Events

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.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with G-Man: The Rise & Fall of Melvin Purvis, part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV. The name, Melvin Horace Purvis, to many people today, means nothing. But it was not so long ago that Purvis was a household name, and over 260,000 boys and girls were digging through boxes of Post Toasties breakfast cereal to get their very own decoder rings and Junior G-Man badges. Purvis, the Timmonsville native with the unassuming name, skyrocketed to such fame in the 1930s as leader of the FBI team that took down some of the biggest gangsters of his day, including John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. His death in 1960 is still shrouded in mystery. Was it a suicide, as first reported? Was it an accidental shooting? Or was there something more sinister behind it?
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, June 14th, 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 Juneteenth.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Myrtle Beach Memories. This ETV film is a nostalgic look at the history of Myrtle Beach from 1900-1965. Told through interviews with local historians and business people, this film features topics ranging from the Ocean Forest Hotel, Hurricane Hazel, the Myrtle Beach Pavilion, and the Sun Fun Festival to motor inns, guest houses and beach music.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, June 21st, 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 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Birth of a Nation: The Making of the Declaration of Independence. Produced and narrated by Rod Gragg, this film chronicles the creation of one of the most important documents in American history.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, June 28th, 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 and Varna International will host a free concert, part of Muzika! The Grand Strand Music Festival, on Saturday, July 1st at 1:00 PM at the Horry County Museum. The public is invited to enjoy Adventures in Brass featuring Abby Temple, trumpet, Olivia Martinez, Horn, and David Seder, trombone.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Gettysburg: On Fields of Fire & Valor. This film, written and narrated by Rod Gragg, chronicles the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, which was the decisive battle of the American Civil War.

At the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863, more than 95,000 Northern troops led by General George Meade engaged in battle with approximately 75,000 Southern soldiers under the command of General Robert E. Lee. Meade’s Army of the Potomac was defeated by Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia on the battle’s opening day, but held off Lee’s attacks for the next two days, and the battle ended in a major Northern victory. Lee’s army was forced to retreat back to Virginia, and although bloody warfare continued for two more years, the Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War. 

The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 5th, 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.