In Honor of Preservation Week by Cassandra Knoppel

I continue the practice of letting my assistants learn what's in the BDC, its policies and its practices by preparing the display case. Jalen gets a break in April because I knew of Library Specialist Cassandra Knoppel's  interest in preservation of library and archival materials and in historic structures. Thus the April 2024 Display is in honor of the upcoming Preservation Week which happens to fall on April 28 - May 4 this year. What follows below was written by Cassi.-- Grace Cordial

Preservation is a topic near-and-dear to my heart; as an alumnus of the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation program and in the few years since graduating, I gained experience in archival and architectural preservation. I love sharing my expanding knowledge and passion with others, so I tried to select a wide variety of resources within the BDC on the topic. 

But first, what is preservation? The Society of American Archivists defines preservation as “the professional discipline of protecting materials by minimizing chemical and physical deterioration and damage to minimize the loss of information and to extend the life of cultural property.” Cultural property includes materials like books, photographs, textiles, artifacts, and architectural features. While those of us in the BDC are trained or in-training professionals, there are levels of preservation work that can be undertaken by anyone interested in protecting their personal documents and collections for future generations! This display highlights some of the resources and materials we have to do so. 

The shelves are arranged by topic: 

• Shelf One: General Preservation Tips 
• Shelf Two: Archival Preservation Process 
• Shelf Three: Cultural and Historic Preservation 
• Shelf Four: Preservation of Photographs 

I used the top shelf of our display case to explore the basics of preservation as it applies to our work in the BDC, other heritage institutions, and what people can do at home. I start with a copy of the American Library Association’s “Preservation Week: Quick Preservation Tips – Take the First Step” flyer. This is a handy beginners guide to protecting your collections and outlines what to keep an eye out for. If you can’t make it in to see the display, you see the flyer on the ALA website. I also added a few ALA “Pass It On” bookmarks that summarize these points; take-home copies are available in the BDC too. 

The books on this shelf come from the BDC’s Professional Reference section, meaning these are the resources we turn to for guidance. The first book I selected was Caring for Your Family Treasures: Heritage Preservation (2000) by Jane S. and Richard W. Long, a handy primer for long-term care for your personal artifacts. From silver to scrapbooks, this book outlines best practices for preserving and conserving common heirlooms with helpful tips and tricks. The author also points to additional resources for more in-depth study. 

Also on the shelf is Caring for American Indian Objects: A Practical and Cultural Guide (2004) edited by Sherelyn Ogden. This is an introduction to the caring and keeping of Native American objects for museum and archival professionals, with advice on accessioning, labeling, and displaying objects as well. The BDC does not have any Native American objects in our collection, but understanding how to care for unique materials with connections to our local history is of great importance regardless. While the volume focuses specifically on Native American cultural heritage, the lessons learned can be applied to many other types of objects as the variety of materials is wide-ranging. For example, sections on how to apply museum labels to fabrics can be useful for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous textiles. As such, this is a great guide overall for cultural heritage professionals or those with large personal collections of Indigenous objects and more. 

With the second shelf, I wanted to take the opportunity to showcase the work that our volunteers and I do within the BDC – archival processing and digitization. I chose Extensible Processing for Archives and Special Collections: Reducing Processing Backlogs (2015) by Daniel A. Santamaria, as it directly relates to my day-to-day work. This is another professional guide to preservation of archival materials, this time looking at how we prepare these items for use by customers (called archival processing). Preparing a collection for use includes rehousing materials in non-acidic enclosures, making preservation surrogates of materials that are acidic or otherwise detrimental to the collection, organizing the material in a way that respects the original order while making it findable, and describing the collection in a “finding aid”. 

Another aspect of our work is digitization, where we scan certain collections, like photographs, and upload them to the Lowcountry Digital Library website so they are readily accessible to the public while also being protected from regular handling or other pollutants. The NEDCC’s Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation Access (2000), edited by Maxine K. Sitts, gives a thorough overview of digitization in archives and discusses why it matters and how digitization projects can be managed with collections of any size or scale. This is an older edition, so some advice may be outdated, but the general concepts are enduring. The physical volume of this title is available within the BDC while the PDF format can be accessed through the Northeast Document Conservation Center's website. Materials related to this process are also displayed on the shelf. These include:

 • Samples of archival quality materials used when rehousing or reformatting like Bristol – chemically inert material used in archival folders, Permalife – an acid-free paper, Mylar – used in sleeves for print materials, Reemay – a lining and backing material, and Buckrum – book cover material.

• Abbey pH Pen used to test the acidity of things like paper. When acidic, the ink will turn yellow; when neutral or alkaline, the ink will be purple. You can see a sample of this test in the display case. 

• #2 pencil used to label materials and take notes in archives. Many BDC visitors know this already, but no pens are allowed around archival collections as ink formulations are varied and complex and mutable and sometimes not reversible! Pencil marks are easily and safely removed with a rubber eraser.

• A sample of materials commonly encountered during processing like photos, print documents, handwritten correspondence, prints, and newspaper clippings. 

• Archival folders used in collection boxes and for the BDC’s vertical files. 

The next shelf focuses on cultural and historic preservation. While the BDC’s work mostly revolves around preserving paper-based heritage materials like documents and books, preservation also includes the conservation and management of historic sites and properties, like prominent architecture, cemeteries, archaeological sites, and even viewsheds. The BDC has materials and resources that record and offer guidance on this ongoing process within Beaufort County, like the newly revised edition of The Beaufort Preservation Manual (2022) by John Milner Associates. The manual was the first of its kind in 1979 when the first edition was published, as it outlined and illustrated the ideal treatments and methods for preserving historic buildings in Beaufort along with design guidelines for new additions to old houses.  This book is a great resource for historic homeowners who want to keep the unique character of their house and do as little long-term damage as possible. The BDC has both the first and second editions available for use by patrons in the Research Room, and the City of Beaufort has uploaded the second edition to their website.  

Also on this shelf is Grave Matters: The Preservation of African-American Cemeteries (1994) by the Chicora Foundation. This short book gives a condensed history of African-American burial practices in South Carolina, including those of enslaved peoples and the Gullah-Geechee community. It gives an archaeological overview of known historic cemeteries, the research being done on them, and dissects some of the differences between white and Black cemeteries. It also gives brief suggestions to those curious about preserving Black cemeteries in their own community and the laws surrounding the conservation of these sites. 

I also chose to feature Site Destruction in Georgia and the Carolinas (1993) on this shelf, as it outlines the potential loss of cultural history that can occur without preservation. According to the authors David G. Anderson and Virginia Horak, “Site destruction is perhaps the most significant problem facing the historic preservation community in the Southeast” (p.1). This work outlined the most pressing concerns to local preservationists in the 1990s and some of the lost or endangered sites of that time, including materials lost to looting, damage to historic sites done during Hurricane Hugo, and early archaeological sites revisited by contemporary professionals who disagreed with the methods of the past. In case you are curious about what not to do at a historic site, the book includes descriptions of activity considered to be “disturbances” to historical sites, like the removal of features or artifacts, rubbings or casts of features, and the chipping or removal of loose or embedded materials like bricks or tabby.

Lastly, the bottom shelf touches on a subset of archival processing and something that you can easily do at home: the preservation of photographs. Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler’s Photographs: Archival Care and Management (2006) is highlighted here – this book is a detailed guide to handling, assessing, and storing photographs for professionals, but anyone curious about archival standards for photographs can benefit from reading it. I particularly enjoyed reading the chapters on identifying types of photographs and the methods for housing each type. Also displayed is a small summary of best practices from SC Archives Month 2009 alongside a pair of gloves - archival standards dictate that cloth gloves be worn when handling photos to prevent oils from our hands damaging the photo. Below them are surrogate copies of photos we hold in our collections in a variety or mylar and polypropylene sleeves, showcasing the ideal ways a photo could be archivally stored. 

While this display is not and cannot be a comprehensive list of all of our preservation related materials in the BDC, I hope that it serves as good introduction to our mission and daily work.

Reminder: The Library is closed on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 for Staff Development. 

Underwater Archaeology Topic of "Historically Speaking" Lecture

 It's been awhile since Dr. James Spirek, the underwater archaeologist at SCIAA has visited us to speak about his work. The Beaufort County Historical Society, the Hilton Head Chapter of the Archaeological Society of South Carolina, and the BDC are delighted that he'll be coming down next month to talk about shipwreck explorations in and around Port Royal Sound. 

Over 30 ships from early European colonization to modern times have met their fate on the treacherous shoals fringing the entrance to Port Royal Sound.  These shipwrecks include a French corsair called Le Prince that wrecked while entering the sound after a successful voyage of trading and raiding in the Spanish West Indies in early 1577; HMS Colibri, a British warship that grounded on the shoals after plundering Sea Island plantations during the War of 1812; and the SS William Lawrence, a merchant steamship bound with an assorted cargo to Savannah that wrecked during a winter gale in 1896.  This illustrated presentation will discuss the ongoing efforts by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology to document these shipwrecks along with other unfortunate casualties of the shoals to advance our knowledge of the maritime archaeological legacy in the waters of South Carolina.

Speaker Biography:

James Spirek, the State Underwater Archaeologist for South Carolina, works at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.  Employed there since 1996 and holding his current position since 2012, Jim’s responsibilities include managing and studying the maritime archaeological legacy residing in the lakes, rivers, and coastal waters of South Carolina.  Jim has participated in numerous projects documenting a diverse range of sunken prehistoric and historic watercraft, Colonial and Native American sites, Civil War warships and blockade runners, and other underwater archaeological remains in state waters.  Jim received his B.A. in History from George Mason University in 1987 and his M.A. in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology from East Carolina University in 1993.

"Shoals and Shipwrecks" with underwater archaeologist Jim Spirek | Thursday, May 16, 2024 | 11 AM | BDC/Beaufort County Historical Society "Historically Speaking" series 5.5 | Education Building, First Presbyterian Church, 1201 North Street, Beaufort | Doors open for seating at 10:30 AM

Please note: This lecture will also include the annual business meeting of the Beaufort County Historical Society. All are welcome to attend the free event but only official members of the BCHS will be allowed to vote during the business meeting portion. If the business meeting goes as it has done in the past, that part of the proceedings should take only 10 - 15 minutes. 

We hope that you'll be able to join us for this free lecture. 

BDC Docent Projects, 2024 : National Volunteer Week

Because it's National Volunteer Week - and the BDC would be considerably diminished without the steadfastness and dedication of our Beloved BDC docents - , I decided to tell you a bit about the various projects the BDC's Beloved Docent have at present. Each docent helps the BDC accomplish its mission of caring for and sharing materials about local history.  

Joe Noll used to work for Beaufort County's GIS department and brought digitization skills with him.  Most recently, he has been working on digitizing the Josie Childs Slide Collection of images related to  Mather School. This collection will be added to the BCL's contributions to the Lowcountry Digital Library when the work is done.

Kathy Mitchell, another former BCL librarian, continues to find dead people in the newspaper microfilm to index. And she can really tell when the county’s population increases because the number of dead cited in the newspapers has really gone up year-over-year. We have more than 31,000 individuals listed in the Online Obituary Index now, thanks to Kathy and her predecessor indexers since the early 1990s.

When Laura Lewis finished working on the digitization of the Wales Journal, I assigned her to vertical file integration project. You see, we inherited vertical files from both the Hilton Head and Beaufort Branches and have been merging those materials and the BDC's own vertical file array into one sequence. Laura's attention to detail has been invaluable. She’s been great at identifying duplicates, keeping the best copy, photocopying and citing newspaper clippings, alerting me to "special cases" which helps me decide if and when to separate contents into existing BDC files or create new ones, doing research as needed, etc. Valerie of the Technical Services department who’s also working on this project – because it’s a BIG project of about 5 or so years now – is delighted to have Laura laboring on the labor intensive project with her. Valerie’s specialty is government related files and the library catalog “side” of the integration project. 

Peggy Scott has returned to a project we stopped about a decade ago to concentrate on the Behan land-genealogy Papers. The docent’s part of the Behan is done so now she is back to processing, labeling, refoldering and refiling contents of some of the 100K envelopes of film negatives and film prints to be found in the Lucille Hasell Culp Collection. Back in the day she and Marlyn and Linda Schumacher did enough of this processing work to create an index with more than 5000 personal names in it. There’s likely another 5000 or more human and non-human subjects to go. This index is available only on staff computers in the Research Room. 

A new volunteer, Alison Cody, has just come aboard to create an index of David Lauderdale’s local history column articles in the Island Packet and later the Beaufort Gazette. Alison's index will ultimately be available in our Research Room as is index that Laura Lewis made of the 1766 Gerhard Spieler articles in the Beaufort Gazette. Jalen, the BDC's assistant, just updated the index to Dennis Adams' newspaper "Answer Man" columns.  

Another new volunteer, Clinton Hallman, is expected to soon begin transcribing the Coroner's Inquest Records related to the Hurricane of 1893. Those can be quite emotionally draining since that tropical event killed many and the testimony can be heartbreaking.  [You can hear me read some of those testimonies in the recorded "Tide of Death" video posted on the Library' YouTube Channel.] 

Will Poet Robert Woodward Barnwell Identify Yourself?

If you've followed the Murdaugh saga of the past few years, you are probably aware that names can run up and down in a particular family. In fact, I found Jason Ryan's explanation of the various "Busters" and "Richards" and "Randolphs" in the "Dramatis Personae" section of Swamp Kings (2024) [audio book, e-book, print book] quite helpful. 

I had a similar situation relating to an author, in this case a poet who penned "Dawn at Daufuskie." And since this is National Poetry Month, I share the poem: 

Dawn at Daufuskie

I saw the fainting stars pass to their death.

I heard the frolic winds pausing for breath.

As the dawn crept upward all was still.

And my heart alone knew motion and thrill.

I saw the silver sea shining as steel.

The silence was pressing its golden heel

On lizard in leaves and bird on bough:

But I heard blood throbbing from heart to brow

I saw the fleecy clouds sink -- every one.

I heard no singing bird welcome the sun.  

As the gold flashed landward glory spread, 

And I heard my heart as its pulses sped.   

For years I attributed the poem to Robert Woodward Barnwell of Beaufort born 1801, died 1882 in Columbia. I did displays for National Poetry Month over the past decade that unintentionally ascribed the poems to the wrong Robert Woodward Barnwell. How did this happen? one asks. The answer is: "It is very easy to get persons with the exact same name mixed up when families perpetually use a name over and over through succeeding generations." 

In the course of unraveling this particular mystery, I discovered that The Story of an American Family by Stephen B. Barnwell, 1969 - considered the go to guide of all things Barnwell - lists a dozen different men named Robert Woodward Barnwell, the first one in 1801, and the last one listed born in 1959, though there probably are a few more RWB's now. In the index he calls the RWB I am most interested in today, "Senator." 

I discovered my mistake on 27 July 2017 as I was updating a Wordpress blog post I created nine years earlier. I was wondering why I could not find any references to poetry writing in all the online sources I found for Robert Woodward Barnwell nor in any of our own BDC resources at hand - except for three items.

Seeing the publication dates on the poetry books, Realities and Imaginations ... a Poem, [1938] and Dawn at Daufuskie and Other Poems (1936) got me to thinking about why the collections were published 50 years or more after RWB's death. I have these two titles on the shelves so I could look at the items in their entirety for clues. Luckily Dawn at Daufuskie had a copyright date of 1936 and a "Preface" written by the author in 1936. Obviously, the author was not my RWB as I had previously thought. The "Preface" also written by the author for Realities and Imaginations ... A Poem two years later indicates that he did not begin writing poetry until 1920 and that he was living in Florence, SC. More proof that I had mixed up men with the same name of Robert Woodward Barnwell.

Researching deeper in The Story of an American Family (whose index BTW only includes personal names, not topical subjects), I finally located the right Robert Woodward Barnwell, an Episcopalian priest by vocation and poet by avocation. 

I used information gleaned from a Florence Morning News obituary posted online to narrow down my options for searching the name index of The Story of An American Family. (When you scroll down about 3/4 of the way you'll find the portion related to the Rev. RWB.) The Florence Morning News obituary stated that he married  his second wife Malinda in 1902. I looked in the index to The Story of An American Family and found her name. I then read several pages both before and after page 354 to see if I could triangulate the proper RBW who wrote Realities and Imaginations ... a Poem and Dawn at Daufuskie and Other Poems. I had at last! 

Stephen B. Barnwell, author of Story of An American Family, writes about this particular Rev. Robert Woodward Barnwell, born 1860, died 1952, his wives, children, and grandchildren from page 352 - 357 including a number of photographs. 

Rev. Robert Woodward Barnwell, author of Realities and Imaginations ... a Poem and Dawn at Daufuskie and Other Poems was the son of another Rev. Robert Woodward Barnwell who died in 23 June 1863. His wife Mary Carter Singleton died a mere two days later thereby leaving three orphaned young sons to the care of relatives. In 1864 his brother Edward died leaving John Singleton Barnwell (1859 - 1932) and Robert Woodward Barnwell (20 November 1860 - 28 June 1952) to the care of their grandmother and aunts in Beaufort. John Singleton Barnwell never married and died without issue.  His brother, minister poet RWB had three children with his first wife Wilhelmina DuBose before her death in 1899. He and second wife Malinda McBee Brunson had six children. Malinda died in 1962 in Florence. All told then, minister poet RWB had 9 children all who survived to adulthood, most of whom married, and some of whom had children themselves. For details, you can come to read The Story of An American Family in our Research Room. 

You can see RWB, 1860 - 1952's headstone on the Find-A-Grave website.

For nine years I had been unintentionally sharing bad information. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I am sorry. This post is to encourage you to take your time before determining if you have the "right" person with a particular - and repetitive through the generations - name. Weigh all the evidence. Evaluate the documents. Use your finest most honed reasoning skills. When in doubt, explain your reasons why you think this particular person is the correct person for your genealogical chart. Doing so will make it easier for your descendants to evaluate any new evidence or documentation that may come to light in the future.

Learn more about another Robert Woodward Barnwell, 1801 - 1882 in our Wordpress blog.

The Week Ahead, April 15 -20, 2024

BDC staff is pretty busy this week with 2 local history programs, Beaufort County deadlines for required participation in the employee job classification survey, and a community event on Saturday. We hope that you'll be able to join us for one - or all - of our special events.

We’re hosting a reprise of "Snakebit" - an examination of surviving sources of information about one of the most fascinating Englishmen of the colonial period, Henry Woodward. Red Bird and the Devil author Robert E. Lanham will discuss what he found to be true and what remains myth. Join us and the Beaufort History Museum at St. Helena Branch on April 16, 2024 at 2 PM for this educational local history program.

History is full of forgotten, unknown and underappreciated human stories of challenge and triumph. Come hear the courageous life story of Bristow Eddy, an enslaved man who undertook the dangerous trip along the South Carolina coast to fight for freedom in the Union Army in the "Historically Speaking" series lecture on April 18th. This program is part of the BDC and Beaufort County Historical Society's contribution to the ISRE Symposium.

We continue our Outreach efforts on Saturday, April 20th. We'll have a booth at USCB’s Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era Symposium in an effort to inform the public about the range and scope of the materials the BDC shares about the period, both inside the Research Room and online through our BDCBCL: Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog, our digital collections hosted through the Lowcountry Digital Library, and this blog. Feel free to drop by for this free event, say hello, and listen to some presentations on offer in the auditorium. 

As a reminder: The Library will be closed on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 for Staff Development. 

Assistant Librarian Mackenzie, 1861 by Sue Mackenzie Thornton

I am embarrassed to say that this article courtesy of Sue Mackenzie Thornton has been sitting in my computer files for more than a few years. I've been long meaning to share it at an appropriate time - and given that it's Library Week 2024 - I shall do so today. It's an unknown story - and if the 79th Highlanders re-enactors return to the Beaufort History Museum during my remaining tenure, I'll have something "new to us" to highlight. Some of you may quibble about the differences in the source materials when it comes to the man's name. As any experienced family historian can attest, variations in name must be weighed against other sources to decide whether or not Lochlan McKinsey is the same person as Loughlin Mackenzie is the same person as Lachlan Mackenzie. Standardization in the spelling of personal names is more of an 20th century practice than a 19th century one.

Lachlan Mackenzie (1838-1864), Civil War Beaufort Librarian by Sue Mackenzie Thornton, edited by Jake Thornton (2017?) 

Allan Mackenzie, a Scottish immigrant, and his wife Maria Martling had ten children. Four of their sons, and two of their sons-in-law joined the 79th New York Highlanders Infantry during the Civil War. One of these sons, Lachlan would spend some time in the Beaufort Library. 

Following is his roster obtained from The New York Military Museum and Veterans Research Center.

His regimental return for December 1861 contained a puzzle. What was a soldier doing serving as an assistant librarian?

A call to Grace Morris Cordial, manager of the Beaufort Collection at the library helped solve the puzzle. The New York Public Library, Irma and Paul Milstein Division as well as online research provided further pieces for the puzzle.

When the Union occupied Beaufort on November 7, 1861, they took control of everything including the library. The following excerpt from The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens by his Son Hazard Stevens, Volume II, pp. 367-368 provides some details.

Brigadier General Stevens of the 79th Highlanders opened the library to his soldiers and intended to care for it, returning the books to Beaufort after the conclusion of the war. So Lachlan participated in Steven's plan to both protect the books and lend them to the men. But as the rest of the Stevens excerpt indicates, he was overruled and the books were seized. 

A New York City auction of the Beaufort books was met with many negative editorials such as the following in the November 14, 1862 New York Evening Post. The New York Public Library, Milstein Division provided this newspaper article as well as the subsequent one. 

But the tale of the books took a positive turn. The Beaufort Collection history available on the Beaufort Library website quotes from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly that a letter from New Yorker William H. Fry to President Lincoln was instrumental in having Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase cancel the sale. Newspaper editorials such as this one probably also aided cancellation efforts. 

This November 22, 1862 Cincinnati Commercial Tribune article, a reprint of a November 5th New York Times article, records the escape of Beaufort's books from the auction block. The collection was sent to the Smithsonian Institute for safe storage. 

In February 1865, Harper's Weekly published this January 24, 1865 Alexander Gardner photo which is available at the Smithsonian Archives. 

The photo above illustrates the negative twist that occurred next in the Beaufort Library story, as an incorrectly installed stove on the second floor of The Smithsonian caused a fire which spread to the upper room housing the collection and all the books were burned.  

Lachlan Mackenzie whose military record supplied the puzzle at the beginning of this story, remained with the 79th until the end of his life, dying of Typhoid Fever in a Knoxville, Tennessee hospital on November 27, 1864.  

Lachlan is buried at Knoxville National Cemetery and his gravestone was created in March 1864 by 79th officer Hugh Young and his fellow stone masons.  

I wonder if Lachlan helped compile the auction list for the book sale that never happened. You can see a facsimile of that auction catalog on one of the Behind-the-Scenes tours we're hosting in honor of National Library Week. Check for any remaining slots by calling us: 843-255-6468. 

There is a lot more information about the Mackenzie brothers and their Civil War in the BDC's HISTORY-CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865-PERSONAL NARRATIVES - UNION vertical file. We have accounts from Charles Francis Adams, Clover Adams, Harrison M. Beardsley, James Bell, John Bell, Ephraim Bender, Norris Crossman, Robert Sedgwick Edwards, Harriet Ward Foote, John Frederic Holahan, William H. Johnson, George H. Johnston, Louis Kelsey, Charles Phineas Lord, Laughlin Mackenzie, Dr. Seth Rogers, Calvin Shedd, Stephen Minot Weld, Gottlieb Schahl, and some unknown correspondents.  

It'd be optimal if you make an appointment to come review the contents of the file and the other Civil War related vertical files that we make available inside our small facility: 843-255-6468; bdc@bcgov.net.

Mary Shindler, Native Daughter Poet

Latest update: 1 April 2024 - gmc

Native daughter, Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer Dana Shindler (a.k.a. Mary S. B. Dana) is the perfect person to transition from National Women's History in March into National Poetry Month in April. Given that it's Easter Week 2024, a poem based on a Bible scripture seems fitting. 

Passing Under the Rod 

And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you in to the bond of the covenant." Ezekial, Chapter 20, Verse 37.

I saw the young bride, in her beauty and pride,
  Bedeck'd in her snowy array;
And the bright flush of joy mantled high on her cheek,
  And the future look'd blooming and gay:
And with woman's devotion she laid her fond heart
  At the shrine of idolatrous love,
And she anchor'd her hopes to this perishing earth,
  By the chain which her tenderness wove.
But I saw when those heartstrings were bleeding and torn,
  And the chain had been sever'd in two,
She had changed her white robes for the sables of grief,
  And her bloom for the paleness of wo[e]!
But the Healer was there, pouring balm on her heart,
  And wiping the tears from her eyes,
And he strengthened the chain he had broken in twain,
  And fasten'd it firm to the skies!
There had whisper'd a voice -- 'twas the voice of her God,
"I love thee -- I love thee -- pass under the rod!"

(From the Parted Family collection; the poem was written in Charleston July 6, 1840)

Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer was born February 15, 1810 in Beaufort to Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer and Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer (Yes, she had the exact same name as her own mother; and matters are further complicated by two Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmers, her father 1781 - 1847 and his nephew, (her cousin) Benjamin Morgan Palmer, 1818-1902  who became a renowned Presbyterian minister).  In 1813, her father moved the family to Charleston, SC where he served as the minister of the Circular Church until 1835.   She was educated in the private school of Dr. Ramsey and his daughters in Charleston and in various seminaries for young ladies in Connecticut and New Jersey.  In 1835, she married Charles E. Dana of New York.  They had one son.  Both her husband and her son died at their home in Bloomington, Iowa during August 1839.

Image courtesy of Cyberhymnal.org

She returned to the home of her parents in Charleston as a childless widow and poured out her grief about her string of recent losses through writing The Parted Family, and Other Poems (1842). Both her parents died in 1847. Her religious poems reflect on themes of comfort in the struggles of life and death. Recognition of her poetry, often infused with religious sentiment, began during this decade. Later she set some of her poems to music, often favoring folk tunes for the melody.  

She married an Episcopalian minister, Robert Doyne Shindler at some point between 1848 and 1851 (sources vary as to the precise date of the nuptials).  They had one child, a son, Robert Conrad Shindler, who was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky in April 1852.  They were living in Tennessee by 1859.  After the Civil War, the family relocated to Nacogdoches and San Augustine, Texas. Rev. Shindler died in Nacogdoches in 1874; she died 9 years later on February 8, 1883.  

Among her famous descendants are the former US Senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison and actress Mary Tyler Moore.   

Her works include: The Southern Harp, The Northern Harp, and The Western Harp in which her religious poems are set to music, several novels, and religious and spiritualism essays.  In our collection we have copies of her Letters addressed to relatives and friends,: chiefly in reply to arguments in support of the doctrine of the Trinity; The Southern harp: consisting of original sacred and moral songs, adapted to the most popular melodies: for the piano-forte and guitar; The parted family, and other poems: an offering to the afflicted, and a tribute of love to departed friends; A southerner among the spirits: a record of investigations into the spiritual phenomena; and one of her novels, Forecastle Tom or, The landsman turned sailor.  

Her papers are included in the Shindler-Palmer Family Papers at the Ralph W. Steen Library of the Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.     

We used sources found in our vertical file, Shindler, Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer Dana, (1810 - 1883) to write this entry.  

April 2024 will be very, very busy for the BDC

No foolin', April is going to be busy in the BDC.

I'm talking about Civil War resources in the Research Room at the Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting and registration opens for the three BDC Behind-the-Scenes tours on April 1st. I'm helping Library Director Amanda DIckman and the Beaufort Branch staff with Jason Ryan's book talk about Swamp Kings on April 5th. I hope to watch the eclipse with other library customers on April 8th.

We have Behind-the-Scenes tours scheduled during National Library Week on April 10th, 11th, and 13th. Give us a call to reserve a seat: 843-255-6468.

On April 16th Robert Lanham will discuss Henry Woodward at St. Helena Branch as part of our local history series with the Beaufort History Museum.

On April 18th, Wyatt Erchak will present "Freedom's Eddy" as the BCHS/BDC prelude contribution to the Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era Symposium.

BDC staff will be at the ISRE Symposium on Saturday, April 20th to showcase internet resources we provide about the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras.

Wednesday, April 24th is Staff Work Day so all the libraries will be closed. And we end the month with Preservation Week, April 28 - May 4.

In between April 1 and May 4, we celebrate National Garden Month, National Volunteer Month, National Poetry Month, National Jazz Appreciation Month, National Library Week and National Wildlife Week so expect some Facebook posts about those topics, too.

Learn Local History at Programs in Mid-April

As you will discover, April 2024 is a very busy month for the BDC staff. We're hosting three Behind-the-Scenes tours and two local history programs, plus doing some outreach. If local history lectures are your "thing", we have two coming up in mid-April. One deals with the colonial period; while the other addresses the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. We'll go in chronological order this time. 

Join us at St. Helena Branch Library the day after taxes are due for a reprise of "Snakebit" -  an examination of surviving sources of information about one of the state's most fascinating Englishmen of the colonial period by The Red Bird and the Devil author, Robert E. Lanham.  

"Snakebit: Henry Woodward, South Carolina's First English Settler" with author Robert Lanham | Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | 2 PM | Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library Local History series 7.4 | St. Helena Branch Library, 6355 Jonathan Francis Sr. Rd   | Doors open for seating at 1:30 PM

The main focus of Lanham's presentation is how he discovered and made use of historical documents to flesh out the personality and activities of the Palmetto State's first permanent English settler, trying to separate what was "fact" from what is commonly held "fiction" for his novel.  

The title of the lecture comes from an extract of a letter that Henry Woodward wrote to John Locke dated 12 November 1675 in which Woodward shares some of the Native American's beliefs. "Port Royall Indians worship the Sun but the Westos worship the Devil and have his figure carved in wood." He shared that some Indians purport to "have power over the ratle snakes soe farr as to send one over severall over rivers and brooks to bite a particular Indian which has bin don since our being here."

Robert Lanham is a retired family law attorney and former geologist residing in the South Carolina Lowcountry where Henry Woodward, the protagonist of his book, The Red Bird and the Devil lived 350 years earlier. Lanham moved here from Colorado and fell in love with the Lowcountry and its history. His distant grandfather came to the southern colonies as an indentured servant in the late 1600s, the same time as Henry Woodward, sparking his interest in early colonial history. Using skills developed during 40 years of research, writing, and teaching in science and law, Robert published The Red Bird and the Devil, a fresh look at the origin and first decades of Carolina Colony from the perspective of Henry Woodward. 

On Thursday, April 18th, we will gather for the next "Historically Speaking" series lecture co-sponsored by the Beaufort County Historical Society. This lecture is part of our contribution to the Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era 2nd Annual Symposium, April 19 - 20, 2024. 

"Freedom's Eddy: To Beaufort and Battle by Boat" with Wyatt Erchak | Thursday, April 18, 2024 | 11 AM | "Historically Speaking" series 5.5 | First Presbyterian Church Education Building, 1201 North Street, Beaufort  | Doors open for seating at 10:30 AM

Carnegie Mellon PhD candidate Wyatt Erchak will share a little known story about a daring escape by enslaved people into the Union lines at Port Royal.

On October 26, 1862, nine enslaved people used the Union Navy's presence to escape from Georgetown and join the black regiment being formed in Beaufort. Their goal was to take a direct action against slavery. Wyatt's presentation explores the life of Bristow Eddy. Born enslaved as a forced plantation laborer, when he and eight others made their break for freedom, he became Corporal Eddy. A skilled carpenter and soldier, Bristow was best summed up in the words of a comrade: "he was a little fellow but he was a good deal of a man." Before attaining that reputation, his group made their way to an island where others like them had been gathering for months as the floodgates of slavery broke down and waves of freedom seekers rushed out, often boarding arriving gunboats. "I was taken with others by boat," Bristow remembered, and came to Beaufort, where "I enlisted voluntarily" in November. From there, he entered the maelstrom of war and got to work; after peace returned, he built a new life for his family in the Beaufort area, at Lady's Island and Dixonville. Eddy's odyssey of freedom, represents the most singularly understudied figure of the Civil War era: the formerly enslaved Black soldiers of the Deep South, whose untold stories, once told, significantly transform how we understand that conflict.

Wyatt Erchak was Dr. Edda Fields-Black's research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University as she was preparing her latest book, Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid and Black Freedom during the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2024). During the Combahee research process, Wyatt became irrevocably entangled with the obscure story of the Union's first-formed black regiment. The story of the First South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent has become the core of his doctoral candidacy.  The University of South Carolina's Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era has asked Wyatt to be a keynote speaker at their pending symposium 19-20 April 2024 at USC-B.  Wyatt lives in upstate New York, is currently a Carnegie Mellon PhD candidate, and will present a version of our talk at the World Congress of Environmental History conference being held in Oulu, Finland in August.  

No need to register. Both local history programs are a first come,
first seated opportunity to learn more about the depth and scope of Beaufort District's history, its people, environment, and events. 

Reminder: The Library will be closed on Friday, March 29, 2024 for Good Friday. The Beaufort District Collection will re-open on Monday, April 1st. BCL units usually open on Saturdays will be open on Saturday, March 30, 2024.

Reprise of BDC Facebook Posts, February 16 - March 19, 2024

Here's a recap of what I posted on Facebook over the past month: 

BLACK HISTORY NOTE WEDNESDAY

February 21 - "Black History Note:" Continuing with the theme "African Americans and the Arts", check out the BDCBCL blog post about folk artist, Sam Doyle.

February 28 - "Black History Note:" Let's end Black History Month with a celebration of one of the area's favorite cooks [Sallie Ann Robinson]. Multiple copies are available of each from the SCLENDS consortium, BCL local history sections, and on Hoopla, the BCL's digital library.

March 6 - "Black History Note in Women's History Month:" Beaufort District has seen a number of amazing women in its past. An unsung heroine who confronted the injustice surrounding her was Susie King Taylor. Taylor served the 33rd USCT [the United States Colored Troops within the Union Army raised locally] as a nurse and a teacher. She did so without payment. She taught and nursed here in Beaufort among the freedmen being treated in the Contraband hospitals.

Consider her words from Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S. C. Volunteers:

In this 'land of the free' we are burned, tortured, and denied a fair trial, murdered for any imaginary wrong conceived in the brain of the negro-hating white man. There is no redress for us from a government which promised to protect all under its flag. It seems a mystery to me. They say, 'One flag, one nation, one country indivisible.' Is this true? Can we say this truthfully, when one race is allowed to burn, hang, and inflict the most horrible torture weekly, monthly, on another? No, we cannot sing 'My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of Liberty'! It is hollow mockery. The Southland laws are all on the side of the white, and they do just as they like to the negro, whether in the right or not... I do not uphold my race when they do wrong. They ought to be punished, but the innocent are made to suffer as well as the guilty, and I hope the time will hasten when it will be stopped forever ... I hope the day is not far distant when the two races will reside in peace in the Southland, and we will sing with sincere and truthful hearts, 'My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of Liberty, of thee I sing.

Susie King Taylor was a woman who advocated for equity, diversity and inclusion.

The Library has plenty of options re: copies of her memoir. There's even a version for youth. Hoopla has an audio-book for children entitled the Memoir of Susie King Taylor: Civil War Nurse that you can borrow electronically and download. The Documenting the American South has an electronic version of her document that you can read online as well.

March 13 - "Black History Note in Women's History Month:" In 1863, the Union was unable to adequately fill its black regiments. In an attempt to remedy that, Colonel James Montgomery led a raid up the Combahee River on June 2 to gather recruits and punish the plantations. Aiding him was an expert at freeing slaves--famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The remarkable effort successfully rescued about 750 enslaved men, women and children.

Harriet Tubman was a woman who advocated for equity, diversity and inclusion.

The latest book about the raid, Combee by Edda Fields-Black is now on the shelves in the BDC and local history sections - and on display in the BDC's case.

UNIQUELY BDC: MATERIALS MONDAY

February 26 - "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday"- The BDC has some Coroner's Inquests Records on microfilm in the Research Room. Some of the testimony about the people who were killed during the Hurricane of 1893 is absolutely heartbreaking. H.J. Middleton's account about what happened to his family that night makes me almost cry every time I share it with others. We'd be happy to set up an appointment for you to come read the 200 or so inquisitions in our Research Room: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6446.

March 4 - "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday:" Today's selection checks off two criteria: Women's History and the BDC having the only copy of this particular title inside the SCLENDS consortium. My Work Among the Freedmen: The Civil War and Reconstruction Letters of Harriet M. Buss edited by Jonathan W. White and Lydia J. Davis (2021) has about 50 pages worth of letters and explanatory footnotes about Buss' time in Beaufort and on Hilton Head as a teacher for the former enslaved in 1863 - 1864. She would later serve in Virginia and North Carolina. Most significantly, she instructed Robert Smalls and his children in the rudiments of reading and writing.

March 11 - "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday:" Growing up on the Combahee River: An American Story by Charlotte Murray Taylor (Parker, CO: Outskirts Press, 2023) is a very personal memoir of a Black girl who was raised near the river after her young mother died shortly after giving birth. Murray Taylor grew up in the upper reaches of rural Beaufort County on Hobonny and Sugar Hill plantations. She shares reminiscences of her daily life until she went away to college. One of our bookmobiles and the BDC are the only libraries currently holding copies of this self-published work.

March 18 - Today's another "Red Letter Local History" day - and we have three "Uniquely BDC" materials to share with you in honor of the occasion. There are numerous newspaper clippings and articles to be found in our "LAFAYETTE, MARQUIS DE, 1757-1834" vertical file here in the Research Room. We are the only SCLENDS library to hold the title Lafayette: Prisoner of State by Paul Spalding (2010) about the 5 years he spent incarcerated by a coalition of Austrians and Prussians during the French Revolution. We're also the only SCLENDS library to hold The Story of the Life of Lafayette (1831). PS: If you're nervous about QR codes, you can read more about Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, a.k.a. Marquis de La Fayette in Connections.

PROGRAMS & COMMUNITY OUTREACH

March 5 - Two weeks to the return of the BHM/BCL Lecture Series. Lecture 7.3 will be presented by Beaufort Jasper Water and Sewer Authority's own Director of Technology and Innovation, Tricia Kilgore. Tricia will enlighten us with the history of a vital component of local infrastructure. BJWSA is a quasi-governmental entity and a political division of the State of South Carolina that grew out of the Beaufort County Water Authority in 1954 so it's been around long enough for it to "qualify" for a BDC local history program. We'll seat folks at St. Helena Branch Library's big meeting room until we reach the Fire Marshal's room capacity.

March 14 - Ever wonder about the source of our drinking water? Ever wonder about what happens to all that poop and urine we humans make on a daily basis? Ever wonder about when these basic sanitation and health challenges started being dealt with by local governments? If so, do we have a local history program - intentionally close to World Water Day - for you. Join us for "The History of the Beaufort Jasper Water & Sewer Authority, 1954 - " presented by BJWSA's own Director of Technology and Innovation Tricia Kilgore.

Come learn about the circumstances of water and sewage services before 1954, where your water comes from now, why it comes from there, where it goes when you are done with it, and what it has in common with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

This Beaufort History Museum/ Beaufort County Library local history program will be held on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 2:00 PM in the St. Helena Branch Library, located at 6355 Jonathan Francis Sr. Road. Space is limited. First come; first seated. Doors will open for seating at 1:30 pm.

March 19 - Later today. Hope to see you at the St. Helena Branch Library. We open the room for seating at 1:30 PM

PS: I posted photos of my trip to the St. Ciara Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Chapter meeting and the of the Friends of Fort Fremont Board group visit to the BDC on March 11. I did the LAOH presentation on March 6 and the FFF visited on March 1.  I also posted some photos about the LAOH outing on March 8. I try to get the photos posted within 7 days of the event. 

JUST BECAUSE POSTS

February 19 - Even while the Library is closed today for Presidents Day, you can still learn local history. Visit the BDC's Connections blog to answer the question shown in the image. Regular hours resume tomorrow, Tuesday, February 20, 2024.

February 20 - The 18th Annual Beaufort International Film Festival opening today honors Gary Sinise and the 30th anniversary of the making of the movie Forrest Gump. Learn some local trivia about the film on the BDCBCL: Lists, Links and Finding Aids blog.

February 23 - Did you know that the National Parks Service offers free walking tours of downtown Beaufort and other associated historic sites?

February 27 - 87 years ago Beaufort's most famous actress to date [ Maude O'Dell] died backstage in a Broadway theater. Learn more in Connections.

March 1 - You can already read the March Monthly Overview.

March 9 - Happy Anniversary, Town of Port Royal. Here's a flyer from your Centennial Celebration in 1974 as discovered in one of our many vertical files.

March 17 - Happy St. Patrick's Day. I re-worked an old post to include some Irish-born Beaufort District and County residents of the past to show how you can use Library resources to research your Irish ancestors.

FINDING AID FRIDAY

March 15 - "Finding Aid Friday:" The League of Women Voters has long been a group advocating equity, diversity and inclusion. Cassi recently completed the Finding Aid to the Northern Beaufort County League of Women Voters archival collection. Read more. [We'll get the permanent box labels done soon.]