The Charleston Museum

Curation of Collections: The Charleston Museum's collections consist of the most comprehensive assemblage of historic South Carolina cultural and scientific materials known, and many have national or international significance. They number over 297,000 lots and over 2.4 million objects. Collecting focuses include archival materials, decorative arts, firearms, furniture, historical archaeology, costume and other textiles, and natural history. They are overseen by a curatorial staff of seven professionals. The Museum regularly acquires new collection pieces, most of which come in through donation. In 2024, nearly 60 individuals or institutions donated artifacts to the Museum including objects related to the Civil Rights movement in Charleston and several archaeology collections. Particularly significant objects (over 5,400) are on display to the visiting public in exhibit galleries and the Museum's two historic houses, while others are used extensively for research purposes. Curatorial staff regularly work with researchers and colleague institutions to share the collections. A digitization project is ongoing to electronically catalog collections, and segments of the collections database (totaling 14,719 objects) are available on the Museum's website, where they can be accessed by researchers around the world. Due to the depth and diversity of the Museum's collections, researchers regularly study its artifacts and make use of this data in scholarly studies. Curatorial staff methodically assess collections to ensure that individual pieces are consistent with the Museum's mission focus. Objects outside the Museum's mission are evaluated through a rigorous deaccessioning process, consisting of both staff and Board of Trustees review, and removed from the collection, if appropriate.The Museum's Collections Policy allows for use of these deaccessioned objects in Museum programs, transfer to other museums or educational institutions, or sale, preferably at auction. Per the Collections Policy, and in compliance with the American Alliance of Museums Ethics Policy, any and all proceeds from sales of deaccessioned objects are used solely for the purchase of new objects for the collection and direct care for objects currently in the collection. Direct care expenditures are regarded as those that invest in the existing collections by enhancing their life, usefulness, or quality, thereby insuring they will continue to benefit the public. Objects deaccessioned and sold at auction in 2024 included a silver tea service that had no historical connection to South Carolina.

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.