McKissick Museum — Attraction in Columbia

It's a great collection and nice that it's free. It was a little confusing to find at first. I parked at the corner of Bull and Pendleton. There is a small parking lot there but I thought it might be for student visitors but I bet it would have been fine to park there. But there was plenty of room on the street as well. I could/should have entered on the lowest level on that side but I walked around and in the front door. I asked the girl at the desk where to see the museum and she said to go down one floor - it's scattered on four floors but start downstairs. So I went downstairs and the girl there said to go to the second floor, which is where I got confused. Why didn't the first girl tell me to go upstairs instead of down? It turns out, the bottom floor is officially the check-in desk for the museum, the main floor is the student visitor center. But the museum is mostly on the second floor, with some on the third and a little more on the main floor.

After I finally ended up in the right place, one side of the second floor is a display for play, all about toys and games (and some were very nostalgic for me!) and the other side was about folk art with a large gallery of quilts. Up one floor is a natural history gallery, a chain of rooms with some of the oldest items in the collection, fossils and animals, cases of minerals, etc. Then back down on the main floor is a display room with assorted bits of the collection and the school mace. (Further down that hall is the visitor area - a mocked up dorm room and orientation rooms.) Then I went back downstairs to exit out the bottom door closest to my car.

I think that only parts of a larger collection are on view but I could be wrong. It's not amazing, but it's great for a free museum, and walking around the historic horseshoe/campus is...

Had to stop in at this free museum and welcome centre on the University of South Carolina campus. Located at the top of northeast end of The Horseshoe, the McKissick Museum features U of SC memorabilia, several natural science additions such as lunar rocks, cultural items like their current quilt exhibit, and the sceptre used for convocation. I spoke with two very friendly lasses, one on the main floor who was a student, and another on the second floor who was a volunteer for the museum and knew her stuff! Would highly recommend a...

A charming small University museum with traditional exhibits and a great spirit of self-reflection. Exhibits cover diverse areas in nature, technology and culture with labeling that considers the nature of collecting. Worth a visit and the University of South Carolina does not...