Special to The T&D

COLUMBIA -- McKissick Museum's latest exhibit brings the past to life through the exploration of one of the state's most historic and grand homes, the Aiken-Rhett House in Charleston.

"Grandeur Saved: Photographs of the Aiken-Rhett House by Michael Eastman" is on loan from the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston and will be on display through April 26.

"Grandeur Saved" will be housed in McKissick's North Gallery on the second floor. The exhibit includes photographs of the home's interior and exterior, including images of the slave quarters, privy and elegant living space. The largest photograph, "Sitting Room, Charleston," is 6-by-7-foot, and the others are 4-by-5-foot. The exhibit also includes decorative art objects from the Aiken-Rhett House, including china, silver and books from the Aiken library.

Eastman, who lives in St. Louis, is a self-taught photographer known for his powerful use of color. He has spent nearly 30 years perfecting his craft, and his work demonstrates an acquired sensitivity to the built environment and to landscape. Human subjects are absent from "Grandeur Saved" -- thus, the viewer becomes the focus as their imagination takes them on a virtual tour of the home.

Eastman's photography has appeared on the cover of Time magazine four times and has also been included in Life, The New York Times, American Photographer and a number of other print outlets. His photographs are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Boston Museum of Fine Art, among others.

Located at 48 Elizabeth Street in Charleston, the three-story brick townhouse, erected in 1818, stands as the most intact townhouse complex in antebellum Charleston. The house was originally constructed in adherence to the Adam style and was modified in the Greek Revival style in 1836. A Victorian art gallery was added in 1858.

The house was purchased in 1827 by William Aiken Sr. His son, Gov. William Aiken Jr., and his wife, Harriet Lowndes Aiken, moved into the home in 1833, and the house remained in the family until 1975. Aiken Jr. was an alumnus of South Carolina College, as well as a successful businessman, rice planter and distinguished politician. He served as the governor of South Carolina during the 1840s and became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1850s. Aiken was one of the state's wealthiest citizens and, in the tradition of the Charleston elite, filled his home with treasures from his European travels.

Aiken's daughter, Henrietta Aiken Rhett, inherited the house upon her mother's death in 1892. Rhett's daughter-in-law, Frances Rhett, was the last member of the Aiken-Rhett family to inhabit the home. In 1975, she donated the house and most of its contents to the Charleston Museum. In 1995, the house was purchased by the Historic Charleston Foundation, which operated it as a museum.

For more information about "Grandeur Saved," call 803-777-7251. McKissick Museum exhibitions are free and open to the public. The museum is located on the USC Horseshoe and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The museum is closed Sundays and holidays.

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