The best Charleston museum is the city itself. You can see where signers of the Declaration of Independence lived, the site where politicians decided South Carolina should withdraw from the United States and where Dubose Heyward lived. You can do all of this while soaking up the ambience of the city that would be captured in the classic American opera "Porgy and Bess."
The city also boasts "America's First Museum" as well as a Museum Mile that includes former homes of political leaders over the city's nearly 350-year history, art and artifacts, a place for children to learn history and about the world around them, and one museum dedicated to telling the story of one of Charleston's darkest times as a center of the slave trade.
If you have a few hours to kill in the Holy City, check out Explore Charleston or Historic Walking Tour for walking tours you can print out or follow along on your phone.
To visit the "real" museums of Charleston, go to the Museum Mile, which has six museums, five nationally important historic houses, four scenic parks and a Revolutionary War powder magazine, as well as numerous historic houses of worship and public buildings, including the Market and City Hall.
The starting point is the Charleston Museum founded in 1773. Known as "America's First Museum," this museum chronicles Charleston's history from tribal pottery of native Indians through the Colonial era, the American Revolution and Civil War. Two historic houses, Heyward-Washington House and the Joseph Manigault House are part of the museum's offerings.
Next is the Gibbes Museum of Art, which opened to the public in 1905 and has a collection of paintings, sculptures and other art from several eras. A portrait room shows the people who built Charleston over the generations; contemporary and local artists are also featured.
The Old Slave Mart tells the story of a slave auction mart from the early 18th century. The complex once included an enclosed yard, a jail, a kitchen and a morgue. The property was saved nearly 100 years after the last slave auction there by sisters Judith Wragg Chase and Louise Wragg Graves, who took over the Old Slave Mart in 1964. It was put on the National Register of Historic Places, and the museum that exists today was opened.