MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster this week bestowed the Order of the Palmetto on Corey Alston, a Mount Pleasant sweetgrass weaver recognized for keeping Gullah Geechee basket traditions alive.
The Order of the Palmetto is the state’s highest civilian honor. Alston continues a craft handed down across five generations in Lowcountry Gullah Geechee communities, where baskets once served rice fields before becoming cultural art.
His standout piece known as Big Percy was ordered for the Columbia museum’s collection in 2024 and shown to the public in February 2026. Guinness lists the woven work as the largest sweetgrass basket on record, at 44.1 inches long, 43.3 inches across and 52.6 inches high.
Big Percy now sits in the museum’s permanent galleries in Columbia. State officials said the award marks the value of passing a Lowcountry skill to new makers. The Columbia museum regularly features South Carolina-made craft in its collections and store.
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