Exhibits

Museum of York County

On View at the Museum of York County

Changing Exhibits:

Nature Nook Gallery featuring Endless Trail

This exhibit features the natural settings of the Carolina Piedmont and beyond, through Mike Hammer’s photography, capturing the uniquely beautiful moments of each season.

Vernon Grant Gallery featuring What's Eating You? Carolina Piedmont Bloodsuckers

Did you know there are at least a dozen species of mosquitoes in our area waiting to get a taste of you? This and other fun facts are presented in Museum of York County’s summer exhibit “What’s eating you? Carolina Piedmont Bloodsuckers.” This exploration of Piedmont pests accompanies our featured traveling exhibit “Attack of the Bloodsuckers.” From leeches to lice to lampreys, come learn about the blood feeders in our neck of the woods that will literally make your skin crawl.

Attack of the Bloodsuckers

Explore the science of what’s biting you! Learn about mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, leeches, and other bloodsucking parasites in this skin-crawling exhibition. Through many interactive, icky exhibits, visitors learn the what, why, who, and when of how parasites live, work, and play!

Learning Goals
• Bloodsucking parasites are integral to ecosystems around the world.
• There are many types of bloodsuckers, including insects, arthropods, and birds.
• Bloodsuckers need blood meals to survive and reproduce.

Permanent Exhibits:

Naturalist Center

The only Smithsonian-styled education center in South Carolina, with more than 2,400 specimens at your fingertips, will guide your learning adventures from the Piedmont and across the globe. 

Before the Ice Ages: Miocene and Pliocene Beasts of the Southeast

Long before the Ice Ages, the Carolinas were a very different place. Over 23 million years ago, a time known as the Miocene Epoch, the climate was cooling and becoming drier, and new types of habitat, the grasslands, were starting to expand. With them came a change in the animals. This was a time when rhinos roamed the Southeast and strange elephant-like “shovel tuskers” called the Carolinas home. Saber-toothed cats and bone-crushing dogs prowled the region in search of prey, but even these predators were wary of the fearsome “hell pig.” The Pliocene Epoch (5 million years ago) saw an influx of new species. A land bridge formed between North and South America, bringing ground sloths, giant armadillos, and huge terror birds. The limits of even these great creatures would be tested as the climate began a series of erratic shifts that led to the Pleistocene Ice Ages.

Ice Age Carolinas: Exploring Our Pleistocene Past

Experience a journey back in time to encounter the strange, gigantic, fierce, and fantastic beasts that once roamed the Carolinas! Featuring life-sized models, taxidermy mounts, diorama and habitat settings, fossils, interactives, and interpretive displays, Ice Age Carolinas portrays the Carolinas’ prehistoric landscapes and wildlife during the Pleistocene Epoch from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. See, touch, and learn about fossils and the fossil sites in South Carolina that helped paleontologists piece together this fascinating story.

Carolina Piedmont Halls Landscapes and Lifeways: The Carolina Piedmont 600 Years Ago and Today

Spy on the creatures that only come out at night.  Compare the present landscape with the Piedmont of the 1400s, before European exploration and settlement – when bison roamed around the river’s edge and humans fashioned tools of wood and stone.

Tot Town

Based on the imaginative artwork of nationally-known illustrator and long-time Rock Hill resident Vernon Grant, a playful learning space awaits our youngest visitors in Tot Town!