Liverpool Museum Columbia cotton scholars and aficionados recently hosted resear-chers from the Liverpool National Museum working on an important international cotton exhibition. The contingent of museum curators were there to borrow artifacts and gather information about SC’s trade ties to the English seaport.

While in the area, they were shown important cotton related documents at the SC Department of Archives and History, including one signed by Eli Whitney. They took in SC State Museum’s permanent textile exhibit, visited the Hampton Preston House, and Kensington Plantation. They were also made welcome at some active modern cotton farms in the area.

A photograph in the Liverpool Museum Later they traveled to the Lexington County Museum, SC Cotton Museum in Bishopville, the Avery Research Center and Charleston Museum in Charleston, where cotton shipments continue to leave for Liverpool.

When the exhibition opens at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool on September 24, it will explore the enduring nature of cotton, its versatility and durability, and the impact cotton has had on people’s lives. It will also focus on the role of Liverpool in the cotton industry. SC’s role will be showcased.

The large scale exhibition will feature all aspects of the cotton trade from growing, harvesting, and trading to production and manufacture. The topic will be explored through a series of cotton tales and objects from plants, tools and machinery to historic and contemporary fashions and textiles. The exhibition will also contain a special area on denim.

The Merseyside Maritime Museum tells the history of one of the world’s greatest ports and the people who used it. For many it was a gateway to a new life in other countries. For others, its importance to the slave trade had less happy consequences.

Visitors to the museum discover Liverpool’s central role in centuries at sea, from slavers to luxury liners, submarine hunters to passenger ferries.

Liverpool National Museum is England’s only national collection based outside London.