FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – The Florence County Museum Board of Directors voted on a recommendation by the museum’s exhibition committee to not display a sculpture of William Wallace Harllee, and his daughter, Florence Henning Harllee at the museum.
Florence County Council voted at its July meeting to ask the The Florence County Museum’s exhibition committee to find a location on museum property to display the sculpture.
“The exhibition committee, which must present their recommendation to the board of the museum agreed not to accept it, and to recommend to the county council that they seek another location,” said Florence County Museum Chairwoman, Jumana Swindler.
William Wallace Harllee named the county after his daughter, Florence Henning Harllee. He was a Lieutenant Governor when South Carolina seceded from the union, and was also a Brigadier General in the South Carolina militia.
Swindler said the committee took many factors into consideration when it made the recommendation.
“Safety, relevance, adherence to the mission, location within this area,” she explained. “The other thing that really came up for the criteria was also “Did a current exhibit already exist in the museum?” And yes, the current exhibit does exist. There is a picture of him, and some information about him,” Swindler said.
The chairwoman said nobody on the board has seen the sculpture in person.
“We did not commission the statue nor were we privy to where the statue was,” she told News13. “We did have a picture, a photo, so it came to us as a request, and the exhibition committee makes formal recommendations on behalf of their experience, their tenure, and their knowledge,” she continued. “And basically how applicable an exhibit is fitting to the mission of the museum, and when we reviewed the request, we realized there was no commissioning on our part, and we did not ask for this exhibit.”
Swindler said nobody ever discounted the importance of Harlee to Florence County.
“We really want to acknowledge first and foremost that we don’t deny that General Harlee had a significant part of Florence history, that’s not what this is about,” she said.
Swindler said safety was also a concern of where County council wanted the sculpture to be placed.
“The request was that it be placed in the memorial garden that is now the location where many of the students who come gather,” she said “It had sharp edges, and we didn’t really think that it was a safe location within the garden.”
Swindler said the board found out the original location for the sculpture was at the judicial center in downtown Florence, but the board was never told why it no longer would be placed there.
“We basically received this request because it didn’t have a home,” she said. “We said ‘Well we didn’t commission it, [and] we don’t have much of the information about where it was supposed to be to begin with.”
Swindler said the museum is in the process of seeking national accreditation, and if the museum accepted the scuplture without going through the proper channels then it would go against standard procedure and policy.
“More importantly,” she said. “It was the assessment of “If this was accepted than that just meant that there’s a precedence that any time somebody wants to relocate something that they just ask the museum to accept it,” she continued. “We’re working through a number of policy and procedures so this will be the destination location, and a museum rich in history and art. With that accreditation can bring in national exhibits from the Smithsonian.”
Swindler said the board will inform Florence County Council of its decision by Wednesday Aug. 8.
