Charleston Museum, History museum in Wraggborough, Charleston, United States
The Charleston Museum is a history museum in downtown Charleston that houses collections about the Lowcountry region's past. The building contains artifacts from colonial times, everyday objects, military equipment, and natural specimens from the surrounding area.
The museum was founded in 1773, just before the Declaration of Independence was signed, making it the oldest of its kind in America. Over two centuries it collected objects that document the history of the colonies and later the nation.
The museum's name comes from Charleston itself, and its Lowcountry collections include Charleston-made silver, furniture, quilts and needlework. The two historic houses it runs, the Heyward-Washington House and the Joseph Manigault House, show early 19th-century American, English and French furnishings. Laura Bragg, hired as director in 1920, was the first woman to lead a publicly funded art museum in America.
The museum is at 360 Meeting Street in the Wraggborough neighborhood, north of the historic centre. The entrance is reached by a short flight of steps with a metal handrail beside the brick facade. The two historic houses it operates, the Heyward-Washington House and the Joseph Manigault House, are separate sites, so check which building you are visiting.
The museum holds the only known fossil of Pelagornis sandersi, a bird with a wingspan estimated at up to 6.4 metres, recovered during work at Charleston International Airport. Its bones are displayed alongside the museum's ornithology collections.
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