South Carolina from A to Z

“C” is for Columbia Museum of Art. The Columbia Museum of Art was established in 1950 as an art, history, and science museum and included the Gibbs planetarium. In 1990 the mission statement was changed to focus entirely on American and European fine, design, and decorative arts from the medieval period to the present period.  In 1998 the museum moved into to a new facility on Main Street. The mus...

“C” is for Columbia Mills. The first textile mill in the world to be powered exclusively by electricity, the Columbia Mills Company was chartered in 1893 with an initial capitalization of $700,000. Work on the mill began in April 1893 and operations officially commenced in April 1894. The success of the Columbia plant revolutionized textile mills by opening the electric era. The new mill specializ...

“C” is for Columbia Metropolitan Airport. The airport, which serves Midlands South Carolina, is located in Lexington County. The Lexington County Airport, a landing area was established at the site about 1940. Prior to World War II passenger flights in Columbia used Owens Field. During World War II, the U. S. War Department acquired the Lexington County field and expanded runways, hangers, roads,...

“C” is for Columbia International University. Founded as the Southern Bible Institute in 1921, the school's name was changed in 1923 to the Columbia Bible College. By the 1930s it was offering not only a four year baccalaureate degree but also had a graduate program. Additional professional programs were established in the affiliated Columbia Biblical Seminary and School of Missions. The major foc...

“B” is for Bragg, Laura (1881-1978). Museum administrator, educator. Born in Massachusetts, Bragg obtained a degree in library science. In 1909 she was hired to be the Charleston Museum's librarian. She was soon promoted to curator of books and public instruction. Bragg developed a southern nature study course and created travelling school exhibits to illustrate it. They were provided to the city’...

“S” is for South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. Created by the General Assembly in 1967, the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism (SCPRT) is charged with promoting tourism in the state, operating a system of state parks, and assisting local governments in the development of recreational facilities and programs. SCPRT is a cabinet level agency with a d...

“S” is for South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Officially formed in 1994, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) combined the nonregulatory programs of the South Carolina Water Resources Commission and Land Resources Commission, the State Geological Survey, the South Carolina Migratory Waterfowl Committee, and the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Departm...

“S” is for South Carolina Department of Education. The South Carolina Department of Education is the administrative arm of the State Board of Education. The department promulgates and oversees state educational policies for the state's schools, as well as providing services, technical assistance, and assessments. The agency head is the State Superintendent, an elected official. Throughout the earl...

“S” is for South Carolina Department of Commerce. The South Carolina Department of Commerce administers the state's economic development program. Created in 1945 as the Department of Research, Planning, and Development it later became known as the state Development Board. During the late 1940s and 1950's the board sponsored industrial recruitment missions through which governors and state business...

“S” is for South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Located in Columbia, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAH) is a state agency responsible for collecting the valuable public records of South Carolina. The General Assembly established the South Carolina Historical Commission in 1894 and in 1905 expanded its mission, making it responsible for the state's archives....

“S” is for South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) was created by the General Assembly in 1967. It replaced the Advisory Council on Higher Education, which had been created in 1962. The Commission serves as a statewide higher education coordinating board for South Carolina's thirty-three public institutions of higher learning. The CHE...

“P” is for Port Royal Island, Battle of (February 3, 1779). The battle of Port Royal Island was part of a larger campaign. On February 2, an amphibious expedition of 150 infantrymen sailed up the Broad River. On February 3, the infantrymen landed on Port Royal Island. The soldiers marched to Port Royal Ferry but found it well protected. While returning to their ships, the British discovered a forc...

“M” is for Mount Zion College. Established in 1777 the institution started in a small log building as an all grades public school in Winnsboro. In 1785, the South Carolina legislature officially chartered the school as Mount Zion College one of three colleges it chartered on the same day. The all-male Mount Zion College, which included a great deal of elementary and preparatory learning for use of...

“M” is for Mount Pleasant (Charleston County; 2020 population 90,801). Mount Pleasant was a small village until the 1970s, when it began a dramatic expansion to become the fourth largest municipality in South Carolina. Lying on the north side of Charleston harbor, Mount Pleasant occupies what was formerly Christ Church Parish. James Hibben laid out the village in 1803 on the site of Jacob Motte’s...

“G” is for grits. Grits is (or are) the coarse-to-fine ground product of a milling process whereby the hull of the dried corn kernel is popped open and the fleshy part is milled into tiny particles. Mill stones carved with grooves radiating outward from the center were set by the miller to grind the dried corn into coarse, medium, and fine grits as well as cornmeal. In modern times, grits are mass...

“C” is for Columbia College. Chartered in 1854 by the South Carolina Methodist Conference, Columbia College, was the eleventh-oldest women's college in the United States. In 1859 the institution opened in a new facility on Plain (Hampton) Street in Columbia. Closed after the Civil War, it reopened in 1873. In 1905 the college moved to a new campus in the Eau Claire neighborhood, north of the city....

“C” is for Columbia Canal. Completed in 1824, the Columbia canal originally extended three miles below the city of Columbia off Laurel St. It was one of several canals constructed by the state of South Carolina in the 1820s to improve transportation links between the upstate and Charleston. The construction of railroads ,however, supplanted the need for canals. While its usefulness as a transporta...

“C” is for Columbia Army Air Base. Columbia Army Air Base served as a training center for B-25 bomber crews during World War II. Selected in 1940 as one of 250 sites across the nation where federal funds would be used to construct an airfield, it was originally designated Lexington County Airport. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the U. S. Army Air Force took control. The declaration of war w...

“B” is for Boykin spaniel. The Boykin spaniel was originally bred in South Carolina before the 1920s. This amiable, small, dark brown retriever is a superb hunter and loving family pet. It was bred to provide an ideal dog for hunting fowl in the swamps along the Wateree River, which demanded a sturdy, compact dog built for boat travel and capable of retrieving on land or water. Lemuel Whittaker “W...

“B” is for Boyd, Blanche McCrary (b. 1945). Writer, educator. Born in Charleston, Boyd graduated from Pomona College and received her M. A. from Stanford University. She joined the faculty at Connecticut College in 1982. Boyd has published four novels: Nerves (1973), Mourning the Death of Magic (1977), Th e Revolution of Little Girls (1991), and Terminal Velocity (1997). The last two are part of a...

“S” is for South Carolina Commission on Government Restructuring. In March 1991 Governor Carroll Campbell appointed the thirty-eight member Commission on Government Restructuring to devise a blueprint for enhancing the powers of the state’s weak chief executive. The commission's report, issued in September 1991, called for a dramatic shift to a cabinet form of government similar to that used in fo...

“S” is for South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. Established in 1989, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League has been a leading voice in the campaign to protect and preserve the coastal plain of the state. The grassroots, nonprofit organization has offices in Columbia, Beaufort, and Charleston. Its mission is to “protect the threatened resources of the coastal plain--its natural land...

“S” is for South Carolina Christian Action Council. The South Carolina Christian Action Council is a statewide ecumenical agency embracing many of the state's major Christian denominations. It provides educational programs for its constituents and a Christian witness in public affairs. Its origins can be traced to 1933 and the formation of the South Carolina Federated Forces for Temperance and Law...

“S” is for South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce is an association organized mainly to promote and lobby the interests of business. The chamber was formed under the leadership of C. Norwood Hastie of Charleston in 1940. The chamber soon addressed issues of importance to the business community, such as reorganizing state government and urging the state to increa...

“P” is for Port Royal Experiment. The Port Royal Experiment, also called the Sea Island Experiment, was an early humanitarian effort to prepare the former enslaved persons of the South Carolina Sea Islands for inclusion as free citizens in American public life. The Port Royal Experiment was made possible by the U.S. Navy's conquest of the Sea Islands of Beaufort District in November 1861. Beaufort...