Moo-Fort, Mermaids, and More​: Public Art Programs in Beaufort County by Cassandra Knoppel

Nearly 25 years ago, Beaufort County started a trend that continues into the present: community-wide public art projects. After being inspired by a growing number of successful public art events in other cities, Beaufort decided to get in on the action to increase the community's access to art and to enhance our public spaces. What started as a short "vacation" for non-local art became multiple community-wide efforts to create our own permanent public art pieces. Here at the BDC, we have collected a quite a few resources which help to create a timeline of some of the most fun and impactful public art projects in Beaufort County's recent history.

Cows on Vacation

We recently finished processing a small photograph collection on one of, if not THE, very first public art projects in Beaufort: "Cows on Vacation." According to materials found in a BDC Vertical File on the topic, "Cows on Vacation" was a Beaufort County-wide public art event held in 2000. The 28 painted fiberglass cows originated as part of a Chicago public art project of 1999, called “Cows on Parade,” where over 300 fiberglass cows were created and placed throughout the city that summer. Chicago was inspired by a similar Art Cow program in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Following the success of the Chicago project, the Arts Council of Beaufort County (ACBC) and the Lowcountry National Bank partnered with the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs to loan the cows for display in the Lowcountry. The effort was financially supported by numerous local businesses, organizations and families. A blank cow was gifted by the City of Chicago as an addition to the “vacationing” collection, becoming the “Cowolina (from Moofort)” by local artist Del Holt. A miniature of one of the cows, “Merci Henri” by Joyce Martin Perz, was gifted to Beaufort as well and remains at the Beaufort County Library Beaufort Branch. Staff often dress this little guy up for the seasons, so stop by and see him some time!

When I first moved into Beaufort from Ridgeland, my mother told me to keep an eye out for the cows - but we were a bit too late to see them! The cows only vacationed in Beaufort from April to July of 2000, but could have been found all across the County. While most were located within the City of Beaufort, some could be spotted on St. Helena and even as far as Point South.

Excited locals began writing into the Beaufort Gazette with their experiences of road tripping to see every cow, taking photographs at each stop and enjoying the excursion with their family and friends. While the cows are long-gone these days, you can recreate the excitement by visiting the BDC and taking a look at our archival collection of photographs, exploring the clippings in our vertical file, or examining one of the two posters we have on the Cows.

As a complimentary project, Beaufort County Schools in partnership with the Arts Council of Beaufort County, along with assistance from Art & Soul Gallery and Beaufort Art Supply, launched the "Surf and Turf" project. Students decorated plywood shrimp to display publicly, first at Waterfront Park and then in local businesses. The plan was to send some of the shrimp to Walterboro for display while others were to be sent back with the Art Cows to Chicago, later to be auctioned off. A photograph of one of the shrimp can be found in the Cows on Vacation Photograph Collection, and more information is available in our newly created vertical file on the subject.

River of Art

Have you ever heard of the "Nightmare Witch?" Or of "Zephyr," the "Heisman Medusa," or the Port Royal mermaid? All of these names refer to the same metal-and-rubber sculpture of a warrior woman who once stood watch over the intersection of Paris Avenue and Ribaut Road behind the main "Port Royal" sign. Many locals, myself included, had no idea where she came from or what she symbolized as she towered over the entrance sign. The sculpture, officially named "Mother of the Rubber Trees" by artist Dessa Kirk, actually depicts a forest spirit who is said to protect the Amazon's rubber trees from greedy harvesters. She came to Port Royal from Chicago through another public art exhibit program in the Spring of 2001.

After seeing the community excitement of the "Cows on Vacation" project, the Town of Port Royal and ACBC partnered to bring over a dozen sculptures, mosaics, and paintings to their public spaces. The art selected had been part of the "River of Art" exhibit which also hailed from Chicago, this time coming from the city's Shedd Aquarium and depicting aspects of the Amazon River and Rainforest. Mike Lash, the director of Chicago's Public Art Program, was quoted in a Carolina Morning News article (dated April 18, 2000) referring to Beaufort as Chicago's "unofficial cultural sister city" due to the success of "Cows on Vacation" and was eager to continue the relationship through the installation of the "River of Art" exhibit in the Lowcountry. However, unlike "Cows on Vacation," the 16 pieces were to permanently remain in Port Royal after being paid for by the town with the help of ACBC and community sponsors. A brochure within our River of Art vertical file gives details on the conception and creation of each piece, along with their original locations in Port Royal.

As I flipped through the brochure, I was able to recognize some of the art - though they had moved over the years. Sensing the potential for a low-stakes adventure, I strong-armed Sydney into spending an evening with me to try to find as many of the remaining pieces as we could. One of the pieces was "Mother of the Rubber Trees," which was first placed in front of the Shed Center for the Arts in 2001 before being relocated to the intersection, eventually being moved again in 2021 to make way for the display of historic flags that now greets visitors to the town. According to a 2021 Island Packet news article, she is now housed in a town storage building while a decision is made as to where she will be displayed next. I called the City of Port Royal to confirm the locations of the art pieces but have received no response. 

Sydney and I were able to find two other sculptures while driving around Port Royal and another one by walking through the Naval Heritage Park. The adorable "Concrete Catfish" by the Town Hall is still standing, along with the abstract "Source of Life" sculpture at 1613 Paris Avenue. The rusted metal sculpture "High River," which shows a tangle of river and forest creatures hidden in and amongst each other, was once in front of the Port Royal Fire Station but now calls the Naval Heritage Park home. 

The Big Pig Gig

That same year, another farm animal invaded the Lowcountry - the pig! Cincinnati, Ohio's art pigs first debuted in the Summer of 2000 thanks to ArtWorks, a public art nonprofit from the city. A poster from their original run in Ohio can be found in the BDC, depicting twenty of the original 400+ art pigs that rendezvoused in Cincinnati and even crossed the Ohio River to invade parts of Kentucky. Thirty members of this herd of pigs were brought to the market Beaufort, Jasper, and Colleton Counties in the Summer of 2001 thanks to ACBC, local governments, and community sponsors. The BDC has preserved one of the promotional brochures for the "Big Pig Gig" in our vertical files. It lists all of the pigs on display with accompanying photos and a map of where they could have been found. 

The art pigs included eccentric pieces like the "Ham-leich Maneuver" (a pig choking on an apple by Lynn Judd), the "Big Nutcracker Boy" (a pig dressed in a traditional nutcracker doll outfit by Chris Payne), and ~my personal favorite~, the "Cured Ham Sandwich" (a pig pinned between two giant slices of bread by Steven McGowan). Others were even more avantgarde, taking the form of a pig and merging it with buildings and even boats, like GBBN Architects' "Swinescraper" and Chris Reiff's "Paddle Squealer." Additional pigs were made and decorated by locals, including the "T.I.G. Pig" at the Triangle Ice & Gas Co. made by local artist Del Holt, and the "Dirty in Art" pig designed in part by Lady's Island Elementary School Art Campers.

The Big Pig Jig street party took place on Labor Day weekend in Port Royal, ending the pig's summer vacation with a night of dancing before the little piggies were sent all the way back home.

The Big Swim

There was a brief pause following the local public art craze of the early aughts, but the activities resumed in the Fall of 2006 when ACBC began planning their next big public art project. But, unlike the others, this one was completely homegrown! In the Fall 2006 issue of ACBC's quarterly magazine Art News, it was revealed that "The Big Swim" was a fundraiser for ACBC but was also "...an opportunity for artists to show off, for non-artists to test their skills, for neighbors to see art in public spaces, and for organizations to contribute to Beaufort's vital cultural tourism." BTW: We have a few issues of Art News in our holdings.

"The Big Swim" Mermaids began their earth-side occupation of Beaufort in the Fall of 2006, after a summer spent designing, assembling and decorating their forms. ACBC outlined the process in ART News. According to the Fall and Winter Art News issues of 2006 and 2007, the form of the mermaids was designed by Kevin Palmer and manufactured in his Ridgeland studio, with each fiberglass mermaid arriving at ACBC's office split in half. Volunteers then spent over 10 hours per mermaid, bonding them together with "expandable foam," attaching a support pole or base, and then smoothing the seams with bondo, fiberglass cloth, and resin. After all of that, the 31 assembled mermaids were finally ready to be bedecked, bedazzled, bejeweled, and beloved by local artists and the community. 

I had the opportunity to participate in creating a mermaid as a second grader at Port Royal Elementary School. That year, we were brought into our art class, led by Mrs. Merchant, and asked to glue a button onto the mermaid sculpture our school was submitting as part of the project. This mermaid became the "Cute as a Button" mermaid. Another personal favorite was the "Miss Beaufort" mermaid, a beauty queen with auburn hair, an unamused expression, and multicolored jewels adorning her tail. Miss Beaufort was created by local artists and sisters Charlene Perry-Dohmann and Lee Perry, who uploaded photographs of the creation of the mermaid and her original installation at Bellamy Curve to their blog, Miss Beaufort Mermaid. In October of 2007, the mermaids were auctioned off, with some even being sold on Ebay, though many remained in public spaces. 

Slowly, the mermaid sculptures began to disappear from Beaufort's public spaces, some with cause and others under mysterious circumstances. In 2007, shortly after the mermaids were installed around town, the Sea Island Quilters' "Sadie the Sea Quilter" mermaid statue was stolen from Bay Street, though she was quickly located and the culprit charged for the theft. Clippings of this kidnapping can be found in the Sea Island Quilters Records collection housed in the BDC. While she was initially "retired," after her theft, Sadie was placed in Morrall Park on Craven Street where she can be seen standing tall amidst the boxwoods and dogwoods that make up the first stretch of the Beaufort Tree Walk. 

It appears that Sadie took the place of another mermaid named "Auntie Bellum" who had mysteriously disappeared from Craven Street circa 2014. Then, in January of 2015, the "Mermaid de Libert" [sic] sculpture went missing from its residency at Logan Park. This statue actually has a Library connection - long-time cataloger Brenda Beasley-Forrest (and a Statue of Liberty aficionado) was the artist who created the statue using stamps, fishnets, and shells. Unfortunately, these two mermaids were not recovered.

Public Art Fund of Hilton Head Island

Now is a good time to take a quick break and discuss one of the big issues of public art: funding. 

Funding for public art, either large-scale projects or one-off pieces, can come from community organizations, sponsorships by local businesses, grants, and more. However, some community governments have established public art ordinances to fund the operations. An anonymous opinion piece from July of 2000 that ran in the Beaufort Gazette raises the issue of funding public art projects and makes the case for doing so through ordinances, something which no city in South Carolina had done at the time but was seen as successful in cities elsewhere. The author states that "good public policy and public art can go hand in hand. The dividends could be a more rewarding cultural scene...." According to an Island Packet article from 2015, there was a short-lived Public Art Commission for the City of Beaufort that was created in 2003, wherein "...1 percent of any capital-project cost would be allocated for public art," but that has since ended. While I could not find a specific public art ordinance on the books for Beaufort County in the present, it does appear that many of the public art projects I touch on from Beaufort did have at least partial funding from county or city government, many through ATAX grants. [Competitive ATAX grant monies are based on the collection of accommodation taxes each year by the county and respective municipalities.] Hilton Head, however, has had an arts funding mechanism for nearly twenty years.

Hilton Head established the Public Art Fund with the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry in 2006, which, according to the program's website, was designed to "...[host] a biennial exhibition, [commission] sculptures and [work] with donors to permanently install large scale sculptures on Hilton Head Island." The Public Art Fund was able to install 11 unique sculptures around the Island by 2020, as well as hosting 4 public art exhibitions over the 14 years it operated. 

I was able to find an article and advertisements for the public art exhibition in the November 2018 issue of Hilton Head Island & Bluffton Local Life magazine we have in our collection. The article details the process of organizing that year's Public Art Exhibition, including the creation of a committee a year in advance, and the selection of the art based on criteria like thematic connection, relation to their mission, and logistics. Similar to prior public art programs in the County, the 2018 Public Art Exhibition would last only through the winter, before all but one of the 20 pieces of art would be sent back. The one remaining piece would be purchased by the Public Art Fund for permanent display in Hilton Head. While the exhibition does have a general theme, there is not a required subject or form like in prior public art projects in Beaufort County, and the artists who created the sculptures are not always local artists; some of the artists are from as far away as California, Illinois, and New York. Much of the art though could be considered abstract or avant-garde.

In 2020, the Office of Cultural Affairs for the Town of Hilton Head, led by Natalie Harvey, took full responsibility for supporting public art on the Island from the Community Foundation after working jointly since 2017. The Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) took this role seriously, including a Public Art Master Plan in their strategic plan for 2022-2024. Their plan includes a 6-point selection criteria for future art along with a statement on their funding source: "Base funding shall be included in the Town general operating budget..." and any additional funds coming from the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry (p.27). Since then, they've added more sculptures to their collection and opened the Shelter Cove Sculpture Trail which features both permanent and temporary works of art for the community to view. Outside of the trial, their sculptures can be found all over the island; the OCA has a map of cultural sites on their website with public art marked in yellow. The OCA has also partnered with the Island Writers Network to launch the Poetry Trail of Hilton Head Island, where some of the Island's sculptures (and other viewscapes) have been paired with poems, readable by scanning a QR code at each location. 

The Lowcountry Oyster Trail's Shell Art Trail

In the summer of 2018, Bluffton artists began making 4-foot tall sculptures of oyster shells, painting or otherwise emblazoning them with images of the Lowcountry's natural environment, nearby businesses, and beyond. This effort was organized by the Lowcountry Oyster Trail to celebrate one of the most important cultural and environmental features of our coast - the mighty little oyster. The Lowcountry Oyster Trail (LOT) was launched in 2017, according to a blog post on their website, and was created to "highlight the region’s famous oysters, and their growing role in the red-hot “sea-to-fork” culinary movement." Inspired by the Virginia Oyster Trail, the creators of LOT wanted to celebrate the quality of oysters in our region and encourage visitors to immerse themselves in our coastal culture through "packages" and other experiences offered by participating local businesses. The LOT Shell Art Trail was formed as part of this mission.

In another blog post titled "heART of the Lowcountry: How Being a Part of the LOT Shell Art Trail Can Bring People, and Business, Right to Your Front Door," LOT encouraged local businesses and community organizations to sponsor a fiberglass oyster sculpture for $670. LOT would then have the oyster decorated by a local artist, then installed in a location near the business to encourage art viewers to stop into the business as well. To encourage participants, a scavenger-hunt style model is used, where the chance to win prizes is offered as an incentive for those who take a photo with each shell sculpture and post it online with their hashtag. In total, 21 oyster sculptures were commissioned and placed in front of a local business or other community buildings and the trail was officially unveiled at the Bluffton Arts and Seafood Festival in October of 2018.

Art Benches

If you were here and able to get out a little bit during the Pandemic, you may have noticed painted benches popping up in Downtown Beaufort in 2020. The Art Benches were created as part of an effort to merge two interests: adding more public seating areas in the city and increasing public interest in local art and cultural history. This is art you can sit on! The project, managed by the City's Cultural District Advisory Board, brought together members of the community in the creation of these art pieces. With the help of local organizations and business sponsoring the project, Lowcountry Habitat for Humanity built the benches while local artists painted them with identifiable Lowcountry motifs. The first round of the project brought twelve benches to the streets of Beaufort in 2020, and the second round added five more in 2022.

On my way into work, I often pass the Art Bench on the corner of Craven and Scott Streets depicting the "Second Founding of America," the Reconstruction era, in Beaufort. Created by Ginger Noah Wareham, the bench depicts a group of men, women and children standing in a tidal creek in front of a background of red and blue stripes, likely rejoicing over their new-found freedom. There are other benches that I see when I am out-and-about too. Linda Silk Sviland painted the facade of a typical hall-and-parlor style house alongside a blueprint layout and bushes of red camellias on a bench which stands at the entrance to the Waterfront Park by the Marina. Reverend Johnnie Smith's bench at Tabernacle Baptist Church depicts places of deep spiritual meaning to Gullah people, including the Tabernacle Church, a river baptism, and a praise house. There's even a Forrest Gump-themed bench in the Arsenal's yard, which shows snippets from the movie along with the iconic quote "Life is like a box of chocolates...." And there are over a dozen more to find around town! 

In 2025, the City's Cultural District Advisory Board began discussions on how the Art Benches could be repaired, as the wind and rain has led to the fading of some of the paint. This may be why, as of late May 2025, the "Second Founding of America" bench is missing from its usual spot, though the informational placard still remains. You can come to the BDC in the meantime to take a look at the newly-created Art Benches vertical file, which includes photos of some of the benches, as well as news articles. I even found an article in one of our original issues of the Lowcountry Weekly which discusses the creation and placement of the Art Benches!

Watermen’s Wave Lowcountry Boot Trail

For those of you who live in Beaufort, you may have seen the most recent Public Art initiative gracing the cover of the Spring 2025 issue of The Beacon, the city's biennial newsletter. Or perhaps you've been to Moe's or the Cypress Wetlands and noticed them - them being the giant, painted fisherman boots. The 11 boots make up the Watermen’s Wave Lowcountry Boot Trail, the product of a partnership between the Beaufort Area Hospitality Association, local artists and businesses. The intent of the project is to celebrate Beaufort's historical ties to the seafood industry, bringing greater attention to artists within our community who decorated the sculptures, while also encouraging tourism and the support of local businesses who sponsored and placed these boots near their businesses.

This recent batch of public art sculptures are a bit different from many prior projects but are indicative of a new style of public art emerging locally: like the Art Benches, they are fully interactive! The intent is for people to not just admire the boots, but to step into them and "wear" them. And like the Shell Art Trail, visitors are encouraged to take a photo and share the art online with their promotional hashtag. Once the visitor has taken and posted a photo with each set of boots, they can return to the Beaufort Visitors Center to receive a prize. 

The boots debuted in January of 2024 during the Beaufort Oyster Festival and can now be found as far north and west as the KOA Holiday Campground off of I-95, east as Hunting Island, and south as Shellring Aleworks, but the largest concentration of them is in Downtown Beaufort. You can often spot tourists wearing the boots while posing for pictures, and Sydney and I recently snapped a picture together in the boots (though we both agreed that it was a bit too unflattering to post here). I even used the "Beaufort" boots as a stop for my niece's Flat Stanley assignment earlier this year, and she and her classmates apparently found the "too big boots" hilarious on her little paper man! The boots have clearly become a well-loved symbol of Beaufort.

You can come to the in-person live presentation of "Moo-fort" at the Beaufort Branch on Monday, July 28 from 5:30 - 6:30 PM. It's free! We do so hope to see you there! - gmc

References:

Angst, M. (2017, November 1). We’re getting a Lowcountry Oyster Trail and here’s what you should know about it. The Island Packet. https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article182027126.html

Arts Council of Beaufort County. (2000). Cows on Vacation [brochure]. Found in SC Vertical File COWS ON VACATION, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Arts Council of Beaufort County. (2000, Spring/Summer). Holy cow: Beaufort hosts a herd of historic heifers April 15 through early July 2000. ArtNews, 4–8. Found in SC Vertical File COWS ON VACATION, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Arts Council of Beaufort County. (2001). Big Pig Gig summer vacation [brochure]. Found in SC Vertical File BIG PIG GIG, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Artworks. (2013, August 7). Big pig gig. Artworks; Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20130807005353/http://www.artworkscincinnati.org/publicart/bigpiggig.shtml

Barnwell, H. S. (2000, June 9). ["Shrimp" email to Beaufort County Library staff]. Found in SC Vertical File COWS ON VACATION, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Beaufort’s Big Swim. (2007, April 21). The Lowcountry Weekly, 11. Found in SC Vertical File BIG SWIM, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Big pig gig. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_Pig_Gig&oldid=1281991263

Boddie, T. M. (2018, July 9). Sure, Lowcountry oysters are delicious. But did you know they’ll soon be works of art? The Island Packet. https://www.islandpacket.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article214556460.html

City of Beaufort. (2025, February 19). Cultural District Advisory Board meeting minutes February 19, 2025 2:00 PM. https://www.cityofbeaufort.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02192025-1826

City of Beaufort. (2025, February 19). [Cultural District Advisory Board agenda for February 19, 2025]. https://www.cityofbeaufort.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02192025-1826

City of Beaufort. (2025, May 21). [Cultural District Advisory Board agenda for May 21, 2025]. https://www.cityofbeaufort.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_05212025-1896

Community Foundation of the Lowcountry. (n.d.). Public art. Community Foundation of the Lowcountry. Retrieved June 6, 2025, from https://cf-lowcountry.org/impact-initiatives/public-art

Community Foundation of the Lowcountry. (n.d.). Public Art on Hilton Head Island collection as of January 2020. https://d33cksekc092z.cloudfront.net/images/Public-Art-Collection-as-of-January-2020.pdf

Dailey, J. (2007, September 13). Beaufort’s mermaids on sale. WTOC11. https://www.wtoc.com/story/7066300/beauforts-mermaids-on-sale

Explore Beaufort. (2022, October 19). New benches around town tell some of Beaufort’s cultural history. Explore Beaufort SC. https://explorebeaufortsc.com/new-benches-around-town-tell-some-of-beauforts-cultural-history/ 

Ferguson, L. (2020, January 25). Looking for a spot to sit, relax in Beaufort? Check out these locally painted benches. The Island Packet. https://www.islandpacket.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article239637138.html

Ford, O. (2001, September 2). Port Royal reunites friends, kin. Beaufort Gazette, 1. Found in SC Vertical File BIG PIG GIG, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Gigante, J. (2000, August 10). “Mini Merci” represents life-size cow reborn as “Backdraft.” Beaufort Gazette, 6A. Found in SC Vertical File COWS ON VACATION, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Hager, T. (2007, May 6). Mermaids splash into Beaufort. Beaufort Gazette, 1–C. Found in SC Vertical File BIG SWIM, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Harley, C. C. (2000, August 6). Outdoor art: Sponsors, artists needed to raise shrimp colony. Beaufort Gazette, 1C. Beaufort Gazette, 6A. Found in SC Vertical File COWS ON VACATION, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Island Writers Network. (2023, March 31). Poetry trail. Island Writers Network. https://islandwritersnetworkhhi.org/home/poetry-trail-hhi/

Lowcountry Oyster Trail. (n.d.). Oyster Shell Art Trail [form]. https://lowcountryoystertrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/LOTOysterShellArtTrailFormvFILLABLE.pdf

Lowcountry Oyster Trail. (n.d.). Shell art trail – a public art display. Lowcountry Oyster Trail. Retrieved June 6, 2025, from https://lowcountryoystertrail.org/shell-art-trail-a-public-art-display/

lucyrosen. (2018, June 18). Heart of the lowcountry: How being a part of the lot shell art trail can bring people, and business, right to your front door. Lowcountry Oyster Trail. https://lowcountryoystertrail.org/2018/06/heart-of-the-lowcountry/

lucyrosen. (2018, October 17). Lowcountry Oyster Trail set for fall launch. Lowcountry Oyster Trail. https://lowcountryoystertrail.org/2017/08/lowcountry-oyster-trail-set-for-fall-launch/

lucyrosen. (2018, October 17). Shell art trail in Bluffton features giant oyster sculptures painted by local artists. Lowcountry Oyster Trail. https://lowcountryoystertrail.org/2018/10/shell-art-trail-in-bluffton/

Males, C. (2018, November). The 2018 public art exhibition: A stroll through Hilton Head Island’s magical open air art gallery. Hilton Head Island & Bluffton Local Life, 2(11), 138–141.

McNab, M. (2015, April 24). The lady vanishes! Mermaid statue missing from Beaufort park. The Island Packet. https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/article33645612.html

Puckett, K. (2021, July 9). Port Royal’s ‘Nightmare Witch’ has disappeared. How the town plans to replace her. The Island Packet. https://amp.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/article252641243.html

Reynolds, J. (2025, March 4). Watermen’s wave Lowcountry boot trail. Beaufort Lifestyle. https://www.beaufortlifestyle.com/2025/03/04/watermens-wave-lowcountry-boot-trail/

Robinson, K. (2021, May 13). New Beaufort benches add flair! South Carolina Lowcountry. https://southcarolinalowcountry.com/beaufort-benches-add-flair/

Smith, K. (2000, June 14). Student public art project successful. Beaufort Gazette, 4A. Beaufort Gazette, 6A. Found in SC Vertical File COWS ON VACATION, Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, SC.

Town of Hilton Head Island Office of Cultural Affairs. (2021). Town of Hilton Head Island Office of Cultural Affairs strategic plan FY22—FY24. https://hiltonheadislandsc.gov/plans/OCAStrategicPlan.pdf

Town of Hilton Head Island Office of Cultural Affairs. (2025, June 6). Hilton Head Island’s public art. Culture HHI. https://culturehhi.org/hilton-head-islands-public-art/

Town of Hilton Head Island Office of Cultural Affairs. (2025, June 6). Public art. Culture HHI. https://culturehhi.org/portfolio/public-art/

Pictorial Annuals & Directories in the Research Room

As regular readers are likely aware by now, the BDC adapted to Library's theme for Summer Reading 2025 as "'Color Our World' with History" - which inspired me to a search for pictorial works related to local history and the BDC's holdings. 

The catalog search that I did for "pictorial works" in the BDC had a bit of a surprise for me. The hit list included a lot of school annuals - which, when I thought a moment or two about it - does indeed make sense. School annuals mostly consist of images of students, teachers, administration, staff, and groups of the above. 

Accordingly, I updated the "School Annuals in the BDC" post first made in 2020 to include the latest school annuals to arrive in the Research Room. 

BTW: We always, always appreciate the opportunity of first refusal when it comes to local school annuals. Perhaps we are gifted a year we do not have. Perhaps we are gifted a cleaner copy of a year we do have. If we cannot add the gift to our holdings, we give the school annual to the Friends of the Beaufort Library. Sometimes, though, due to the mold and water damage apparent when the school annual arrives, we must properly dispose of the donation in order to protect our materials. 

Directories in the BDC are a mixed bag. Some directories are indeed pictorial, while others, such as telephone directories, Polk City Directories for Beaufort and Hilton Head Island, and InfoUSA City or Hill Donnelly Cross Reference directories have few, if any, pictures. We have select news media directories, vacation directories, literary directories, directories of County officials, biographical directories and chamber of commerce and other business directories too. 

Church directories sometimes have portraits of members. For example, the BDC has a copy of the 2009 Directory of St. Peter Catholic Church and Holy Cross Mission that I gave the BDC myself some years ago. I figure that going forward more people will benefit from it being in the Library's special collections and archives unit than within my own descendants. Perhaps you have a local church directory that you could donate too. I know of a recent reference question that was answered by access to the directory of a different local church. Going forward interest in the people and family groups who were photographed for a church's directory will only grow more "historic" with time. 

Just like the school annuals, we appreciate the getting a "first refusal" offer. Reach out if you'd like to discuss the donation process: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468.  As I try to continually emphasize, the BDC is designed for the long haul by accepting contemporary materials now that future generations will be delighted to have access to in 2050 or 2125. 

Local Artists "Color Our World" in the BDC Research Room

As Conscious Magazine states: "While the life of an artist is mostly one of solitude, their work is for others." There are many artists in Beaufort District's past and Beaufort County's present who help "Color Our World." 

I would wager that Jonathan Green is Beaufort County's most recognized working artist today. You can see his influence in the work of many others, too. Read more about this Beaufort County native painter, printmaker, and book illustrator in the South Carolina Encyclopedia. His work is well represented in the holdings of the Library. He's made something of a side career illustrating the books of others. 

For example, a re-issued children’s book Freedom Ship of Robert Smalls by Louise Meriwether (1971, 2018) contains his wonderfully vibrant paintings about one of the most important persons in Beaufort’s long and storied past. He was the illustrator of these books as well: Father and Son by Denize; Crosby by Patricia Lee Gauch; Amadeus, the Leghorn Rooster by Delores B. Nevils; and Gullah Cuisine: By Land and Sea by Charlotte Jenkins. 

The award-winning but publicity-shy Aldwyth of Hilton Head Island creates collages and assemblages. You can see examples of her work in a book we have in the Research Room Aldwyth work v./work n. (2009). We have a small vertical file about her work and career too.

Capturing Life: The Art of Jack Williamson includes plates of his paintings from 1947 to 2002. After a career in business, he retired to Hilton Head Island around 1990. He includes many scenes from the local area.

Sam Doyle (1906 - 1985) was born and lived his entire life on St. Helena Island. He used cast-off materials at hand, like house paint, softened plywood and roofing tin, to paint his colorful and vibrant vision of Gullah life on the Sea Islands. The greater folk-art world discovered his work in 1982. See our BDCBCL: Links, Lists & Finding Aids WordPress blog for more information about this important folk artist. This year Cassandra processed the Elizabeth Caldwell Collection of Sam Doyle Materials in which you can hear him sing "The Hurricane of 1893." She made a service digital file from the cassette tape (remember those?) so that those with appointments can listen. 

Ten percent of the watercolors in A Charleston Sketchbook, 1796-1806 by Charles Fraser (1782-1860) are of sites in Prince William's Parish, Beaufort District. His elder brother, Capt. Frederick Fraser owned the Fraser's Place Plantation near Old Sheldon Church. Odds are he painted some of the included images during a visit to his brother. 

Art in South Carolina, 1670-1970 compiled and edited by Francis W. Bilodeau and Mrs. Thomas J. Tobias with E. Milby Burton (Columbia: South Carolina Tricentennial Commission, 1970) has Jacque Le Moyne's "Rene de Laudonniere and the Indian Chief Athone visits Ribaut's Column" (1564) gracing the cover. Sections are arranged chronologically and each is prefaced with an introduction about the art and artists featured.

Local artist Nancy Ricker Rhett's family ties to Beaufort District go back many generations. In addition to running a gallery on Bay Street in downtown Beaufort, she has illustrated a number of books housed in our Research Room including Pierre McGowan's two books The Gullah Mailman and Tales of the Barrier Islands of Beaufort County, South Carolina. 

 

Diligent research into identifying the artist of one of the most famous paintings of the enslaved led Susan Shames to some ground-breaking conclusions. Read more about John Rose of Beaufort District and his "The Old Plantation" painting. Better yet? Borrow her book and marvel at how Shames figured out which John Rose was the painter. 

Gullah Woodburning Folk Art by Rev. Johnnie F. Simmons [2018], is a delightfully colorful little book (literally little, the book measures 5 inches by 4 inches) of his wood-burned depictions of Gullah culture and life on St. Helena Island. This book is so special that both copies in SCLENDS are held in special collections at the Beaufort County Library.

Called "one of Beaufort's gifted sons whom she has lent to the outer world", James Reeve Stuart (1834-1915) had a long career as a portrait painter and artist. Read more about his life and work in our WordPress blog.

(Beaufort District Collection Archives)

We have other visual art related materials to "Color Our World" in addition to books. For example, we have a number of vertical files on some specific local artists, on local artists in general, and some public art installations from the recent past such as the COWS ON VACATION and the BIG PIG GIG. There are other relevant vertical file materials about ARTISTS, FOLK ARTISTS, GULLAH CULTURE--ART/ARTISTS, ARTS AND CULTURAL COUNCIL OF HILTON HEAD and ARTS COUNCIL OF BEAUFORT COUNTY among others. 

We have a number of mid-19th century illustrated newspaper prints - some of which are hand-colored. We also have some Crosscup & West sketches of Beaufort in the late 19th century and some mid-20th century prints by George F. Bauman to share inside the Research Room. One of my personal favorite prints is the "Battle of Coosawhatchie" - probably because my late husband and I own a small bit of that battlefield in Jasper County.

Our poster collection includes ones promoting local art exhibitions with a concentration on those from the very late 20th century to the present day. We have more than 200 posters so far and are adding to the quantity virtually every month.  

Postcards can "Color Our World" too.  The BDC takes care of several thousand postcards in our archives. One can review our postcard collections in person with an appointment. But former BDC assistant Ashley Sylva worked very hard to scan and prepare metadata for the Russell J. Arnsberger Postcard Collection so that you can see all of its contents online through our long partnership with the Lowcountry Digital Library.

We "Color Our World" with archival collections as well. 

The Beaufort Art Association (1957-    ) donated its papers to the Beaufort District Collection in March 2019. The collection has twelve scrapbooks, two guest books, two binders, ninety-three posters, newspaper clippings, association records, photographs, negatives, exhibit brochures (1976-2013), newsletters (1995-2011) and other miscellaneous material. 

Mrs. Thomas Murray (nee Harriot Despaud) was better known as "Madame Murray". She was the mother of Ellen Murray who taught at Penn School and lived on St. Helena Island with her friend Laura Towne. Madame Murray created these sketches in 1863 while on a visit south to see her daughter.  The Madame Murray Sketches Collection contains reproductions of fifteen of her drawings. 

(Murray Sketches, reproduction, Beaufort District Collection)

The Susan Wales Journal, 1887 - 1895 is a charming daily record of her time abroad in Europe. Most pages contain a small sketch or painting of people, places, things she encountered that day.  One of our beloved and dedicated volunteers, Laura Lewis did almost all of the work necessary to get this journal online for your enjoyment and research. 

Beaufort Chronicles Portfolio was a partnership project between the USCB Art Department and the Beaufort Three-Century Project.  The partnership employed a semester-long course to create a limited edition fine art portfolio of 16 original prints based on Beaufort’s history. The exhibition opening was held in conjunction with the January 17, 2010 Anniversary Event with an estimated 1,000 people viewing the project during the month-long exhibition in the USCB Gallery as it was also in situ during three of the 2010 Tricentennial Lecture Series events. One of the limited edition portfolios is in the project archive for the Beaufort Three-Century Project.

Before I end this post, I'd like to remind you that many of our Branch Libraries contain art that was donated to or purchased by the Library Board of Trustees through the years. Be sure to keep your eyes open when you visit one of our locations because, truly, art does "Color Our World" in Beaufort County Library. 

Note: It's always a good idea to set up an appointment before showing up at our door because sometimes we have a prior obligation or are working with someone who has an appointment already. Give us a call: 843-255-6468 or email us: bdc@bcgov.net to set up a date and time to review our materials.

Arsenic in Old Books: Arsenic Green and Lead Chromate Yellow by Cassandra Knoppel

Thank goodness Cassandra came back as the BDC's full-time Library specialist in January 2024. Since then, we've been working on ticking off some of my "hope to do before retirement checklist" items. Back in October 2022, I made a post on the BDC's Facebook page about the "Poisoned Book Project" at Winterthur Library. Even though the project sounds more like a murder mystery title than a preservation issue, it added this to my pre-retirement to do list: "Eyeball the clothbound books in the BDC for green 19th century bindings. If found, devise a preservation and safety handling plan."  And thus was born the roots of Cassi's latest blog post in honor of the Summer Reading Programs 2025 theme of "Color our World." The post goes beyond Arsenic Green books to include lead chromate or chrome yellow books, too. Enjoy! -- gmc

Sidewall (possibly France); paper with applied ground color, unprinted; 25.5 x 22 cm (10 1/16 x 8 11/16 in.); Gift of Grace Lincoln Temple; 1942-19-16. From the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

If you've ever seen Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb's documentary, "Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home," you'd know that our ancestors were exposed to a medley of toxic materials and products while going about their day-to-day lives - things that we now steer far clear of. One of the most popular substances was arsenic. Arsenic could be found in its usual, expected applications, like in rat poison, as well as in other, more dangerous everyday places like paints, clothing, and sometimes even food. That's because arsenic was being used to create beautiful, vibrant emerald greens that outshined other pigments on the market. Manufactured pigments like Scheele's and Paris Green became widespread in Europe, the UK, and the US and were used in house paint, textile dyes, wallpapers, and occasionally as food dyes, with little care to the serious threat these colors posed to human's health. In the world of libraries and archives, we are extra cautious of green books from the mid-1800s, as these may contain arsenic green pigments. Here at the BDC, we wanted to take a closer look at arsenic green as part of BCL's "Color Our World" Summer Reading Program, examining the ways this deadly color relates to our collection both as a pesticide and as a pigment!

 According to the reports Historic arsenical pesticide research (2004) and Poisonous Metals on sprayed fruits and vegetables (1922), arsenic became a common pesticide in the US after its first use in the 1860s, when Paris Green was applied to crops in Mississippi to kill the potato beetle. Paris Green was also used as a spray for fruit trees and vegetable plants beginning sometime in the 1880s. Soon after this application began, the potential health effects were studied to determine if trace amounts of arsenic at harmful levels could be found on the fruit of the plants. In the early studies, little if any traces of arsenic were found, and greater issue was taken with the risk of chemical burns damaging the plants. In 1903, an experiment was carried out at 10 different locations in the US, including one at Clemson College in South Carolina, to determine the best recipe for Paris Green to prevent chemical burns on the plants. During the course of this experiment, fruit trees, including apples, peaches, and plums at Clemson, were sprayed with Paris Green with and without the addition of lime. From this study, the ideal ratios of Paris Green to lime and water for each tested fruit plant to prevent chemical burns were determined. For peach trees, a lower percentage of Paris Green (compared to the other fruits) with lime should be used.

Macdonald, Wilkins & Co. advertisement for insecticides, including Paris Green. From the May 12, 1938 issue of the Beaufort Gazette, available on microfilm in the BDC.

More locally, I was able to find an advertisement in the Beaufort Gazette from 1938 listing the "necessary insecticides" available at a popular general store in town, Macdonald, Wilkins & Co. Included in the list is Paris Green, along with other varieties of arsenic and lime dust. While I could not find exactly when this use started and stopped in Beaufort, nor what the recipe was for preparing the spray, it is likely that farmers in Beaufort used Paris Green to prevent pests from eating away at their hard-grown crops.

Paris Green was also applied more broadly across swathes of land and water as an insecticide, particularly for mosquito control in the early to mid-1900s. In the 1920s, Paris Green was tested in salt marshes of Mississippi for effectiveness in eradicating mosquito larva, with the hope that it could be used in other Southern marshes. The scientists mixed Paris Green with sand and scattered it along the surface of small bodies of water containing mosquito larva, coming back later to count the number of larvae still alive. The scientists found that the arsenic was effective at killing the larva. Also, the sand mixed with the Paris Green would sink to the bottom of the body of water, and when tested later would often still have arsenic bonded to it. This allowed the arsenic to be more effective for a longer period of time in comparison with Paris Green just dusted along the surface of the water. I could not find specific information to confirm that Paris Green was used in salt marshes locally but, given that the use of Paris Green to kill mosquito larva in standing water continued through World War II throughout the US and abroad, it is very possible. More research would be needed to confirm if and where Paris Green was used for mosquito-control purposes in the Lowcountry.

Dust Paris green on swamps and ponds; circa 1941–1945. From Record Group 44: Records of the Office of Government Reports, World War II Posters series, National Archives and Records Administration.

Paris Green and Scheele's Green were also used as pigments, as they created a bright and beautiful emerald shade. According to an article on arsenic dyes by Lidia Plaza, arsenic pigments were much easier to work with and more long-lasting than other green pigments on the market at the time, thus leading to their more common use despite concerns over negative health impacts. As long as the "dose" was low, the Victorians believed that the poisonous substance would not cause any damage to their health, so dresses were dyed in arsenic green, wallpaper was made with arsenic green pigments, and even book cloths for the covers of popular novels were coated in arsenic green. 

However, concerns about the safety of arsenic green began to grow. In 1874, a book entitled Shadows from the walls of death by R.C. Kedzie of the Michigan State Board of Health was published which condemned the use of arsenical wallpapers and included more than a hundred samples of such poisonous wall coverings. Kedzie found and documented in his book cases of children growing ill in rooms with arsenic green wallpaper, where the pigment slowly dislodged and turned into dust which was breathed in by the children. Removal of the wallpaper cured the children of their sickness, and Kedzie set about promoting the removal of all arsenic wallpapers for the safety of families. Per an Atlas Obscura article, Kedzie sent copies of this book to public libraries throughout Michigan in an effort to educate and warn the public to the dangers of arsenic green wallpapers. Kedzie's book is now one of many which contain arsenic green.

Archivists are more familiar with this application of arsenic green, as a pigment, as it can now be found in historic materials like books, prints, and even wallpaper samples (thanks to Kedzie's Shadows...) that we may carry in our collections. As I said, arsenic green's emerald hue was a popular color, so it was applied to book covers or painted in illustrated editions somewhat frequently during the mid-to-late 1800s. The issue of arsenic-laced books was brought to the attention of archival professionals thanks to the recent efforts of the University of Delaware's Poison Book Project. 

In an article written on the Poison Book Project, UD professor and conservator Melissa Tedone said that the project began when she recognized the shade of arsenic green wallpaper as being the same shade of green as a book cover in her lab. Working with her fellow colleagues, including some with the UD's College of Agriculture, she confirmed her suspicions that the book cover contained arsenic through lab testing, and proceeded to test more books in their collection that were bedecked in the same emerald color. Through doing this work, Tedone and her colleagues have created a database of arsenical books and a website which explains their work and the identification process to other archival professionals.

A selection of green books from the BDC Stacks

I decided it would be fun (and somewhat necessary) to follow their Do You Have a Poison Book? Flowchart with a few 19th century green books from the BDC's collection. I checked 8 titles from our stacks: A Son of the Carolinas (1898), John Paget (1893), John Bachman, Letters and Memories of His Life (1888), The Confederate States (1887), The Great South (1875), Southern Poems of the War (1867), Gardening for the South (1868), and Carolina Sports (1859). The first five books were easy to determine the status of - while they were green and covered in cloth, they were published after the 1860s and therefore "likely not arsenical." That was a relief, as one was a bright green and others had gold lettering, which are considered trademarks of arsenical books. The last three took an extra step to ascertain their status. Each of them were published between the 1840s and 1860s, so it came down to evaluating based on color. The Poison Book Project offers a helpful bookmark for determining if the color of your book is close to the arsenical book shade, which we have since ordered but did not have at the time. Instead, I made the best determination I could and deemed that each book was too dark. Therefore, these books are also likely not to be arsenical, but we will recheck once the bookmark arrives!

The Poison Book Project's 
Do You Have a Poison Book? Flowchart 

That seemed all well and good - I could finally take a deep breath without fear of breathing in arsenic dust! - until I paid closer attention to the right-side of the Flowchart. Answering "No" to the question "Is your book green?" led to a lengthy answer cautioning that, while your book likely was not arsenical, many books from the 19th century, no matter the color, contained the less-poisonous-but-still-toxic lead chromate. Lead chromate (AKA chrome yellow pigment) was often used to tint book cloths a bright, golden yellow or combined with other pigments (like arsenic green) to create a variety of shades of green, red, blue, and more. The Poison Book Project even stated that "Nearly 50% of the nineteenth-century (1800s), cloth-case bindings analyzed for the project to date contain lead in the bookcloth, regardless of color."

Yikes. 

So, what's the remedy? Thankfully, chrome yellow does not decay in the same way as arsenic green, so current testing by the Poison Book Project has shown that it is unlikely to transfer to users through handling. However, out of an abundance of caution, the BDC will be limiting the handling of our 19th century books and encourage patrons who do handle the materials to take extra caution not to ingest anything from the book covers, following the University of Delaware's Poison Book Project handling tips and the steps the University of Illinois has taken. If digital versions of the books in question are available online via Archive.org or Hathitrust, we will use those editions as access copies instead of the physical versions. We are also looking into the option of placing the books in additional protective covers or boxing the items entirely separately. In the interim, we have flagged the titles I identified in this exercise with special cautionary bookmarks, and plan to go through our inventory and add them to other books from the 19th century. This is a new issue in the field of archives and preservation, and we will react accordingly as more research comes out.

References:

Environmental Protection Division Denver Department of Environmental Health. (2004). Historic arsenical pesticide research. https://semspub.epa.gov/work/05/259803.pdf

Everhart, M. M. F. (2022, June 15). Arsenic and old books. UDaily. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2022/june/poison-books-arsenic-bindings-covers-pigments-dyes/

Griffitts, T. (1927). Moist sand method of applying Paris Green for destruction of subsurface-feeding mosquito larvae. Public Health Reports (1896-1970), 42(44), 2701–2705. https://doi.org/10.2307/4578557 

Kedzie, R. C. (1874). Shadows from the walls of death. Lansing: W. S. George. https://archive.org/details/0234555.nlm.nih.gov/mode/2up

Lynch, W. D., Haywood, J. K., McDonnell, C. C., Quaintance, A. L. & Waite, M. B. (1922) Poisonous Metals on sprayed fruits and vegetables. Washington, Govt. print. off. [PDF] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/agr22000469/.

Paris green. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paris_green&oldid=1296470961

Plaza, L. (2015, August 17). An update on arsenic green: When the world was dying for color. Maryland Center for History and Culture. https://www.mdhistory.org/an-update-on-arsenic-green-when-the-world-was-dying-for-color/

Poison Book Project. (n.d.). Chrome yellow bookcloth. Poison Book Project. Retrieved July 1, 2025, from https://sites.udel.edu/poisonbookproject/chrome-yellow-bookcloth/

Poison Book Project. (n.d.). Safer handling & storage tips. Poison Book Project. Retrieved July 1, 2025, from https://sites.udel.edu/poisonbookproject/handling-and-safety-tips/

Scheele’s green. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scheele%27s_green&oldid=1284507043

University of Illinois Library. (n.d.). Heavy metals in book cloth – Preservation services. University of Illinois Library. Retrieved July 1, 2025, from https://www.library.illinois.edu/preservation/heavy-metals-in-book-cloth/

Zawacki, A. J. (2018, January 23). How a library handles a rare and deadly book of wallpaper samples. Atlas Obscura. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/shadows-from-the-walls-of-death-book