Empowering Communities: How Electric Cooperatives Transformed Rural South Carolina

Horry County Museum 805 Main Street, Conway, SC, United States

The Horry County Museum presents a lecture by Lacy Ford on August 20th at 1 PM on the impact of electric cooperatives on rural South Carolina.
In the early 1900s, for profit companies like Duke Power and South Carolina Electric and Gas provided electricity to heavily populated cities and towns throughout South Carolina. It wasn’t until the creation of publicly owned electric cooperatives in the 1930s that rural South Carolinians were gradually introduced to electricity in their homes. Today, electric cooperatives serve more than a quarter of South Carolina's citizens and more than seventy percent of the state's land area, bringing not only power but also high-speed broadband to rural communities.
The rise of "public" power—electricity serviced by member-owned cooperatives and sanctioned by federal and state legislation—is a complicated saga encompassing politics, law, finance, and rural economic development. Empowering Communities examines how the cooperatives helped bring fundamental and transformational change to the lives of rural people in South Carolina, from light to broadband.
Twice a National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellow and once an ACLS Fellow, Lacy Ford’s most recent book is Empowering Communities: How Electric Cooperatives Transformed Rural South Carolina. Ford is also the author of Deliver Us From Evil: The Slavery Question in the Old South. Deliver Us From Evil also won the 2010 Mary Lawton Hodges prize for best book on the South published in 2009. Ford authored Origins of Southern Radicalism: The South Carolina Upcountry, 1800-1860, which won the Francis B. Simkins Prize, 1988-1989, and was reviewed in The New York Review of Books by James M. McPherson.
Ford is currently Scholar-in-Residence in the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina. He is also Emeritus Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and Dean Emeritus of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Carolina, which he served as Dean from July 2016 through December 2020. Previously he served as Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, 2010-2016 at the U of SC. His scholarly interests are the political and economic history of the American South. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled Understandings of the American South: Slavery, Race, Identity, The American Century, and the Meaning of The Civil War.
The program will begin at 1:00 pm 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.

SC Hall of Fame Early 20th Century Inductees

Horry County Museum 805 Main Street, Conway, SC, United States

The 2022 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with a documentary by South Carolina ETV on inductees from the early 20th century into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. Established in 1973, The South Carolina Hall of Fame, located in Myrtle Beach, inducts one deceased and one contemporary honoree each year. It is by law the “official” Hall of Fame for South Carolina. There are nearly 100 members of the South Carolina Hall of Fame, each of whom has made outstanding contributions to South Carolina’s heritage, history, and progress.
Biographies of early 20th century inductees include James Lide Coker, Walker Gill Wylie, Bernard Baruch, Susan Pringle Frost, Mary McLeod Bethune, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Julia Mood Peterkin, and James F. Byrnes.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, August 24th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2022. 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@horrycounty.org.

Free Children’s Program at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm

L.W. Paul Living History Farm 2279 Harris Short Cut Rd, Conway, SC, United States

Join us for free 30 minute Saturday activities at the Farm! Parents can sign children up for a half hour session between 9 AM-11 AM. Group sizes will be limited to help ensure social distancing. On August 27th children will learn how families in the past made butter. They’ll also make their own butter to sample!
For information about available times and to register, contact Marian Calder at 843-915-7861 or email calder.marian@horrycountysc.gov . Available sessions are 9, 9:30, 10 or 10:30, please specify which session you would like upon registering.
The L.W. Paul Living History Farm is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 AM-4 PM and is located at 2279 Harris Short Cut Road, Conway, SC 29526.

The Impact of Flue-Cured Tobacco on Horry County, SC

Horry County Museum 805 Main Street, Conway, SC, United States

After the rise of the boll weevil made cotton crops unstable, flue-cured tobacco became the main cash crop of Horry County. This presentation focuses on the impact of the auction system and the ways in which farmers and buyers attempted to push the prices in their favor. Join us on August 27th at 1 pm to learn more about the impact of flue-cured tobacco with Horry County Museum Technical Assistant Abigail Geedy.

SC Hall of Fame Early 20th Century Inductees

Horry County Museum 805 Main Street, Conway, SC, United States

The 2022 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with part two of a documentary by South Carolina ETV on inductees from the early 20th century into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. Established in 1973, The South Carolina Hall of Fame, located in Myrtle Beach, inducts one deceased and one contemporary honoree each year. It is by law the “official” Hall of Fame for South Carolina. There are nearly 100 members of the South Carolina Hall of Fame, each of whom has made outstanding contributions to South Carolina’s heritage, history, and progress.
Biographies of early 20th century inductees include Wil Lou Gray, Archibald Rutledge, Elizabeth O’Neill Verner, Mary Simms Oliphant, Ann Austin Young, Benjamin Mays, Elliott White Springs, Septima Clark, and Maude Callen.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, August 31st, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2022. 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@horrycounty.org.

Closed

Closed September 3rd for Labor Day.

South Carolina Hall of Fame

Horry County Museum 805 Main Street, Conway, SC, United States

The 2022 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with a documentary by South Carolina ETV on inductees from the 20th century into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. Established in 1973, The South Carolina Hall of Fame, located in Myrtle Beach, inducts one deceased and one contemporary honoree each year. It is by law the “official” Hall of Fame for South Carolina. There are nearly 100 members of the South Carolina Hall of Fame, each of whom has made outstanding contributions to South Carolina’s heritage, history, and progress.
Biographies of 20th century inductees include Elizabeth B. Coker, Philip Simmons, William Westmoreland, William S. Hall, Roger Milliken, Charles Townes, William J. Bryan Dorn, Frances Edmunds, and Dizzy Gillespie.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, September 7th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2022. 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@horrycounty.org.

Peanut Boil at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm

L.W. Paul Living History Farm 2279 Harris Short Cut Rd, Conway, SC, United States

Visitors of all ages are invited to join us Saturday, September 10th from 9 AM-12 PM at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm as we celebrate one of our favorite treats, the peanut! Learn about boiling peanuts and the importance of the peanut on the family farm. We’ll also have cooking demonstrations, activities for kids, and more!
The L.W. Paul Living History Farm is open Tuesday-Saturday 9 AM-4 PM and teaches the history of the Horry County farm family from 1900-1955. The farm is free and open to the public and is located at the corner of Hwy 701 North and Harris Short Cut Road in Conway, SC. For more information, call the L. W. Paul Living History Farm at 843-915-5321 or email hcgmuseum@horrycounty.org.
For a full list of programs and events at the Horry County Museum and L.W. Paul Living History Farm, visit www.horrycountymuseum.org.