Charleston Museum

Exhibition, Interpretation and Facilities Operations: Through exhibition and interpretation of its collections, The Charleston Museum seeks to educate the general public about the natural and cultural history of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Staff do this through permanent and special temporary exhibitions at the main Museum facility and by presenting tours of the Museum's two National Historic Landmark houses, the Heyward-Washington House (c. 1772) and Joseph Manigault House (c. 1803). Permanent exhibits present a comprehensive overview of regional history, while temporary exhibits focus on diverse aspects of Lowcountry heritage and feature infrequently shown artifacts. Together, these exhibits display over 5,400 objects from the collections. In 2024, the Museum opened "Beyond the Ashes: The Lowcountry's New Beginnings" in its galleries, which completes its permanent exhibition. The new exhibit covers the Reconstruction era to the 21st century, and includes a number of collection pieces that have not been exhibited before as well as recent acquisitions related to the area's Civil Rights movement. The Museum's Bunting Natural History Gallery, which opened in 2017, provides a wide-ranging overview of area natural history using fossils, casts, animal mounts, geologic examples, and botany specimens from the Museum's extensive collections. A major highlight of the gallery is a complete skeleton of Pelagornis sandersi, the world's largest known flying bird to have ever existed, cast from the original fossils in the Museum's collections. Guests who visit the Museum now experience regional cultural history from Native Peoples to the 21st century and natural history from 400 million years ago to the current epoch. Museum curatorial and exhibits staff also regularly update existing exhibits to ensure that historical interpretation is consistent with current research and terminology. Accordingly, in 2018-2019, staff renovated exhibits related to rice culture, the Revolutionary War, antebellum era, and the Civil War to incorporate the most recent research, provide a more inclusive interpretation, and better present key artifacts, and in 2021, they installed updated or new interpretation related to the abolitionist Grimke sisters, the Denmark Vesey rebellion, and the forced removal of Native Peoples from the southeastern United States. During 2024, the Museum's archaeology curator, in compliance with NAGPRA, worked closely with representatives from Native tribes to ensure that artifacts from Indigenous Peoples were appropriate for display and did not contain materials related to Native burials. In 2022, the Museum implemented an audio tour for its Heyward-Washington House, which places particular focus on the enslaved people who resided and labored at the house throughout its colonial, Revolutionary, and antebellum history. In 2024, the Museum was awarded a grant to produce a Revolutionary War focused version of the tour, which will launch in 2025, in advance of the 2026 commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 2023 marked the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Museum, and the Museum published a book centered on its history, its collections, and historic properties, which has sold over 70% of its initial print run. The Museum welcomed 116,108 visitors to its three primary sites in 2024. Guests visit the Museum from every county in South Carolina, every state in the U.S., and over 50 countries around the world. Attendance in 2024 was down from its anniversary year in 2023 but is still 10% above the 4-year pre-pandemic average.

Educational Programs: The Museum has traditionally placed great emphasis on children's education and routinely hosts school field trips from around the state at the Museum, its two historic houses, and the Dill Sanctuary, a 580-acre wildlife Sanctuary, owned and operated by the Museum. Three full-time Education Department staff, assisted by a corps of part-time staff and volunteers, offer over twenty programs for school groups, including topics related to Native Americans, African American history, the American Revolution, Civil War, archaeology, paleontology, architecture, and historic crafts. Programs are designed to meet South Carolina curriculum standards for social studies and science, and the Museum has developed partnerships with local schools and non-profit organizations that support them to develop specialized programming. On-site school programs were dramatically impacted by the pandemic, but school field trips to the Museum have recovered in 2023 and 2024. Over 6,200 children visited the Museum in 2023 as part of school field trips, and over 7,700 visited in 2024. Museum educators have workedclosely with local school districts and non-profit funding agencies to develop programs that can be brought to schools by Museum educators with a particular focus on providing these programs to Title I schools. The Museum received a grant in 2024 to assist in Charleston County School District's summer reading program, designed for elementary school children, primarily from Title I schools, who are falling behind established reading standards. Education Department staff have developed a "Bragg Box" program, named for the Museum's first female director who initiated a similar program, which are kits containing artifact replicas, activities, and lesson plans that can be sent to schools to bring the Museum experience to them. The Education Department also presents educational summer camps, programs for home schoolers, and family events for parents to enjoy with their children. Adult programs include teacher recertification training, public lectures, workshops, and specialized tours and walks. Many of these take place at the Dill Sanctuary, maintained as a wildlife sanctuary and rich in natural and historic features. Due to the terms under which it was bequeathed to the Museum, the property is not open to the public on a daily basis but only for special events and educational programs. 1,895 people visited the Dill Sanctuary in 2024. Programs there included four weeks of summer camp, tours of the Civil War batteries on the property, ecology tours, and a special community day allowing free access to the general public. A land management plan was also developed in 2024 to assist in the implementation of ecologically-motivated land management practices at the property to enhance wildlife habitat.