Billy Graham exhibit to open at the NC history museum

The free exhibit, “North Carolina’s Favorite Son: Billy Graham and His Remarkable Journey of Faith,” opens Friday. Developed and produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the exhibit will be on view through July 10, 2016. The exhibit is privately funded.

"If my father were here, he would say, 'Too much Billy Graham,'" said Franklin Graham, Graham's son.

The elder Graham, who will celebrate his 97th birthday on Saturday, no longer travels from his home in Montreat.

Franklin Graham made a visit to the exhibit Thursday to mark its opening. He said he hopes the exhibit will show "that God could pick and touch somebody like that and use them to go around the world and preach the Gospel."

In the 5,000-square-foot exhibit, visitors will discover how a Charlotte dairy farmer’s son became a worldwide ambassador of the Gospel.

Tom Phillips, vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association described one of Graham’s crusades as a spiritual environment.

"Sometimes it felt like a second wind blowing through the stadium," he said, adding that Graham might wince at the immenseness of the display. "But for his own state to say that the life God led him in is important to the state, that is important to (Graham)."

Highlights of the exhibit will include:

- the tuxedo Graham wore when he was knighted at the British Embassy in 2001

"I think this is a very important part of North Carolina's history," said Franklin Graham.

The North Carolina Museum of History is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.