The South Carolina State Museum has four floors of permanent and changing exhibits, a digital dome planetarium (opened in 2014), 4D interactive theater and an observatory (both opened in 2014). The State Museum, is located along the banks of the

Congaree River The Congaree River is a short but wide river in South Carolina in the United States; It flows for approximately 53 miles (85 km). The river serves an important role as the final outlet channel for the entire Lower Saluda and Lower Broad wate ...

in downtown

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-largest ...

. It is the largest museum in the state, and is a Smithsonian Affiliate and part of the American Alliance of Museums. Positioned on an old shipping canal (

Columbia Canal The Columbia Canal is the surviving canal of a series of canals built by the South Carolina, State of South Carolina in 1824 using the labor of indentured Irishmen to provide direct water routes between the upstate settlements and the towns on the ...

) that dates back to pre-

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

times, the

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

is widely recognized as a resource for South Carolina history and lifestyle. The

opened on October 29, 1988, and is housed in what it calls its largest artifact, the former Columbia Mills Building, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1982. When the mill opened in 1894, manufacturing cotton duck cloth (a canvas-like material), it was the first totally electric

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

mill in the world. It was also the first major industrial installation for the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

corporation. On certain levels of the museum, the original flooring has been kept intact, distinguishable by hundreds of textile brads and rings (that carried the threads during the spinning process) that became embedded in the floor while it was still being used as a mill. The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum is located within the Columbia Mills Building, and is the oldest museum exhibit (est. 1896) in Columbia. The museum represents four disciplines: art, cultural history, science and technology, and natural history. Exhibits include life-size replicas of the

Best Friend of Charleston The ''Best Friend of Charleston'' was a steam-powered railroad locomotive widely considered the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States for revenue service. It produced the first locomotive boiler explosion in the United St ...

- the first American-built locomotive in 1830; and the Civil War's H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat. The second floor on natural history is notable for its recreation of a 3.6-million-year-old

megalodon Megalodon (''Otodus megalodon''), meaning "big tooth", is an extinct species of mackerel shark that lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago (Mya), from the Early Miocene to the Pliocene epochs. It was formerly thought to be a membe ...

, named Finn, suspended mid-air just around a corner, which has scared countless groups of young children, and for a life-size

Columbian mammoth The Columbian mammoth (''Mammuthus columbi'') is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited the Americas as far north as the Northern United States and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line ...

(which was once native to SC). There is also the Lipscomb art gallery on the first floor, which features an iron gate made by Charleston's

Philip Simmons Philip Simmons (June 9, 1912 – June 22, 2009) was an American artisan and blacksmith specializing in the craft of ironwork. Simmons spent 78 years as a blacksmith, focusing on decorative iron work. When he began his career, blacksmiths in Cha ...

. And there is the Cotton Mill Exchange gift shop with South Carolina souvenirs and books. The museum has the Crescent Café with sandwiches. The museum has a 1989 mural of the nearby Gervais Street Bridge by Columbia's Blue Sky (artist) in a room next to the Café. It has topiary sculpted by Bishopville's Pearl Fryar in the parking lot. The Stringer Discovery Center for small children opened in 1997. The museum has an "Official" Story Chair (named Sammy) designed and donated by Storyteller Mike Miller (greatstoryteller.com) for the benefit of children and storytellers. Travelling exhibitions at the State Museum have included

Body Worlds ''Body Worlds'' (German title: ''Körperwelten'') is a traveling exposition of dissected human bodies, animals, and other anatomical structures of the body that have been preserved through the process of plastination. Gunther von Hagens develop ...

Vital in 2012, Titanic: the Artifact Exhibition (100 yr. anniversary) in '12, Secrets of the Maya in '12, King Tut in '13 and '03, Dinosaurs: A Bite Out of Time in '14, Julius Caesar: Roman Military Might in '15, "RACE: Are We So Different?" in '16, Savage Ancient Seas in '17, the 2017 Solar Eclipse in Columbia in the observatory, The Wizard of Oz in '17 for Halloweeen, Hall of Heroes (superheroes) in '19, 50 Years of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing (with items from SC astronaut

Charles Duke Charles Moss Duke Jr. (born October 3, 1935) is an American former astronaut, United States Air Force (USAF) officer and test pilot. As Lunar Module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon, at ...

) in '19, Sherlock Holmes: the International Exhibition in '20 (with items from the Museum of London), "Spanish Explorations in the Caribbean and the US, 1492-1570" (for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' discovery) in '90, WWII and SC in '91 (for 50 years since the Pearl Harbor attack), "Rock, Roll, and Remember: Hootie & the Blowfish and Other SC Greats" in '97, The World of Insects in '98, Star Trek: The Exhibition in '99, The Magic School Bus in '99, Inside Africa in '04, Prehistoric Predators in '04, Napoleon Bonaparte in '06, Aliens: Worlds of Possibilities in '07, Leonardo da Vinci in '08, an '08 exhibit on several of the movies (like The Patriot and Forrest Gump) filmed in SC ("Hollywood Comes to South Carolina"), "Football in the Palmetto State, 1889-2000" in '08, Pirates in 2010, and 150 years of the Civil War in SC in 2011.

References

External links

South Carolina State Museum Website
Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina History of South Carolina Museums in Columbia, South Carolina Art museums and galleries in South Carolina Science museums in South Carolina History museums in South Carolina Natural history museums in South Carolina Museums established in 1988 1988 establishments in South Carolina Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Columbia, South Carolina Paleontology in South Carolina Cotton mills in the United States {{ColumbiaSC-struct-stub