The Rice Museum
Georgetown, South Carolina
Components: Interpretive panels; Artifact cases; Interactive kiosks
Georgetown’s Rice Museum recently expanded to include five exhibits on its second floor. Designed and installed by The History Workshop, this expansion highlights Georgetown’s multi-cultural history. The Plantation Footprints exhibit reveals details of two antebellum rice plantations near Georgetown through historic documentation and archaeology. The Joseph Rainey exhibit tells the story of America’s first Black Congressman. An exhibit about Ruby Forsythe highlights the life of one of America’s premier Black women; an educator who taught African-American children in a one-room school for 53 years! Interactive kiosks in the Rainey and Forsythe exhibits allow visitors to see an interview with Miss Ruby and to learn about Joseph Rainey’s Georgetown beginnings.
The new museum space is on the second floor of the former Kaminski Hardware Store building. One of the new exhibits recreates a turn-of-the-century hardware store and the final space replicates Mr. Kaminski’s office. Interpretive panels educate visitors about Georgetown’s Jewish heritage, a rare elevator, and the history of the building including its Badger Cast Iron front.
Bringing to life the stories of important historical individuals is often difficult to do within a museum setting. At the Rice Museum, The History Workshop was fortunate to have video of Miss Ruby, stories of her life and teaching from her colleagues, and artifacts from her life.
For Joseph Rainey, a nineteenth century congressman, the story came from books and congressional documents. The current residents of his former house provided artifacts they had recovered. A video documentary uses an actor to recreate Rainey’s voice and to tell his story from slavery to statesman.
Archaeology played a significant role in allowing The History Workshop to tell the story of a self-sustaining plantation lifestyle. Recreated voices of the plantation owner, a slave boy, and an archaeologist convey details of the lifestyle. Archaeological artifacts from two local plantations and colonoware (slave-made pottery) reproductions provide the visitor with a tangible connection to the past.
On the Rice Museum’s third floor, the Brown’s Ferry vessels exhibit was rehabilitated with modern interpretive signage and the addition of two artifact cases of items recovered from the boat during its underwater archaeological recovery. Another new small exhibit explores Georgetown’s role in the Civil War.