Events

The 2025 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, July 9th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. 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 hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

The Horry County Museum presents a free, family friendly, event to learn about the variety of fossils and shells that can be found throughout South Carolina! Join us from 9 AM to 4 PM on Saturday, July 12, 2025 for a variety of exhibitors, presentations, and hands on activities. Presentations will be given by Jim Knight, retired Natural History Curator of the South Carolina State Museum, and Frank Morning, Mid-State Geological Research Team. Exhibitors include: Burnt & Sandy Boat Charters, EdVenture Children’s Museum Myrtle Beach, Grand Strand Shell Club, Jared Shuler, Mid-State Geological Research Team, Myrtle Beach & Huntington Beach State Parks, Myrtle Beach Shark Tooth Adventures, North Myrtle Beach Area Historical Museum, Palmetto Fossils, Ripley’s Aquarium, and the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History.
This event will be held at the Horry County Museum located at 805 Main Street, Conway, S.C. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. For more information about our programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Born to Rebel, Driven to Excel. Part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV, this 30 minute film biography tells the story of South Carolinian, Dr. Benjamin Mays.
Benjamin Mays, from Epworth, South Carolina, saw the racism and forced segregation of life around him and decided to challenge it with education and religion. Against the advice of his father, Mays pursued a formal education and rose to the top of his class, becoming Dean of Religion at Howard University, and later earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He became president of Morehouse College in 1940, and his influence on civil rights and education for the next three decades reached far and wide. He met with Mahatma Gandhi, led Atlanta’s desegregation effort, and convinced Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell to (secretly) sponsor students. He was mentor and spiritual father to Martin Luther King, Jr., who credited him as his inspiration for entering the ministry. King selected Mays to give his eulogy in the event of his death, a task Mays fulfilled. Interviewees include Andrew Young, Hank Aaron, Mays’ great niece Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, and Dr. Robert Franklin.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 16th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. 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 hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

For the past 15 years, Joe McGill has been sleeping in former slave dwellings throughout the United States. His adventures are now chronicled in the book Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery. Join us at the Horry County Museum at 1 PM on Saturday, July 19th as McGill discusses why this simple act is still being requested by historic sites of enslavement.
Joseph McGill, Jr., is the founder of the Slave Dwelling Project. By arranging for people to sleep in extant slave dwellings, this project has brought much needed attention to these often-neglected structures that are vitally important to the American built environment. He has conducted over 250 overnights in approximately 150 different sites in 25 states and the District of Columbia. He has interacted with the descendants of both the enslaved communities and of the enslavers associated with antebellum historic sites. He speaks with school children and college students, with historical societies, community groups, and members of the public.
Since 2016, McGill has expanded the Slave Dwelling Project to offer a program of living history called “Inalienable Rights: Living History Through the Eyes of the Enslaved.” The Project has conducted 7 conferences since 2013. Mr. McGill was a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, working to revitalize the Sweet Auburn commercial district in Atlanta, GA and to develop a management plan for the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area.
Mr. McGill served as the Executive Director of the African American Museum located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is also the former Director of History and Culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Penn School was the first school built during the Civil War for the education of recently freed slaves.
Mr. McGill appears in the book Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. He is also a member of the South Carolina Humanities Council Speakers Bureau.
This event will be held at the Horry County Museum located at 805 Main Street, Conway, S.C. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. For more information about our programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with a documentary by South Carolina ETV on inductees from the Colonial Era 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 Colonial Era inductees include King Hagler, Eliza Pinckney, Henry Laurens, Thomas Lynch, Sr., William Henry Drayton, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 23rd, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. 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 hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

The Horry County Museum presents a lecture by Dr. Rick Simmons on the often overlooked stories from the Grand Strand’s history on Saturday, July 26th at 1 PM. Join us as Dr. Simmons shares the Hidden History of the Grand Strand. From shipwrecks and forgotten landmarks to stories of German U Boats along the coast, this talk presents a unique look at the area, its history and the legends that captivate visitors to this day.
Dr. Rick Simmons was previously the George K. Anding Endowed Professor and Director of Honors at Louisiana Tech University. Author of more than 130 published works including eight books, his books about local history include Defending South Carolina’s Coast: The Civil War from Georgetown to Little River and Hidden History of the Grand Strand. He currently lives in Pawleys Island, SC, with his wife Sue, and teaches at the Georgetown School of Arts and Sciences.
This event will be held at the Horry County Museum located at 805 Main Street, Conway, S.C. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. For more information about our programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Between the Waters. This 30 minute film, part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV, shares the history of Hobcaw Barony, named after a Native American word meaning ‘between the waters’. Join us to learn the Native American and African American history of Hobcaw as well as the history of environmental conservation that continues at the site.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 30th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. 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 hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.