RALEIGH, N.C.—“Once in a lifetime” may be a hackneyed phrase, but occasionally it is appropriate. In the museum’s “The New World” exhibition, a set of 75 watercolors, the earliest English visual record of the New World, will be on view for the first time since the 1960s. The watercolors were made during the 1580s, by John White, a gentleman who participated in the early exploration of what is now North Carolina. They show the flora and fauna, and, most poignantly, the native tribes encountered by the Elizabethan sailors. Village life, burial rites and religious ceremonies were scrupulously documented by White.

Except for the six years he spent crisscrossing the Atlantic, little is known about White, who made the perilous journey five times, in the face of shipwreck and piracy. Just as miraculous is the survival of the watercolors, which nearly were destroyed in a warehouse fire at Sotheby’s in the mid-19th century. The spine was burnt, and for three weeks they lay soaking in water. Although much of the pigment has faded, their power is undiminished. The exhibition, which was organized by the British Museum, will travel to four American museums. First stop: the North Carolina Museum of History, from October 9 to January 13, 2008.