Events

Join us on January 4th 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.

The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series starts off with Waves of Change: The Story of Myrtle Beach, SC. Written and produced by Barbara Stokes, this series follows almost a century in the history, development, and people of the sleepy beach village that became a national tourist destination. It explores how the community of Myrtle Beach has dealt with two major goals: to bring people to the beach and to build a hometown. The film also explores some of the major setbacks to development as well as the forces and people that propelled its growth. And it discusses the next wave of change-continued increase in growth and the challenges that come with that growth.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, January 8th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. 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 hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

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 January 11th children will learn about the importance of homemade soap on the family farm. Participants will also have a chance to make their own melt and pour soap to take home!
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 program about the history of Myrtle Beach Air Force Base by the Museum’s Technical Assistant, Tom Strebeck on Saturday, January 11th, at 1:00 PM. Strebeck will discuss the operations of Myrtle Beach Army Air Field during World War II, how units from Myrtle Beach Air Force Base served during the Cold War, and the redevelopment of the area after the Base closed in 1993.
Tom Strebeck grew up in North Louisiana and moved to South Carolina for graduate school in 2021. He received a Bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech University and a Master’s degree from the University of South Carolina. He has volunteered or interned at the North Louisiana Military Museum, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Old Sturbridge Village, and the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. He has worked as the Technical Assistant at the Horry County Museum since 2023.
The program is free to the public and will be held in the Museum’s McCown Auditorium located at 805 Main Street, Conway, SC 29526. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. To view a full list of scheduled programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with the SCETV film The Education of Harvey Gantt. This 30 minute film tells the story of Harvey Gantt, the first African American student to attend a formerly all-white school in South Carolina.

South Carolina fought the desegregation of its schools longer than any other state, even after the passage of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. In 1960, a talented African American student from Charleston, Harvey Gantt, graduated from high school and decided to become an architect. Clemson College was the only school in South Carolina that offered a degree in his chosen field. In January of 1963, with the help of NAACP lawyer Matthew J. Perry, Gantt won a lawsuit against Clemson and was peacefully admitted to the college.

The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, January 15th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.

The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. 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 hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Forgotten Founder: Charles Pinckney. Part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV, this film is a historical visualization of the biography of Charles Pinckney, whose life serves as the basis for much of where and how we live today. Through the use of original digital artwork, period illustrations, historical documents, dramatic reenactments, and studio interviews, this program weaves a tapestry that tells the story of a true public servant whose contributions to the birth of our nation and state are matched by no other historical figure.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, January 22nd, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. 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 hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

Join us on January 25th from 9 AM-Noon at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm to celebrate the pig! The public is invited to experience how families would have prepared pork to be preserved on a typical Horry County Farm in the early 1900s. Winter was a season when the farm family was often dependent on home preserved foods, and the perfect time of year for curing pork. Once the meat was cured, families could not only eat the pork during the winter season, but also throughout the year. No part of the animal was wasted on the farm, from using the fat to render into lard, to creating dishes like chitterlings, hog head cheese, or even pickled pig’s feet! Demonstrations include the carving and preparation of pork, salting and curing meat in the smokehouse, rendering lard, cooking demos, and more!
The L.W. Paul Living History Farm is open Tuesday-Saturday 9 AM-4 PM and teaches the history of the Horry County farm family from 1900-1955. The Farm is free and open to the public and is located at the corner of Hwy 701 North and Harris Shortcut Road in Conway, SC. For more information, please contact the L. W. Paul Living History Farm at 843-915-5321 or email the Horry County Museum at hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.
For a full list of programs and events at the Horry County Museum and L.W. Paul Living History Farm, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.