A Museum by Any Other Name (Our Visit to South Carolina State Museum)

We made our first visit to the South Carolina State Museum (http://scmuseum.org/). My daughter had been asking to go to the Columbia Museum of Art (https://www.columbiamuseum.org/) because we haven't been in over a year. I thought, you know that would be great since it is Black History Month, but then I talked her into going to the SC State Museum since we had never been before. Also there was the fact that we are still in a pandemic, the Museum of Art is in heart of downtown, right next to Soda City (i.e. Soda City Farmer's Market - https://sodacitysc.com/) which my daughter loves. I wanted something low key with a smaller crowd.

Once the decision was made I revisited the SC State Museum website to find out if we needed to purchase advanced tickets, we did not. I also wanted to see which exhibits were closed. The two exhibits that I was most excited about were unfortunately closed, the planetarium and the 4D theater. Once we arrived, my daughter realized we were just across from EdVenture Children's Museum (https://www.edventure.org/). Naturally she said she wanted to go to EdVenture. I told her we would go to EdVenture on a later date (maybe after the vaccine is more wide spread). Of course she has asked to a million times since that day. I think we will be able to go within the next couple of months.

I have to admit that outside of the Planetarium and 4D Theater, I wasn't quite sure of what to expect. I did not read the overview or basis, if you will, of the SC State Museum. We paid our admission, and started our tour. It became very clear that this is a museum based on South Carolina (hence the name). What I mean by that is every exhibit was based on the state, the artist was an South Carolinian, the artifacts were sourced from/in South Carolina, and the exhibits were based on South Carolina facts and history. One of my concerns was that it would be a walk through the "good ole days" of the past, heavy on civil war and slavery times. While I understand that is a part of history, it seemed to be very prevalent when I moved to SC and I was worried the museum would highlight that a bit too much for my liking. My concerns were quickly squashed. There was an area dedicated to this, but it was not a major part of the museum.

One of the first exhibits we saw was a graphic map of the state. Some locations were named and those named included some visual depiction representing that area. One of the towns highlighted was Pageland. That is the town my dad is from, he was born and raised in Pageland. I thought that was pretty cool. I spent a good bit of my summer's there playing with my cousins. The visual representation was the watermelon. Every year Pageland holds the watermelon festival. I do believe it's in July. I'm a bit embarrassed to say I have never actually been to the festival, but I still thought that was pretty dang cool.

Next up we went to the nature section of the museum. I really enjoyed this area. I was overjoyed that so many of the things my daughter has learned about in school recently could be found in this area. We talked about the different types of rocks, and she (actually we) learned that the state rock is the purple amethyst. We looked at information about the rock cycle, the solar system, and dinosaurs. We got to see how rain, roots, and evaporation all work. Since we are in a pandemic at the moment and COVID-19 is so contagious, all of the touch and feel options have been removed. As one of those moms that has 3 different types of wipes in her purse, and hand sanitizer of course, I am okay with the touch and feel exhibits being removed. However, it would have been nice to see live examples of the different types of rocks, and not just a pictorial representation. Perhaps they could have covered them with plexiglass, much like the way they displayed the state rock. Just a thought.

There are lots more exhibits that I enjoyed, especially those centered around brown people, African-American, Native-American, and Gullah. In my opinion these are smaller exhibits. I was mesmerized by the telescopes on display. Now those I wish were touch and feel, or that we could at least get a bit closer. I have always wanted to a telescope. Side note here, when I have conversations about what I would do with my lottery winnings, I usually say things like I will pay all of my bills off, take a vacation, and make some investments. But recently I have added add a dome roof to my home so that we can look at the night sky and get a really nice telescope. But first, I actually need to play the lottery.

At the end of our visit we went into the gift shop. We checked out quite a few things, but low and behold my baby girl picked up a rock of course. She only bought one and she used her own money. She decide on a purple amethyst, polished.

All in all I think it was a great visit. We learned a lot. We had a great time. We are looking forward to the next visit when we can enjoy the planetarium and the 4D Theater as well.