About Us

In 1986, a small group of Edisto Island residents gathered to found the Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society (EIHPS). The mission of the Society is to preserve and exhibit the history of Edisto, and to educate the public in these endeavors. To fulfill this mission, the Society operates the Edisto Island Museum and works in concert with other organizations and homeowners to preserve Edisto’s unique culture and natural and built environment.

The Nature Room

From the beginning, creating a museum was the main goal of EIHPS; our first artifact was acquired in January of 1987. In 1988, the anonymous donation of a house on Chisolm Plantation Road gave EIHPS a home, and we have been in the same location ever since. On September 28, 1991, the Edisto Island Museum officially opened.

Over the years, EIHPS continued to expand the Museum and our collections as well as working to preserve the island’s history outside of the Museum.

We created a Cemetery Fund to help repair and restore some of Edisto’s numerous historic cemeteries and graves, bringing in outside professionals when necessary. We have volunteer work days to clean up historic properties, including the Hutchinson House, which is the oldest Freedman’s house on the island, and the African-American Murray Cemetery. We were instrumental in getting the historic structures at Botany Bay Plantation protected in anticipation of the opening of that property to the public as a wildlife management area. We are working to move one of the island’s few remaining slave cabins to the Museum site so that it can be used as a teaching tool for our visitors. We have worked with a team of students from the local school on an archeology project associated with the slave cabin.

While we take great pride in our Museum, we also will continue to advocate for historic preservation across Edisto Island. Edisto has a rich and varied history, and we are committed to preserving and exhibiting that history whenever and wherever possible. We would love to have you join our organization to be a part of this rewarding and important work.