South Carolina’s largest museum stands on the Congaree River in downtown Columbia in the former Columbia Mills Building, a historic textile mill that opened in 1894 as the world’s first completely electric textile mill and a major early General Electric installation. Opened as a museum on October 29, 1988, it presents South Carolina’s history, art, science and technology, and natural history through permanent and changing exhibits across four floors. Its notable features include a planetarium, theater, observatory, major replicas and prehistoric recreations, visible remnants of the old mill, and works by South Carolina artists and craftspeople, while also housing the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.

Columbia, South Carolina · USA