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The North Carolina class was the first new battleship design built under the Washington Naval Treaty system; her design was bound by the terms of the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936, which added a restriction on her main battery of guns that they be no larger than 14 inches. The General Board evaluated a number of designs ranging from traditional 23-knot battleships akin to the "standard" series or fast battleships, and ultimately a fast battleship armed with nine 14-inch guns was selected. A

The keel for North Carolina was laid down at the New York Naval Shipyard on 27 October 1937. Her completed hull was launched on 13 June 1940 and the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 9 April 1941. The ship's first commanding officer was Captain Olaf M. Hustvedt. North Carolina embarked on her shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea and spent the rest of the year working up while the United States remained neutral during World War II. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 Decembe

On 6 September 1961, North Carolina was transferred to the state. The ship was towed out of Bayonne, New Jersey, bound for Wilmington, by a group of nine tugboats on 25 September. After her berth was completed and repairs to the ship effected, she was formally opened on 29 April 1962. In 1964, a Kingfisher that had crashed in British Columbia, Canada, during the war and then subsequently salvaged was donated to the museum. The battleship was declared a National Historic Landmark on 10 November 1