The Museum's second floor exhibition galleries are currently closed. Please read our renovation notice for help in planning a visit to McKissick.

Meet USC at McKissick

November 22, 2011 – May 4, 2012
Columbia Metropolitan Airport

McKissick Museum presents a new exhibition on display at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport located in the glass display cases in the main lobby near the USO. Meet USC at McKissick will familiarize travelers with the museum's mission to foster awareness and appreciation of the diversity of the American South's culture and geography, attending particularly to the importance of enduring folkways and traditions. Besides introducing visitors to the collections and mission, Meet USC at McKissick highlights the Jean Laney Folk Heritage Awards. Created in 1986 to recognize lifetime achievement in the traditional folk arts of South Carolina, the award emphasizes individuals or groups whose work displays authenticity, significance, and excellence in folk art. The award is administered by McKissick Museum and the South Carolina Arts Commission.

Images: salt cellar, David and Robert Hennell, London, England, 1770 (top), and Gamecock glass, 1905 (right), both collection of McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina.

Natural Curiosity: The University of South Carolina and the Evolution of Scientific Inquiry in the Natural World

Third Floor

Humans possess a fascination with the natural world around them. We always have. From the 32,000-year-old cave paintings of horses in France to the giraffe stickers today's children paste into their activity books, we can see that humans are eager to see, touch, collect, and understand nature.

Natural Curiosity explores this curiosity about nature by asking questions about why we collect natural specimens and artifacts, how we display them, and what they tell us about our relationship with and obligations to the natural world. Through an examination of approaches to building and maintaining the natural science collections at the University of South Carolina, this exhibition also offers a glimpse of the impressive array of specimens collected and displayed over the past 200 years for the purposes of education, research, and even entertainment.

Baruch Silver Collection

First Floor

In 1965, through the generosity of the estate of Bernard Mannes Baruch, the University of South Carolina received an extensive collection of 18th and early 19th century British silver. This collection, numbered in excess of 450 pieces, had been assembled in the early 20th century by Baruch's wife, Annie Griffen Baruch.