Events

Join us for free 30 minute Saturday activities at the Farm! Parents can sign children up for a half hour session between 9 AM-11 AM. Group sizes will be limited. On May 20th we’ll celebrate National Bee Day by decorating a house for mason bees!
For information about available times and to register, contact Marian Calder at 843-915-7861 or email calder.marian@horrycountysc.gov. Available sessions are 9, 9:30, 10 or 10:30, please specify which session you would like upon registering.
The L.W. Paul Living History Farm is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 AM-4 PM and is located at 2279 Harris Short Cut Road, Conway, SC 29526.

The Horry County Museum presents a lecture by Tom Poland, on May 20th, on the book he co-authored with Phil Sawyer: Save the Last Dance for Me: A Love Story of the Shag and the Society of Stranders.
The shag, the official state dance of North and South Carolina, originated in the 1930s. The dance quickly spread throughout the South, where it became a legend in many beach regions. Save the Last Dance for Me is the story of the shag and the development of the Society of Stranders, an organization devoted to the dance and its culture.

In Save the Last Dance for Me, Phil Sawyer and Tom Poland retell the story of the legendary dance and its iconic presence at Ocean Drive, Myrtle Beach, and other South Carolina beaches. While contributing memories of shagging on Ocean Drive, Sawyer and Poland also discuss the actual dance steps that make up the shag. With the retelling of the shag story comes the unique story of the Society of Stranders. Formed in 1980 after a Red Sea Balsam bottle containing an SOS note washed ashore as a practical joke, what resulted was increased national publicity and five thousand "stranders" flocking to Ocean Drive Beach to show their support for the shag culture. The Society of Stranders, or SOS, and the Association of Carolina Shag Clubs together now consist of more than fifteen thousand members. The shag's past, present, and future are described here with archival and contemporary photographs.

The shag has become an important part of coastal culture for thousands, particularly in North Myrtle Beach, a community that has embraced the legacy of this dance. Save the Last Dance for Me tells the story of cultural change, including the separation and integration of races, and chronicles how rhythm and blues, Motown, and beach music evolved to create a social phenomenon that is still popular today.
Tom Poland writes about the South, its people, culture, and natural features. His career is one of books, magazine writing-editorship, filmmaking, and photography. Poland’s weekly column appears in more than 65 newspapers and online journals. An oft-requested speaker, Poland gives talks throughout Georgia and the Carolinas. Governor Henry McMaster conferred the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian order, upon him for his body of work. A Georgia native and graduate of the University of Georgia, he lives in Columbia, South Carolina.
The program will begin at 1:00 pm in the McCown Auditorium located at 805 Main Street, Conway SC. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcgmuseum@horrycounty.org. To view a full list of programs, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Season of Valor. Shot on location in Belgium, this film chronicles the story of World War II’s Battle of the Bulge, where American forces repulsed a massive, counterattack by the German army in Belgium’s Ardennes region. The battle resulted in more American casualties than any other engagement in the European Theater of World War II. Sir Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during World War II, said of the Battle of the Bulge: “This undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.”
Produced by historian Rod Gragg, the film features on-camera commentary by South Carolina veterans of the Battle of the Bulge and historic archival footage from World War II, including film footage captured from the German army during the battle.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, May 24th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2023. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcgmuseum@horrycountysc.gov.

Closed for Memorial Day.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Beach Break: A History of Surfing in South Carolina, part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV. Relive the life and times of South Carolina surfers as they share their amazing stories of salty days in the Atlantic. Take a look at the industry that has developed from the sport of surfing: the surf shop. What began with surfboards, a bar of wax and maybe some cheese sandwiches has evolved into a radical, fiercely competitive, new game that includes high-tech, brand-name clothing, cutting-edge videos and locally made custom surfboards.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, May 31st, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2023. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcgmuseum@horrycountysc.gov.

The Horry County Museum presents a lecture by David Hodges, on June 3rd at 1 PM, on his book: Sunset Lodge in Georgetown: The Story of a Madam.
Hazel Weisse owned a brothel in Florence, South Carolina before she moved to Georgetown in 1936 where she successfully ran a brothel 33 years, despite it being illegal, until she retired in 1969. She is considered one of the most powerful and richest women in the state during that era, entertaining legislators and judges, business owners and law enforcement. Hazel's brothel, the Sunset Lodge, was a destination for men from everywhere, arriving by car, train, boat and plane. She was generous, sometimes referred to as a "local United Way." The stories about the Sunset Lodge are legendary and Author David Gregg Hodges’ book reveals the history and stories behind the Sunset Lodge. Books will be available for purchase after the talk.
David Hodges is from Columbia. He has been married 48 years and has four children and nine grandchildren. David has been in the life insurance business 45 years with MassMutual. He has served on local and statewide boards including as Chair of the State Museum Foundation, Chair of the Board of Visitors of Columbia College, Chair of the University of South Carolina Arts and Science Partnership Board, and currently is the Chair of South Carolina Humanities. David is a major collector of books about South Carolina with 4,500 titles in his collection. He regularly writes articles for Columbia Metropolitan Magazine and occasionally for the Coastal Observer in Pawleys Island. He published a book in 2019 about the Sunset Lodge, a famous brothel in Georgetown County that was owned and operated by the same madam 33 years. He gathered stories for the book from many places in South Carolina, including Horry County.
The program will begin at 1:00 pm in the McCown Auditorium located at 805 Main Street, Conway SC. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcgmuseum@horrycounty.org. To view a full list of programs, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Death Drop: The 82nd Airborne & D-Day. Produced and narrated by Rod Gragg, this film chronicles the remarkable story of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and airborne operations related to the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, June 7th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2023. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcgmuseum@horrycountysc.gov.

Join us on June 10th at 1 pm at the Horry County Museum to learn about South Carolina’s sensational murder trial of the 20th century and the family behind it. The Bigham Family was a prominent family in Marion and Florence Counties often whispered about and feared by their neighbors. Throughout 6 generations of the family living in SC, a number of the members were accused of circumventing the law, murdering family members and workers, and general unpleasantness, culminating in the events of January 15, 1921 where 5 members of the family were killed. The surviving member of the family, Edmund Bigham, was put on trial for the murders and was tried three separate times, once in Florence County and twice in Conway, SC, all while maintaining that it was his brother, Smiley, who had killed his family then taken his own life. This talk will detail the family history of the Bighams and the trials of Edmund Bigham.
Abigail Geedy was born and raised in south-central Pennsylvania and moved to South Carolina for college in 2012. She has both an Anthropology Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree and a Graduate Certificate of Museum Management from the University of South Carolina. She began volunteering in museums in 2011 and had worked in curation at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2020, she joined the Horry County Museum as a Technical Assistant and moved into the Curator position in 2022.
The program will be held in the McCown Auditorium located at 805 Main Street, Conway SC. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcgmuseum@horrycounty.org. To view a full list of programs, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.