New Thing #3 - Visit the Charleston Museum

When I was 14, my grandparents moved to South Carolina. They both retired and decided it was too expensive/dangerous to continue living in the DC Metro area, so they picked up and moved to this little dinky town in middle of nowhere about 45 minutes north of Charleston. Sixteen years later, this town finally grew large enough to get a Dollar General (no actual grocery store or anything yet. Just a Dollar General.) I used to go visit them every summer. When I turned 23, my parents lost everything and moved in with my grandparents. When they divorced, Dad stuck around to take care of my grandfather after my grandmother passed away.

All of this is really just to show you I've had plenty of opportunities in my life to go to Charleston. My grandma took me once during one of those summers. We walked around a lot but, being from DC and accustomed to free museums, did not want to pay to get into any of the museums or houses. I haven't been back since, though I desperately wanted to go. Charleston, South Carolina is a gorgeous city. It really is. The history is absolutely fascinating as well. One time when I go up, I want to take a carriage ride through the city on one of the historical tours, just to have someone talking to us about all of the different places there. This past Christmas, Kim took us into downtown to see the sights.

The middle picture is where they auctioned the slaves. Back behind that is a long building that stretches out for multiple blocks. Now they have a number of local vendors selling their wares (mostly Charleston tourist stuff probably made in China) but before, the long buildings behind it were for holding people until they were ready to go on the auction block. (Or so I've gathered.) It's depressing as hell but I'm glad they decided to keep that part of history around as a reminder. (The city needs it. The racism there is ridiculous.) I have to admit though - it's a little weird to see that public face to it looking so nice. It's hard to imagine something so pretty hosting something so ugly.

We also (finally!) went into one of the museums. The Charleston museum was very nice - better than I expected. I know a part of my love for it was the focus on what I find the most fascinating - every day life. Naturally, there was a lot of stuff there from the War. The weapons kept my dad entertained. The displays on the every day lives of women kept me entertained. My favorite displays in any history museum are always the clothing displays. I wish I had taken more pictures of that.

What impressed me the most was that they included an opportunity for you to slip into historical models of the clothing to see what it felt like to wear the clothing. Teaching about history: you're doing it right. It's one thing to just look at these things in museums. There are some who will retain that knowledge for a lifetime. But most? They're not going to learn unless they have a chance to interact with it. That's why I'm so passionate about living history. History is much easier to understand when one can put themselves in their shoes, to live, even just for five minutes, as their ancestors did. 

Here you can try on the clothing of the women - most importantly - farthingales! Or hoop skirts, whatever you want to call them. They were designed more like a French farthingale but it was enough to give people an idea of what it's like to walk around and try to do chores in that shit. (aka "if you can afford a farthingale, you're not doing any fucking chores.")

Overall, I highly recommend the Charleston Museum if you're in the area. It was $10 to get in, or $16 if you want to get in to there and one of the two houses that they are partnered with. It was a great deal in my opinion.