News
The Sumter Museum Celebrates 50 Years
Fifty years ago, a beautiful old house in downtown Sumter opened its doors with a simple goal: to preserve the history of the people and places that make this community special. Half a century later, that mission is still going strong, and it's just grown a whole lot...
Stitched Together: The Story of America’s Flag
Long before the American flag became a familiar sight on front porches, in classrooms, or atop government buildings, it lived in the imaginations of people dreaming of a nation they had yet to create. During the American Revolution, the thirteen colonies fought for...
Mackenzie Sholtz: Bringing History to Life Through Dress
Mackenzie Sholtz, owner of Fig Leaf Patterns and a Sumter County Executive 250th Committee Member, has spent much of her life in and out of museums, documenting historic garments and measuring them for collections. When she moved to Sumter, South Carolina,...
The Sumter Museum Celebrates 50 Years
Fifty years ago, a beautiful old house in downtown Sumter opened its doors with a simple goal: to preserve the history of the people and places that make this community special. Half a century later, that mission is still going strong, and it's just grown a whole lot...
Stitched Together: The Story of America’s Flag
Long before the American flag became a familiar sight on front porches, in classrooms, or atop government buildings, it lived in the imaginations of people dreaming of a nation they had yet to create. During the American Revolution, the thirteen colonies fought for...
Mackenzie Sholtz: Bringing History to Life Through Dress
Mackenzie Sholtz, owner of Fig Leaf Patterns and a Sumter County Executive 250th Committee Member, has spent much of her life in and out of museums, documenting historic garments and measuring them for collections. When she moved to Sumter, South Carolina,...
The Remarkable Careers of Bill Pinkney
February is celebrated as Black History Month in the United States, and Sumter County is proud to have been home to numerous remarkable African Americans over the years. Many African American Sumterites have had distinguished military, musical, political, athletic,...
Faster Than a Speeding Gamecock: The Historic Sumter Speedway
First opened in 1957 as the Gamecock Raceway, the Sumter Speedway has played host to a variety of racing series and legendary drivers over the years. Though it may look like just a dirt oval off Wedgefield Road today, the track has seen NASCAR Hall of Famers like Ned...
The Section Boat: A Sumter Sportsman’s Legacy
In an era before outboard motors or trucks with trailers, hunting and fishing boats often became waterlogged and too heavy to move. Even if a sportsman could move his boat, bad roads to the river, and lack of space on a train or in a wagon made the transport of boats...
Big Bertha: Sumter County’s Iconic Tow Truck
John Evans Garage, now known as Evans Trailers in Sumter, South Carolina, has operated for more than 100 years. Despite no longer serving as a car repair garage, Evans once operated one of the most iconic tow trucks in the County: Big Bertha. Big Bertha was a Ford...
The Edison Phonograph
American inventor Thomas Edison is responsible for many famous creations, but his favorite was the phonograph. Edison devised his earliest phonograph prototypes in the mid 1870s, and by 1877 he had invented a device that could both record and playback sound. This...
