Events

Did you know that the Carolina Bays in Horry County are the only place in South Carolina you can find Venus Fly Traps growing wild? Carolina Bays are elliptical depressions housing temporary wetlands surrounded by sandy rims. The origin of these dense and marshy depressions have been debated since being brought into the scientific spotlight thanks to aerial photography of the Myrtle Beach area in the 1930s. What isn’t up for debate is the unique and familiar wildlife that call the Carolina Bays home, including multiple species of carnivorous plants. Stop by the McCown Auditorium at 1 PM on April 29th to learn more about some of the wildlife of the Carolina Bays with Horry County Museum Curator Abigail Geedy.
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 for the last 5 years. 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 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Barbecue & Homecooking: Food That Makes You Smile. This documentary was made to promote folklore and folklife experiences visitors might have in the economically depressed four-counties of the Region III SC National Heritage Corridor. These counties bear primary roots to the beginnings and growth of barbecue in South Carolina. This film explores eateries where the cooks heading up the kitchens or barbecue pits have agrarian family roots and were first taught on wood stoves or by the side of heralded barbecue pit-men. They maintain today’s recipes with ingredients and cooking methods learned at the side of mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles or grandparents in these farming communities. Music by South Carolina roots musicians moves the viewer along as they hit the road with filmmaker Stan Woodward and the folklorist from McKissick Museum as they ‘root-out’ these sites.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, May 3rd, 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 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 6th we’ll celebrate National Wildflower Week by using pressed flowers to create bookmarks.
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.

          Veterans of the American Armed Forces, active-duty military personnel, and the general public are invited to a celebration of Military Appreciation Month at McCown Auditorium on Saturday, May 6 at 1 p.m. The event is sponsored by the  Horry County Museum and the United Bank Center for Military & Veteran Studies at Coastal Carolina University in recognition of National Military Appreciation Month, which is the month of May.

The event will include public recognition of veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces and active-duty members of the U.S. military in attendance, and will also feature a special screening of the new documentary film Courage in Korea: A Soldier’s Story.  

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with The Vanishing Generation. It has been almost eighty years since the end of World War II, and the last of the South Carolina veterans who fought against the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany are now dying at an alarming rate. Soon their living memories will be gone and World War II will simply become another chapter in history. This film is a powerful visualization of the first-hand accounts of World War II by South Carolina veterans. These personal remembrances tell the story of what these men experienced, and how it not only changed the world but their lives as well.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, May 10th, 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 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 13th we’ll celebrate the warmer weather by making ice cream in a bag!
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 Grahame Long on May 13th, on the history of dueling in South Carolina.
South Carolina's penchant for dueling started early and occurred often with taste and caste refining most conflicts. But, what was first regarded as an honorable tradition outside the commoner’s courtroom had, by the mid-19th century, been turned on its ear. Dueling found full expression in both frequency and public acceptance throughout the State. Worse, duelists’ seemingly insatiable social demands for the preservation of honor, character and satisfaction usually ended up costing of lives.
As Director of Museums for Historic Charleston Foundation, Grahame Long leads all research, stewardship, interpretive and education initiatives at the Nathaniel Russell House and Aiken-Rhett House museums and serves as curator for the extensive collections therein. He has authored three books, published numerous articles and lectured extensively throughout the southeast on various topics concerning material culture, decorative arts and social histories of South Carolina.
The former chief curator for The Charleston Museum, he is the resident historian for the German Friendly Society, a member of the Mayor’s Walled City Task Force and an honorary member of the Washington Light Infantry. He is a volunteer curator for The Citadel Archives and Museum and works as a historical consultant for the U.S. Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal.
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 Jail, No Bail, part of the Carolina Stories Series produced by SCETV. On January 31, 1961, black students from Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill, SC walked into McCrory’s, sat at the lunch counter, and ordered hamburgers and soft drinks. They were denied service and asked to leave. After refusing to leave, the students were arrested for trespassing and processed. This 30 minute program pays tribute to the 50th anniversary of the ‘Friendship Nine’ sit-in protest that inspired the Jail, No Bail Movement, a strategy which turned the tables on the establishment and reinvigorated the National Civil Rights Movement.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, May 17th, 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.