Current Exhibitions
Indigo: Natural Blue Dye in the Lowcountry
April 27 – September 2, 2013
The Charleston Museum presents an original exhibition, Indigo: Natural Blue Dye in the Lowcountry, in its Historic Textiles Galleries. This small, focused exhibit will explore a brief history of the cultivation and production of indigo, Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s important role and its curious dyeing procedure, along with examples of indigo-dyed textiles. Ranging from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, these include clothing and household goods which are examples of vatted indigo dyeing, “china blue” printing and blue “penciling,” revealing indigo’s vast complexities and allure.
Uniformly Dressed
February 16 – August 11, 2013
Textile Gallery Exhibit
While we usually think of military uniforms, a uniform is really just a distinctive outfit that identifies a group and helps bind them together. This exhibit will focus on all types of uniforms, including diplomatic, school, volunteer, sports and military groups. Highlights will include an early 19th century jockey suit worn on Col. William Alston’s plantation, an early Charleston Fire Department uniform coat, a Red Cross uniform worn by Anna Heyward Taylor during World War I and a beaded belt worn during a local Turnverein athletic competition.
Fashion Accessories: Shoes
January 26- June 9, 2013
Textile Gallery Exhibit
Shoes
Installed in the study drawer section of the Museum's historic textiles gallery, footwear ranging from early 19th century pattens and delicate satin slippers to formidable boots and high button shoes are shown.
Fashion Accessories
The correct fashion accessory is as important as the garment itself. Some accessories are no longer in vogue – handkerchiefs, parasols, fans, walking sticks and even gloves. Others remain essential to that proper image – shoes, hats, purses and men’s neckwear. From the collections of the Charleston Museum, Fashion Accessories, a five-part exhibition, will look at these clothing additions that really did complete the image for fashionable men and women in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The series begins with Fashion Accessories: Shoes, on exhibit January 26 – June 9, 2013. Installed in the study drawer section of the Museum’s historic textiles gallery, footwear ranging from early 19th century pattens and delicate satin slippers to formidable boots and high button shoes will be shown.
Early 20th Century Quilts
December 15, 2012 to August 4, 2013
Textile Gallery Exhibit
The Charleston Museum presents an original exhibition, Early 20th Century Quilts in the Museum's Historic Textile Gallery. The exhibit spans the tumultuous years from 1900 through the 1930s, displaying the patterns and fabrics that make this era's quilts so distinctive. Periods of turmoil in the early 20th century, sparked by World War I, the coming of the second World War and social change born out of the Suffrage Movement, the Roaring 20s and the Great Depression, were met with renewed vigor by quilters across the country. While mass production and mail order sales of blankets and bedcoverings in the late 19th century might have briefly made the handmade quilt less desirable, women in all walks of life continued to find satisfaction, artistic expression, delight and even comfort in designing and sewing quilts such as those in Early 20th Century Quilts.
Brethren: Charleston's Militia and the Civil War
September 14 - June 3, 2013
Continuing its commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Charleston Museum presents Brethren, an original exhibition examining artifacts associated with militia units which served in and around Charleston during the Civil War. The exhibit draws from the Museum's weapons, archival and textiles collections, offering a variety of perspectives on local militias, and features a Palmetto Guard flag, c 1861, a German Artillery officer’s sword, photographs, and post-war militia uniforms and accoutrements.
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