Date of Visit: April 30, 2025
As part of the D23 Member preview of the "Heroes & Villains: The Art of the Disney Costume" exhibit, we got to access the rest of the South Carolina State Museum. As we only had about 90 minutes before our time to preview "Heroes & Villains," we focused the areas of the museum that seemed most interesting to us and kind of skimmed a lot to see more of the museum.
Since we stayed at a hotel across the street, we walked over to the museum instead of driving. If you drive, they have their accessible parking spots up in front of the museum, but if you walk or have to park in the regular parking lot, there is a ramped sidewalk path to get up to the museum and avoid the steps. You may also be able to go to the right, but the left was more clear a sidewalk path the whole way.
There was a working button to open the door on the far right at the entrance to the museum.
After looking at the map of the museum, we decided to first check out the Space History exhibit on Floor 3. Finding the elevator was a bit of an adventure that included having other people follow us as Dad decided to try to go up the ramp to Floor 2 to get there while I was telling him that it did not make sense because we were off the map. After grabbing the map, we had ended up continuing forward, which leads you out of the State Museum and to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum, which is a totally different museum and was not on the State Museum map other than an arrow pointing to where it is in relation to the State Museum on Floor 1. While that sounds right up Mik's alley, he actually wanted to explore the exhibits less related to things he already knew a lot about.
Once going back down the ramp to Floor 1 and back into the State Museum, it took a little bit to figure out where the elevator was because it is not clear that you go into the hallway behind the stairs to get to it. Once you go into that hallway, though, there is a clear sign to point out the elevator, which they really should move to the other side of the wall.
Mik loved the elevator as it is a large freight one, which was particularly nice later in the evening when several groups headed straight from the D23 member preview presentation down to the reception and we all easily could fit in one load.
Once on Floor 3, we looked at a few things in the Communications Technology exhibit on our way to Space History. Mom and Dad spent longer there and Mik and I were almost done going through the Space History exhibit by the time Dad texted me to ask where Space History was and I had to go back and direct them over to it telling them that apparently rocket scientists cannot find Space History.
Mik and I enjoyed the Space History area and learning about some of the South Carolina connections to Apollo 16 and aerospace in general. Mom and Dad only joined us for the South Carolina Hall of Heroes before we moved on to explore other areas of the museum.
One of the areas Mik found most interesting was the Robert B. Ariail Collection of Historical Astronomy with the various old telescopes. There is also an observatory here, but we did not visit it.
Mik also liked the H.L. Hunley replica. Be sure to step on the black box in front of the figures to watch them move. Rolling on to it works, too, but it was a little difficult to get Mik on it enough to work.
Of course, Mik also liked the old car. He says he knew it was a 1922 Anderson Touring Car before I read the sign, but do not think he did...
Dad and I found the Secession Ordinance of South Carolina interesting.
To get from Floor 4 to 2, we used the museums's other elevator, which only goes between 2, 3, and 4. It is also much smaller, but it has glass walls so you can get a nice view of some of the exhibits as you go between the floors.
Floor 2 has some exhibits mostly related to nature including South Carolina habitats, dinosaurs, and prehistoric South Carolina. It was also the floor with the changing exhibit space used for the "Heroes & Villains" exhibit and the 4D theater.
Before our time to preview "Heroes & Villains," though, we headed back up to Floor 3 because Mik noticed the train and wanted to check it out. It was kind of disappointing the train dioramas did not have model trains that actually ran, but it was interesting to learn about the Best Friend Train, which was the first American-built freight and passenger steam locomotive.
Mik also found some more old cars in the Transportation exhibit on Floor 3.
Overall we enjoyed the South Carolina State Museum. While we felt like we did see most of the museum in the 90 minutes we had, we certainly could have spent much longer really exploring and reading more of the signage if we visited as a normal museum visit.
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