A visit to the Edisto Island Museum, operated by the Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society, is important to understand the island’s rich and varied history. It is also an ideal activity for both children and adults in the event of rain!
The museum, which was renovated in 2014, features a series of well-put-together exhibits outlining the history of the island’s white and black inhabitants, displaying a range of local artifacts and quantity of information surprising for the size of the museum.
The museum also hosts occasional events including art exhibitions, lectures on aspects of Edisto history, and the annual Edisto and Beyond Tour of Historic Plantations, Churches and Graveyards. Tickets, where required, can be bought via the Edisto Island Museum website.
See also:
– Kayak, boat and other tours of Edisto Island
– How To Get To Edisto Island
– Music festivals in Charleston and the lowcountry
The Edisto Island Museum looks small from the outside but contains more than seems possible within the space. Expect to spend an hour for a quick visit, and two hours if you like to take the time to inspect all the exhibits and information provided.
The gift shops sells a selection of books on Edisto history and local cookbooks, plus children’s toys and locally-made art and gifts.
Parking, restrooms and a picnic area are available onsite.
Address 8123 Chisholm Plantation Road, Edisto Island, SC 29438
Please visit the official website for hours, admission charges and other information.
Exhibits at the Edisto Island Museum explore the history of the island from its early inhabitation by the Edisto Indians onwards, but the greater part of its displays are focused on life on the island as experienced by its white planters and African-American slaves (later, freed people).
Information about the founding of Edisto’s families shows how the island was gradually turned into a network of plantations, with furnishings and artifacts such as homewares and children’s toys, along with photographs and other items from local plantations, offering an insight into life in the big house.
The other side of Edisto’s plantation history is the slavery endured by the several thousand African-Americans who provided their work force. Photographs, testimonies and part of an old slave cabin (the twin of a restored cabin displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, DC) reveal some aspects of the inhumanity upon which Edisto’s so-called “Golden Age” was built.
Another display focuses on Edisto’s Civil War history, its items including one of the first printings of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession, ardently supported by many of the island’s planters.
After the Civil War, many of Edisto’s freed people stayed on the island, retaining much of their Gullah culture through to the present day. The After Freedom room tells the story of the freed people and planters on Edisto after the Civil War, displaying farm implements and other exhibits about the importance of cotton to the island’s economy and the major changes on Edisto after the war.
You can also learn about the oldest Freedman’s house on Edisto Island, how the freed people lived, and the local Gullah culture, plus see how shrimp nets are made, and see artifacts from one of Edisto’s African-American schools.
A nature room aimed at children shows examples of animals native to Edisto and the lowcountry. Other activities for children include a scavenger hunt through the museum.