In 1855 some of South Carolina's most distinguished citizens came together to record and preserve the past-for the sake of the future. Motivating them was the fear that if they did not act, South Carolina's rich historical legacy would be lost to future generations. They founded the South Carolina Historical Society, which today is the state's oldest and largest private repository of books, letters, journals, maps, drawings, and photographs about South Carolina history. The mandate of our founders remains our mission today: "to collect information respecting every portion of our state, to preserve it, and when deemed advisable, to publish it." The Society's holdings, located in the historic Robert Mills Fireproof Building in Charleston, S.C., are vast and grow constantly with the addition of materials from 200 years ago and from two weeks ago. It is especially rich on South Carolina's colonial and antebellum eras and the American Civil War. The Society is a private, non-profit organization depending entirely on the generosity of its members to preserve and extend awareness of South Carolina history. We receive no local, state, or federal funding for our operations.

The South Carolina Historical Society is housed in the historic Robert Mills Fireproof Building located at 100 Meeting Street, Charleston, South Carolina. Native South Carolinian Robert Mills-the first professionally trained architect born in America, federal architect under President Andrew Jackson, and designer of many important buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Washington Monument-designed the Fireproof Building in 1822 as a state office building with secure storage for local public records. The building was completed in 1827 and is the first fireproof structure in the nation built specifically to protect documents. The building is in the Palladian style with Doric porticoes facing north and south. Inside is a three-story, oval stairhall lit by a cupola with cantilevered stone stairs. The Fireproof Building was named a National Historic Landmark in 1973. Major renovations to the interior and exterior of the structure were completed in 2002.