Katharine Allen
Visit Historic Columbia’s New “Test Kitchen”
Wednesday, January 15th 2025
Historic Columbia is proud to announce the opening of Heat & Hardship: The Hidden Labor of Enslaved Cooks, which will serve as our “test case” for this interpretive plan. This exhibit reimagines one of the Robert Mills House’s most popular spaces, the warming kitchen, through the installation of hands-on activities that incorporate touch and smell.
LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative: Six collection items to help tell the story
Tuesday, September 28th 2021
LGBTQ+ people have always been, and will always be, part of Columbia’s story. Historic Columbia’s latest initiative – a collection of oral histories, digital archives, virtual tours, and more on LGBTQ history in the capital city – is set to launch soon. As a first step, we collaborated with South...
Searching for Motel Simbeth
Friday, February 22nd 2019
On 20 October 1955, Jet, a national weekly digest with a primarily black audience, published the expose “ SOUTH CAROLINA’S PLOT TO STARVE NEGROES.” The six-page piece described efforts by White Citizens Councils in Clarendon and Orangeburg counties to create an “economic squeeze” on black community members. The goal of...
Modjeska Monteith Simkins: An Advocate for the People
Thursday, February 21st 2019
Modjeska Monteith Simkins was born in Columbia, S.C. on December 5, 1899, into a society that legally dispossessed women and people of color of their civil liberties. Over the course of her 92 years, she displayed a courage and perseverance that many argue was unmatched. Today, Simkins is rightfully lauded...
Park It: Columbia’s Green Spaces Reconstructed
Friday, October 26th 2018
If Forest Acres is a City Apart, then Columbia is a City of Parks. There’s Finlay Park in the heart of downtown, the Riverwalk along the Congaree, the tail-wagging Bark Park in NoMa, Riverbanks Zoo and the Botanical Garden, Carolina’s Horseshoe, and Main Street’s cute-as-a-button pocket park. Oh – and...