We are offering these FREE virtual programs to help our community continue to learn about the nature and culture of the Carolina Piedmont. Please support our work by making a donation here.

Culture & Heritage Museums Trivia Night!  •  3rd Thursdays  •  6 p.m.
Join us on Zoom for history and science fun, fact and fiction with our family-friendly trivia nights. Register at the links below:
• May 20
• June 17

What's InSTORE Fridays
Fridays, via Facebook. Join our Store Manager as he highlights items from our online gift shop with tips for easy entertaining. Check out our gift shop at chmuseums.myshopify.com.

Museum of York County

Mondays  •  What's Up in the Carolina Skies?  •  Facebook Live
Let our Planetarium Manager highlight something that you can see in the Carolina skies each week and show you where and when to look for it. No special equipment is necessary, just a willingness to go outside and look up.  

Creature Feature  •  Every other Saturday  •  10:30 a.m.  •  Facebook Live
Tune in each time to learn about a critter in from the Carolinas and beyond! 

Citizen Science  •  Bird Migration and Photo Contest

The Museum of York County is sponsoring monthly Citizen Science and Photography opportunities throughout the growing season (April-October). Citizen Science utilizes citizens to collect data that can be used in long-term nationwide research. You can contribute to science while you explore the Carolinas! Images submitted will be judged by a panel of Museum staff members and a winner for best photo announced each month. The winning photos may be displayed at the Museum of York County in a fall exhibition. 

For the month of May, our theme is birds! The great bird migration from the tropics to temperate North America is underway.  To celebrate the migration, the Museum of York County is encouraging you to contribute images of birds from the Carolinas to iNaturalist. This websites uses the images to monitor species population trends. You can contribute to science without being a scientist! Images may be uploaded to https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/carolina-birds-may-2021-myco or emailed to rcarter@chmuseums.org by noon on May 26, 2021 to be considered for the photo competition. Be sure to identify the bird and enter your location (city and state).  If you cannot identify your bird, people on iNaturalist can make suggestions. If you do not wish to use iNaturalist, you may send your photos to rcarter@chmuseums.org. Also users under 13 years old, may prefer iNaturalist’s app, Seek, which requires no registration and is a great way to learn about our natural world. Just take a picture of an organism and Seek will identify it for you! Find it here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

The photo contest winner will be announced May 27th at 6 p.m. on Zoom where we'll also be discussing the trends in bird populations and will also be joined by Jay Keck from the South Carolina Wildlife Federation. Any member of the public can join this discussion at https://yorkcountygov.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_R6_kBXVrSa6HCvh3YnRMnw. 

Main Street Children's Museum

Wee Wednesday  • Wednesdays 10 a.m.  • Facebook Live
Wee Wednesdays kick off after a holiday hiatus on January 13. During this early childhood program, young children and their caregivers will sing and wiggle around, and listen to fun books. The program is broadcast Wednesday mornings on Facebook Live at 10 a.m., and you can access the recording later on Facebook and the Culture & Heritage Museum's YouTube page.

MSCM does STEM
Keep an eye out on the Main Street Children's Museum Facebook and Instagram
pages for the MSCM does STEM series. Each month, museum educators
will share unique activities with tie-ins to key early childhood STEM concepts.

Historic Brattonsville

Homeschool Programs
Welcome Home: Settling in the Backcountry  April 14, May 12, and June 2, 2021
Registration/Purchase due by April 9, 2021. Details here.

Historic Interpreters will lead students in exploring the basics we would need to survive as an 18th-century settler in the Carolina Piedmont: food, shelter, and clothing. 

Time Travel Tuesdays
Historic Brattonsville is offering programs via Historic Brattonsville's Facebook page and Culture & Heritage Museums' YouTube channel.  

May 4 – Where’s Your Green Thumb?  
Come learn how to plant an 18th century garden! We'll learn what was planted in the 1780s and how the garden was also your medicine cabinet.

May 11 – Preserving and Pickling through History  
The history of preserving and pickling food.

May 18 – Story of Jim Williams from the Perspective of his Wife & Family  
Attitudes towards African-Americans during Reconstruction.

May 25 – Corn on the Backcountry Table  
Cornmeal was a staple of the Backcountry diet. While usually associated with cornbread, cornmeal was used in a wide variety of dishes. See how corn became so important and check out some early recipes that used corn.

June 1 – Outdoor Recreation during the 1850s  
Did you know that some of the activities we enjoy today have not changed much since the 1850's? Join us as we talk about some of those.

June 8 – What is Cotton?  
An in-depth look at the origin of cotton, how it became King in the 19th century, and how it was planted in early America.

Now available: Previously Aired Programming
Our previously aired Wonderful Wednesday summer program recordings are available on YouTube! You can view the recordings here. From exploring a pond ecosystem to testing your knowledge in our Piedmont Trivia challenge, our Wonderful Wednesday programs offer a variety of educational and fun activities, books, content, crafts and more!