The Historic Textiles Gallery will be closed June 5-16 as we prepare Part II of our 250th Anniversary exhibit. The Loeblein Silver Gallery -- where Eliza Lucas Pinckney's gown is on display -- will remain open.
The Charleston Museum's Slave Badge Collection contains numerous
examples of copper badges worn by enslaved people in Charleston.
Enslavers were required to obtain a badge annually from the city's
treasury office for any enslaved person working outside their domain.
The resulting income from these ancillary services were sometimes kept
by the enslaver completely, divided equally, or, in some recorded instances,
kept by the enslaved laborer entirely. Also included is a copper "Free"
(or "Freedman's") badge, c. 1783. A city ordinance in place from 1783
to 1789 required all free persons of color above the age of fifteen to wear
these badges in plain view.
In the Museum’s Armory, see excellent examples of historic weaponry, dating from 1750 to the twentieth century, with uses that ranged from military to more personal applications such as hunting and dueling.
In the Historic Textiles Gallery, the Museum features regularly rotating exhibits from its rich historic textiles and clothing collection, one of the finest in the southeastern United States.
In The Charleston Museum: The Early Days gallery, see exotic collections from around the world, representative of the Museum’s nineteenth century cosmopolitan collecting focus.
In the Lowcountry History Hall, see materials relating to the Native Americans who first inhabited the Lowcountry and the African American and European settlers who transformed the region into an agricultural empire.
In the Natural History gallery you will see an extraordinary array of birds, reptiles and mammals that have called the South Carolina Lowcountry home since prehistory, including contributions from noted naturalists.
The Charleston Museum is pleased to present Kidstory, a fun and exciting, hands-on exhibit for children, where the fascinating history of Charleston and the Lowcountry comes alive.
In the Loeblein Gallery of Charleston Silver discover the impressive work of the South’s finest craftsmen and women, from the colonial era through the Victorian Age.