Discover the History
Preserving the past. Informing the present. Shaping the future.
Greenville County has been Cherokee land, a frontier county, a mill town, and a city that rebuilt itself more than once. The Society has been collecting that record since 1960.
We gather what Greenville County leaves behind and make it available to anyone who wants to understand this place: photographs, documents, maps, oral histories, and artifacts. We tell that story honestly, inclusively, and with care.
Preserve
We collect photographs, documents, maps, oral histories, and artifacts that tell the story of Greenville County in all its complexity, from everyday life to defining moments.
Interpret
Through our collections, publications, and lecture series, we connect the past to the present and examine how our communities arrived where they are.
Share
History belongs to the community. We work with historians, researchers, planners, and the public to ensure Greenville County’s stories are available, accurate, and meaningful.
A Broader, More Honest History
The full record of Greenville County includes Indigenous displacement, enslavement, segregation, and exclusion alongside innovation, resilience, and progress. We hold all of it, because a history that leaves things out is not a history worth keeping.
Nine evenings of Greenville County history
Register for the Greenville County Historical Society Lecture Series 2026-27. On the third Wednesday of each month, September through May, GCHS presents a different lecture on the history of Greenville County, from the Revolutionary War era through today.
The season opens September 16 with Courtney Hartness on Furman at 200.
The largest collection of historic Greenville photography
More than 5,000 images spanning the 1890s through the mid twentieth century, organized into the Jordan, Coxe, Landing, Elrod, Camp Sevier, Textile, and Panorama collections.
Archives going back to the 1880s
Maps, city directories, photographs, and research papers, available to researchers, students, planners, and anyone curious about how Greenville County came to look the way it does.
Volunteers are the driving force behind the Society
Become a member, donate materials to the collection, attend a lecture, or give your time. There is more history in this county than a small staff can handle alone.
Visit us
644 East Washington Street, Greenville, SC 29601. Call (864) 233-4103 or email info@greenvillehistory.org.
