Relic Room reopens to general admission on Dec. 6

The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum will reopen for general admission on Dec. 6, starting at 10 a.m., as usual.

Or at least, “as usual” back before June 3, when the museum closed its the doors to general admission for several months. That was to do some important work that had been planned for years, such as properly securing and protecting the more than 7,300 irreplaceable historical artifacts that the museum houses. There was also a construction project in front of our entrance that prevented easy entrance.

That work isn’t entirely complete, but it has reached a stage at which the museum can open most areas normally open to the public, such as the main museum gallery, the gift shop, and the major new exhibit in the cistern gallery – “A War With No Front Lines: South Carolina and the Vietnam War, 1965-1973.”

There also are several special events coming up, some of them before Dec. 6:

• Saturday, Nov. 9 – The South Carolina Military Miniature Society’s 33rd Annual Toy Soldier Show, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This will be in the Congaree Room, above the museum’s main galleries. The event involves a lot more than toy soldiers. You will see figures and dioramas featuring farms, zoos, villages, cowboys, native Americans, parks, and figures from around the world, plus living history re-enactors and a lot of vendors selling all sorts of related items. The museum will remain closed during this event.
• Monday, Nov. 11 – This one will be at the main location of Richland Library, on Assembly Street. Fritz Hamer, former curator of history, will deliver a free lecture at 1 p.m. in the library’s Theater about the Battle of Ia Drang. Come learn about the first major battle between the U.S. Army and North Vietnamese regulars, which occurred Nov. 14-18. That’s the fight that was the subject of the movie, “We Were Soldiers.” Remember, this is at 1 p.m., an hour later than the usual time for Noon Debrief programs.
• Saturday, Dec. 7 – This one will occur in the atrium of the museum itself. On the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the museum will present “Christmas in the Trenches,” which will feature living history re-enactors depicting the experiences of South Carolinians and other Americans who spent their holidays on war fronts from the Revolution until modern days. It will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission will be free, in celebration of the re-opening!

About the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum

Founded in 1896, the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is an accredited museum focusing on South Carolina’s distinguished martial tradition through the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the War on Terror, and other American conflicts. It serves as the state’s military history museum by collecting, preserving, and exhibiting South Carolina’s military heritage from the colonial era to the present, and by providing superior educational experiences and programming. It recently opened a major new exhibit, “A War With No Front Lines: South Carolina and the Vietnam War, 1965-1973.” The museum is located at 301 Gervais St. in Columbia, sharing the Columbia Mills building with the State Museum. For more information, go to https://crr.sc.gov/.