The Charleston Museum will open a new exhibit dedicated to the H.L. Hunley submarine on Oct. 3, showing preserved textiles and personal effects recovered from the vessel that became the world's first successful combat submarine when it sank the USS Housatonic off the Charleston coast on Feb. 17, 1864. “Textiles from the Deep: Findings from the H.L. Hunley Submarine” will occupy the museum's Historic Textiles Gallery through April 4, 2027.
The exhibit is a partnership with Friends of the Hunley and Clemson University's Warren Lasch Conservation Center, which have been working together on the artifacts for 26 years. Centerpieces include the sole of a shoe preserved from the submarine, a silk bandana, and a brass oil can, found near the captain's station, that still contained 19th-century oil when it was recovered. Additional personal effects on view will include buttons, shoes, pipes and a gold coin belonging to a member of the eight-man crew lost in the sinking.
Conservation of the Hunley's contents has been painstaking. The submarine was located in 1995 by a team from the National Underwater and Marine Agency, recovered in 2000, and excavated beginning in early 2001. Human remains found aboard were later interred at Magnolia Cemetery. The submarine itself is on view at Clemson's Charleston Innovation Campus in North Charleston, and its textiles were freeze-dried after long submersion so they could be safely displayed at room temperature. Before-and-after conservation images will be shown alongside the finished artifacts.
The Hunley exhibit takes over the Historic Textiles Gallery from the outgoing “Ringleaders of Rebellion: Charleston in Revolt, 1775–1783,” which closes Sept. 20.
