Old Slave Mart Museum collection

The Old Slave Mart Museum, located at 6 Chalmers Street, Charleston, South Carolina, was founded in 1937 by Miriam B. Wilson as a museum of black slave crafts and related African artifacts. The museum was operated as a private, non-profit organization until her death in 1959. After Wilson's death, the Miriam B. Wilson Foundation was created to operate and manage the Old Slave Mart Museum.

Judith Wragg Chase (1907-1995) was the museum's curator from the inception of the Miriam B. Wilson Foundation in 1959. Judith Wragg Chase and Louise Wragg Graves (1902-1994) acquired the Old Slave Mart in 1964 and operated the museum until the closing of the facility in 1987.

The Old Slave Mart Museum contained within its collection over 1400 items of art and artifacts and over 8000 multimedia reference and research materials. The museum's collection can be divided into four categories; slave crafts, African art and artifacts, contemporary black art and crafts, and archival materials. The central portion of the Old Slave Mart Museum's collection was its slave crafts. The majority of the slave crafts were collected by Miriam B. Wilson in the early quarter of the century and included items such as wrought and cast iron-work; quilts, comforters and homespun, hand-woven coverlets and sheets; tools, basketry, hand carved canes. The African art and artifacts in the collection were used to illustrate the direct relationship and similarities between art and craft skills and styles used by African craftsmen and those utilized by African-American craftsmen. The African art and artifact portion of the collection consisted of agricultural tools and baskets, as well as, masks, amulets, beads, musical instruments, and weaponry.

In 1973, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. When the museum closed due to lack of funds, the City of Charleston purchased the building in 1988 for $200,000.00.