Wilson School remains Florence’s most intriguing legacy of public education, but the facts surrounding its complex history are often misunderstood. The school was born out of the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, under the supervision of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. Wilson, now in its 153rd year as an institution, has undergone many moves and changes. This lecture by museum curator Stephen W. Motte will focus on the first 40 years, when the school was in operation on its original site.