, and made ready for the next generation to discover.

SPACE

The Collections & Archives Center spans over 6,000 square feet of dedicated preservation and access space. There are nine rooms housing permanent collections, a digitization room, a processing room for new acquisitions, office space, and a community research room for individuals with appointments to view collections.

COLLECTIONS

The museum is home to over 83,000 permanent collections. These range widely in type and include historic artifacts, archives and works of art related to Gaston County’s rich and varied history. Artifacts include manufacturing history, textile industry, farm equipment, weaponry, innovations in medicine, and more. The archives document local history through photographs, maps, letters, and historic records, and the art collection includes unique examples from the American craft movement, paintings, sculpture, and works of art on paper and contemporary pieces.

SPECIFICATIONS

The Gaston County Museum holds the top tier of national accreditation through the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), one of only 28 in North Carolina, and upholds the highest standards of care for permanent and loaned collections. The Collections & Archives Center has 24-hour monitored security and strict access requirements. Spaces are kept to specific museum standards of humidity and temperature to maintain long term preservation.

Ethos

The Gaston County Museum holds its collection in trust for the community. That responsibility and privilege shapes not only how we care for objects, archives and works of art, but also how we decide what belongs in the collection and why.

We believe collecting should be thoughtful, transparent and purposeful – always aligned to the museum’s mission. Our Collections Development Plan helps guide how the collection grows, identifying priorities, gaps and opportunities to better reflect the people, places, experiences and stories that make Gaston County what it is. This plan is regularly reviewed and will soon be available here for the public to explore.

One of our guiding tenets across all the museum does is public ownership. This is YOUR museum and our collections are no different. Our Collections & Governance Committee, made up of Museum Board and community members, oversees our robust collections care policies, professional standards, our checks and balances and new acquisitions. Their diverse backgrounds and experiences ensure collections decisions are measured, consistent and stay true to our mission and long-term public responsibilities.

Preserving the past is only part of our work. We are building a collection for the future – one that remains relevant, representative, accessible, and worthy of the community’s trust.

A Permanent Home

Our museum is the permanent home to over 83,000 objects. This includes archival records like photographs and maps, historic objects like typewriters, medical equipment and historic clothing, and artwork including paintings, sculpture, and basketry.

A Place for Discovery

Our museum collections are cared for daily by trained museum professionals with the highest dedication to preservation and access. Museum staff field hundreds of research requests per year, utilizing permanent collections to find information for residents, visitors, and business owners looking to explore their local history.

A State-of-the-Art Facility

The Collections and Archives Center is much more than a storage location. With nearly 6,000 square feet, the center is equipped with state-of-the-art preservation equipment, security, and humidity and temperature controls set to specific museum standards of care. The center includes a research room for the public to explore collections by appointment.

Featured Collection #1

Dr. John T. Biggers

Explore the significant collection of works by Gastonia-born artist Dr. John T. Biggers, and the impact he had on American art. Maya Angelou, who commissioned Biggers to illustrate her poem “Our Grandmothers” said “John Biggers, one of America’s most important artists, leads us through his expressions into the discovery of ourselves at our most intimate level. Biggers sees our differences and celebrates them, and in doing so he allows the clans of the world to come together with deliberate respect and respectful appreciation.”

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Featured Collection #2

The Nell Yates Collection

Nell Yates of Dallas N.C. served as Staff Assistant to 7 United States Presidents. She remained in the West Wing for the entirety of her nearly 40-year career. From the JFK assassination to Watergate to the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty, Nell was there in the wing.

Featured Object #1

Costner Family Bible

The Costner Bible (sometimes spelled Castner or Kastner) dates to 1564 and is written in German. It is an Apocryphal Bible, which means it includes more stories than other versions of the Bible such as the King James version. This Bible traveled with the Costner family from Germany to Pennsylvania and finally to Gaston County in the 18th century. It was passed down through generations before it was donated to the museum.

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Featured Object #2

Lincoln Academy Graduation Photo

This is a graduation photograph from Lincoln Academy (Crowders Mountain, North Carolina) dated to approximately 1904. Charles Jessie Bynum (C. J. B.) Reid is located first row standing 8 from the left (tallest man in the row). Reid became a teacher and principal of what would become Reid High School, a Rosenwald school and prominent African American High School in Belmont, North Carolina.

Featured Object #3

“Uncle Ned’s Music” by Nellie Ashford

Charlotte-born artist Nellie Ashford is a self-taught whose work depicts themes and experiences common to the African American communities in the Jim Crowe south. She expresses cultural identity, shared community values and aesthetics through painting and collage. This work is constructed of paint, ink, and fabric, showing a man surrounded by children, gathered on the front porch of a white house. The man is playing spoons, a common instrument used by folk musicians. It is an evocative scene, one can feel the peace and joy of the children as they listen to a family member make music, giving the viewer a sense of participation in this community pastime.

Featured Object #4

Sumner Hosiery

This photo was featured in the exhibit “Niche Knits” which highlighted the short-lived success of knitting mills in Gaston County. The photo shows Marian McKnight (Miss. South Carolina in 1956 and Miss America in 1957) posed on a stack of Sumner stockings in 1956 for a company-paid photoshoot. Sumner McKnight later burned the stockings in the photoshoot to ensure they would not be mended and resold.