Events

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Season of Valor. Shot on location in Belgium, this film chronicles the story of World War II’s Battle of the Bulge, where American forces repulsed a massive, counterattack by the German army in Belgium’s Ardennes region. The battle resulted in more American casualties than any other engagement in the European Theater of World War II. Sir Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during World War II, said of the Battle of the Bulge: “This undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.”
Produced by historian Rod Gragg, the film features on-camera commentary by South Carolina veterans of the Battle of the Bulge and historic archival footage from World War II, including film footage captured from the German army during the battle.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, May 24th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2023. 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@horrycountysc.gov.

Closed for Memorial Day.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Beach Break: A History of Surfing in South Carolina, part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV. Relive the life and times of South Carolina surfers as they share their amazing stories of salty days in the Atlantic. Take a look at the industry that has developed from the sport of surfing: the surf shop. What began with surfboards, a bar of wax and maybe some cheese sandwiches has evolved into a radical, fiercely competitive, new game that includes high-tech, brand-name clothing, cutting-edge videos and locally made custom surfboards.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, May 31st, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2023. 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@horrycountysc.gov.

The Horry County Museum presents a lecture by David Hodges, on June 3rd at 1 PM, on his book: Sunset Lodge in Georgetown: The Story of a Madam.
Hazel Weisse owned a brothel in Florence, South Carolina before she moved to Georgetown in 1936 where she successfully ran a brothel 33 years, despite it being illegal, until she retired in 1969. She is considered one of the most powerful and richest women in the state during that era, entertaining legislators and judges, business owners and law enforcement. Hazel's brothel, the Sunset Lodge, was a destination for men from everywhere, arriving by car, train, boat and plane. She was generous, sometimes referred to as a "local United Way." The stories about the Sunset Lodge are legendary and Author David Gregg Hodges’ book reveals the history and stories behind the Sunset Lodge. Books will be available for purchase after the talk.
David Hodges is from Columbia. He has been married 48 years and has four children and nine grandchildren. David has been in the life insurance business 45 years with MassMutual. He has served on local and statewide boards including as Chair of the State Museum Foundation, Chair of the Board of Visitors of Columbia College, Chair of the University of South Carolina Arts and Science Partnership Board, and currently is the Chair of South Carolina Humanities. David is a major collector of books about South Carolina with 4,500 titles in his collection. He regularly writes articles for Columbia Metropolitan Magazine and occasionally for the Coastal Observer in Pawleys Island. He published a book in 2019 about the Sunset Lodge, a famous brothel in Georgetown County that was owned and operated by the same madam 33 years. He gathered stories for the book from many places in South Carolina, including Horry County.
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.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Death Drop: The 82nd Airborne & D-Day. Produced and narrated by Rod Gragg, this film chronicles the remarkable story of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and airborne operations related to the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, June 7th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2023. 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@horrycountysc.gov.

Join us on June 10th at 1 pm at the Horry County Museum to learn about South Carolina’s sensational murder trial of the 20th century and the family behind it. The Bigham Family was a prominent family in Marion and Florence Counties often whispered about and feared by their neighbors. Throughout 6 generations of the family living in SC, a number of the members were accused of circumventing the law, murdering family members and workers, and general unpleasantness, culminating in the events of January 15, 1921 where 5 members of the family were killed. The surviving member of the family, Edmund Bigham, was put on trial for the murders and was tried three separate times, once in Florence County and twice in Conway, SC, all while maintaining that it was his brother, Smiley, who had killed his family then taken his own life. This talk will detail the family history of the Bighams and the trials of Edmund Bigham.
Abigail Geedy was born and raised in south-central Pennsylvania and moved to South Carolina for college in 2012. She has both an Anthropology Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree and a Graduate Certificate of Museum Management from the University of South Carolina. She began volunteering in museums in 2011 and had worked in curation at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2020, she joined the Horry County Museum as a Technical Assistant and moved into the Curator position in 2022.
The program will be held 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.

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with G-Man: The Rise & Fall of Melvin Purvis, part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV. The name, Melvin Horace Purvis, to many people today, means nothing. But it was not so long ago that Purvis was a household name, and over 260,000 boys and girls were digging through boxes of Post Toasties breakfast cereal to get their very own decoder rings and Junior G-Man badges. Purvis, the Timmonsville native with the unassuming name, skyrocketed to such fame in the 1930s as leader of the FBI team that took down some of the biggest gangsters of his day, including John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. His death in 1960 is still shrouded in mystery. Was it a suicide, as first reported? Was it an accidental shooting? Or was there something more sinister behind it?
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, June 14th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2023. 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@horrycountysc.gov.

Closed for Juneteenth.