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On my last visit to Columbia, I took a photo of an inscription carved along the roof line of the McKissick Museum. Ex Libris, Libertas. From Books, Freedom. This concept (and its accompanying photo) became the basis for an essay that I had published on an international travel site. Check out the essay here. On this visit to Columbia, I decided to dig a little deeper and find out what was inside that intriguing building.
Located on the University of South Carolina campus, the McKissick Museum is free to visit. Regular readers know how much I love a free museum. Since we are still in “the time of Covid” I called ahead. They jotted down my name and asked me what time I was planning to stop in. The lovely woman on the phone said that they are simply trying to keep track of how many people are in the building at a time to ensure proper social distancing. In my case, I really lucked out because I was there during finals week. Therefore, most of the time, other than a staff member or two, I was able to view the galleries completely alone.
The McKissick Museum is housed in a giant, old stone structure and covers portions of three floors. While passing between galleries, visitors also pass offices for museum staff and professors. It is a working building and there is something quite nice about that. Somehow, I enjoyed seeing the museum professionals toiling away at one end of the hall and then enjoying the fruits of their educated labor in the gallery at the other end.
The permanent exhibit includes a large geology collection. While this permanent collection wasn’t really suited to my taste, there were also a couple of temporary exhibits that were much more to my liking. Currently, the second floor houses an exhibit entitled, “Child’s Play.” This exhibit includes modern toys, antique toys and some fascinating interpretive panels. The information on the panels discusses research on the psychology of play as well as the history behind certain toy traditions. I was shocked at how interesting it was!
For example, once I read that play is process-oriented, not product-oriented, I realized how true that is. When I was growing up, there were dozens of toy commercials on TV during Saturday morning cartoons. Yes, I had a whole Barbie village going on! However, play doesn’t require a product. We loved running between the yards on our street pretending to be characters from TV shows. No toy objects were required to have a good time.
I was fascinated to know that today Barbie has over 200 careers “on her resume”, including paleontology. I was happy to learn that there are many ethnicities represented in this toy line today. Although, I was quite disturbed to see how Caucasian the “India Barbie” looked.
Sadly, my photos from this exhibit were inadvertently destroyed. You’ll just have to use your imagination!
My favorite exhibit of the day, though, was the one entitled, “Piece by Piece.” It is wonderful that museums and galleries recognize textiles as a legitimate artistic medium. This exhibit displayed huge, intricate quilts. Some were as old as the 1850’s and others were a bit more modern. The curators had also researched the history of each quilt and the quilter. To have this information as you view the handiwork is invaluable. For me, it opened up a whole new interpretation and understanding of each piece. Some items were machine-sewn and some were hand-sewn. Studying the differences here was interesting too. I am fascinated by the vision and skill of it all.
Those who can, quilt. Those who can’t, admire. I am the latter. When I was ten years old and learning to make simple repairs like sewing on a button, I sewed myself to the living room sofa.
In 1917, during World War I, one woman made an Easter quilt with a nod to the troops. Details below:
The McKissick Museum can take 60 minutes or more to see. It depends on how many wall panels you choose to read. I spent more time in some exhibits than others, as most people do. As a bonus, it was only a 15-minute walk from the Marriott Columbia where I was staying. It was a nice way to spend a morning and I was happy to get a peek inside the building that lives the “Ex Libris, Libertas” motto.
I am compiling a list of some of the best (i.e., my favorite) free museums across the South. Do you know of one that I should check out?
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