Back to School for Historic Charleston Foundation! A Year in Review with Carin Bloom

As the new school year starts, we highlight a few of our most impactful student visits from the past year to showcase the range of custom-designed tours that can be imagined with Historic Charleston Foundation. The Foundation’s historic buildings – Nathaniel Russell House, Aiken-Rhett House, and Capt. James Missroon House - are unique resources in our city and beautifully suited to tours for college and graduate students following specific courses of study.

Justin Schwebler, Properties Manager, tours students at the NRH

• The Foundation welcomed students from Clemson University's Masters of Historic Preservation to both the Nathaniel Russell and the Aiken-Rhett Houses, for multiple in-depth tours from Properties Manager and preservationist, Justin Schwebler. Each tour examined the architectural preservation work at both museum houses, and how the landscape and historic spaces have evolved into the 21^st century. Consider just how much work each property requires – and how different the needs of each House Museum are!
• The Historic Preservation Club at the College of Charleston experienced a unique adventure!. Thanks to the club president and supportive faculty advisors, several students were able to explore the extant section of Granville’s Bastion – directly under HCF headquarters at 40 East Bay Street. One of the original walled bastions from 17^th century Charleston, the foundations of Granville’s Bastion are accessed via the basement of the James Missroon House. The students and advisors visited in two groups to belly-crawl across the dirt floor to drop down next to the original harborside face of the wall. It was a unique experience that was a delight to lead!

• CofC students viewing Granville's Bastion
• Students from Clemson’s School of Architecture visited the Aiken-Rhett House to incorporate its design and history into some of their visual arts projects. It is always remarkable to see what kinds of coursework beyond history and preservation the House Museums can influence and inspire. Though, our architecture is such an important resource for many of study!
• Students from the graduate program in Historic Preservation at Clemson came the Russell House with a very specific historical focus. The Collections Management and Preventive Conservation course had students process artifacts not yet sorted or bagged from the kitchen house excavations. Upstairs in the sleeping chambers, some of the artifacts recovered from rats’ nests in front of the hearth and from the bays in the walls were separated by provenence, bagged by type in acid-free bags, and labeled with available information. The students were able to get hands-on experience processing archaeological artifacts, and Historic Charleston Foundation benefited from their diligent record-keeping.
• At the end of August, just two weeks into the semester, a first-year experience course from the College of Charleston came to the Nathaniel Russell House to tour with myself and Heather Rivet, Nathaniel Russell House Manager. A combined seminar focusing on history and political science, this important history tour also focused on contemporary museum practices. This looked at memory-making/memory-keeping, and how historic places create and interpret their narratives. Considering how house museums like the Nathaniel Russell and Aiken-Rhett Houses come to be, and how their programs are shaped, helps students understand the historic narratives that we steward on a deeper level.

CofC students under 40 East Bay, Granville's Bastion

As we move into the 2023-2024 school year, we have a number of similarly-customized specialty tours on the horizon, including a freshman seminar from The Citadel coming to the Aiken-Rhett House to study architectural and landscape evolution, a class from the American College of the Building Arts that will get a deep-dive tour with Justin Schwebler, and an interiors-focused history class from the College of Charleston fora specialty tour with Museums Director Grahame Long, examining the furnishings, decorative arts, and interior design features of the Russell House. In case you think that our customizable educational offerings begin and end with our museums, we assure you they do not! Aiken-Rhett Manager Valerie Perry will be bringing hundreds of students on city walking tours over the course of two months, focusing on sites associated with the popular novel The Invention of Wings.

As much as this review covers, it still does not include our primary school programming. With field trip opportunities to both houses, and an option to have HCF visit the classroom, there are plenty of ways we enjoy reaching our K-12 audience. The Foundation looks forward to another successful season of primary school field trips and specialty-focused higher education tours. We wish all students heading back to school a fun first semester, and a successful academic year!

-Carin Bloom, Manager of Education and Programming

If you have any questions, or would like to bring a student group to the Historic Charleston Foundation House Museums, please contact Manager of Education and Programming Carin Bloom at cbloom@historiccharleston.org.