Fact check: Viral Facebook photo of Myrtle Beach during Memorial Day weekend from 1893, is it real?

An old black and white photograph was making its rounds onto Myrtle Beach area Facebook-users’ feeds.

The photo features a beach scene, with multiple people in it, all wearing old-fashioned clothing. Some subjects could be seen riding a horse and buggy or a bicycle with a large front wheel and smaller back wheel, like many of us are used to seeing in history textbooks.

In some comment sections below the photo, there were debates over whether it was of Myrtle Beach or of Daytona Beach in Florida.

The Sun News reached out to Ben Burroughs, director of the Horry County Archives Center, and was told that the photograph was not likely taken in Myrtle Beach.

The Sun News then reached out to an archivist at the Carl S. Swisher Library in Daytona Beach, Florida. University Archivist and Assistant Professor Clarissa West-White was able to find a version of the photograph that was not cropped and at the bottom left of the uncropped version of the photo, “Beach at Seabreeze, Daytona, FLA” could be clearly seen.

It may be disheartening to some locals that this cool, vintage photograph might not be of our beach, so we collected some vintage photographs of Myrtle Beach from Burroughs.

Here are six pictures of Myrtle Beach in the early 1900s

The photo below is titled “A Morning Dip in Myrtle Beach, S.C.” and the date it was taken is unknown.

The photo below is titled “Boys in swimsuits on beach” and the date it was taken is unknown.

The photo below is titled “All Aboard For Myrtle Beach, S.C.” and the date it was taken is unknown.

The photo below is titled “Clubhouse and pier, looking north, Myrtle Beach, S.C.” and the date it was taken is unknown.

The photo below is titled “Old bath house on Myrtle Beach’s strand” and the date it was taken is unknown.

The photo below is titled “’First Street Looking South’ Myrtle Beach, S.C.” and the date it was taken is unknown.