CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte Museum of History exhibit is the first museum exhibit featuring the founder of an opera company with ties to North Carolina.

What You Need To Know

  • The Charlotte Museum of History has an exhibit on Mary Cardwell Dawson

  • Cardwell Dawson, who was born in North Carolina, was the founder of the National Negro Opera Company
  • It's the first museum exhibit on Cardwell Dawson

Mary Cardwell Dawson, who was born in Madison, North Carolina in 1894, founded the first commercially successful Black opera company in the 1940s.

The classically trained opera singer who studied theater, choral production and staging, she moved to Pennsylvania as a child, where she created the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC) in 1941. 

“No Black opera company has had the reach and massive scale as this company. She had up to 1,800 musicians and vocalists and dancers working with her at the height. She had branches in Chicago, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Philly, D.C., New York City and other cities,” CEO and President of Charlotte Museum of History Terri White said. 

White spearheaded the effort to create the exhibit. 

“Once I realized ‘oh she isn’t as well known in the place she was born.’  It just really lit a fire in me to say ‘this story needs to be shared with her community,’” White said.

White was familiar with Cardwell Dawson’s story because she’s from Pittsburgh. 

“Creating this exhibit and premiering it in the state where Mary Cardwell Dawson was born feels like a long overdue homecoming,” White said.

The exhibit, called "Open Wide the Door," showcases music from Black opera singers, some of whom belonged to the NNOC. 

In addition, visitors can see costumes from the NNOC side by side with modern opera costumes from Opera Carolina. 

Pictures and historical documents from the opera company are also on display. 

“She had diversity and integration in mind throughout the opera company’s history,” White said. 

The performances of the NNOC never came to North Carolina.

“Unfortunately, due to segregation and I mean, just blatantly racism, they never performed in the South as an opera company,” White said. 

The opera company survived until 1962, leaving a lasting legacy. Some of its performers went on to desegregate spaces and became renowned in the field. 

“There are people still alive today that are beneficiaries of the influence and training of the National Negro Opera Company,” White said. 

White said this history is important to share in today’s society. 

“I think this company, and the people who have performed opera, since show people that you don’t have to have limit yourself based on what other people’s expectations are,” White said.

The exhibit also gives visitors a glimpse of the opera and the contributions people of color have made to the art form. It's part of a partnership with Opera Carolina, which performed a play with music about Cardwell Dawson’s life in February. 

The exhibit will be at the Charlotte Museum of History until the end of the year.