South Carolina’s capitol, in Columbia, was the thirty third capitol I photographed. Like North Carolina, South Carolina’s capitol is relatively small, but it has a lot more to it than its northern neighbor. As a history teacher, I found its approach to its own history fascinating: it regularly honors its role as the building where the first Secession Declaration was signed, just before the Civil War, and has statues honoring key figures who supported slavery and segregation, and famously still hoisted a confederate flag well into the 2010s. More recent, though, is a fairly comprehensive memorial to slavery and the African American experience that goes beyond the basic well-trod facts and into Reconstruction and other poorly understood eras in historically accurate ways. The duality shows the way sites like this are grappling with their own history. The build also is itself history: a couple shots here feature bronze stars that have been set into the side of the building denoting damage from United States artillery during the Civil War. These photos were all taken in February of 2022.