BDC's Posts to Facebook in February 2026

February 1 - Monthly Overview for February

February 2 - "Independence (Mon)Day:" February 3, 1779 was a Red Letter Local History Day for Beaufort District and in the American Revolution. Two Signers of the Declaration of Independence fought to defeat the British on that date near the present-day USMC Air Station. I recently updated the Connections post about the battle for you to learn more.

February 3 - In honor of National Women Physician's Day, today we highlight the contributions of Esther Hill Hawks who journeyed South to minister to black Union troops and newly freed slaves both as a teacher and a doctor during the Civil War. She worked in Beaufort District several times between 1862 and 1866. She kept a diary that describes her experiences and impressions. Check one out and/or visit the BDC to read both her diary and the contents of our vertical file: HAWKS, ESTHER HILL, 1833- 1906. We can be reached by email bdc@bcgov.net; or telephone 843-255-6468 during regular business hours. (BTW: This would make both a quick and interesting read for the system's Winter Reading program, too.

February 4 - "Black History Note:" The theme for Black History Month 2026 is "A Century of Black History Commemorations" so I will highlight some of the celebrations of African American history and culture from the Civil War era onwards this month.

I wrote about Emancipation Day, 1863 which is still commemorated in the "Watch Night" tradition back on December 31. Another carryover from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras is "Decoration Day."

Because of Beaufort District’s unique Civil War history, it had three Grand Army of the Republic posts for Union veterans and one official auxiliary for women. The Woman’s Relief Corps (WRC) provided critical support for veterans, their families, and organized the annual Decoration Day festivities from its founding to well into the early 20th century. The Beaufort WRC was one of the few African-American units in the country. The local WRC re-organized as the Fred Washington, Sr. Woman's Relief Corps No. 1 on July 26, 1998. The group, though small in number, still contributes to local veterans related activities and community events.

You can learn more about:

*The local WRC in As We Remember: A History of the Woman's Relief Corps in Beaufort, SC by Najmah Thomas - available inside our Research Room or as an audio book on Hoopla.

* The history of Decoration Day and the commemoration of the Civil War dead in Connections.

* The clippings we have compiled about Decoration Day festivities of the past through a review of the BDC's vertical file on the topic.

February 5 - We recommend for your winter reading: Beaufort, South Carolina: Pages from the Past by Gerhard Spieler (2008).

“History abounds in ironic contradictions, and the history of the Carolina Lowcountry is no exception.”

Pages from the Past is a collection of articles written by historian and author, Gerhard Spieler, who spent more than forty years of his life furthering his knowledge of Beaufort’s long and rich history. From the Dukes of Beaufort to individual properties along Bay Street, Spieler covers every era in conjunction with various drawings, maps, and photographs of all different people, places, and aspects of Beaufort. For anyone wanting to learn more about Beaufort’s past and what exactly “Beaufort Style” is, this title is a wonderful introduction that covers all of the important details.

February 6 - "Finding Aid Friday:" Geneva Betties donated her personal collection of late 20th and early 21st century funeral flyers for African Americans in Northern Beaufort County. These flyers and programs include photographs of the deceased, obituaries, and information on the funeral services for the deceased. You can email us bdc@bcgov.net or call us at 843-255-6468 for us to check the index in our Research Room for the funeral program of your departed loved one.

February 9 - "Independence (Mon)Day:" Among those fighting in the Battle of Beaufort, 1779 was a free man of color, Jim Capers. He would stay with the Patriots all the way to Yorktown. Artist Jeff Trexler depicts him playing his drum on the battlefield in his painting "In the Glorious Cause of Liberty." Capers would drum during the ceremony at which British Gen. Charles O'Hara surrendered in place of Lord Cornwallis. The Siege of Yorktown (September 28, 1781 – October 19, 1781) was the final major land engagement of the War for Independence involving Patriot, British, and French combatants. You can read more about Jim Capers and other African-American Patriots in the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution by Bobby G. Moss and Michael C. Scoggins (2004) in our Research Room.

In 2021, archaeologist Daniel Battle gave us the beautiful Trexler art print, framed by Dennis Ford, that hangs in our Research Room.

February 10 - 10 AM - Please note: We've got a new date for "A Party Divided!" Join us on May 14 at Beaufort Branch to learn from NPS Historian Eric Ellis about how the local Republican party was affected by internecine struggles during Reconstruction.

6 PM - Our wonderful tour of the Beaufort National Cemetery with Lead Guide Bonnie Wade-Mucia on Saturday was well attended. Sydney's posted some of the photos in the "Beaufort National Cemetery Tour" file for you to see. She's updated the "Glimpses" programs flyer too. Next up (due to the postponement of "A Party Divided" until May) is Dr. Mollie Barnes and her presentation about Susie King Taylor and Elizabeth Botume.

February 11 - "Black History Note:" The most visible celebration of Gullah culture is Penn Center's Heritage Days. It was Executive Director Emory Campbell's idea to reinstitute the "Harvest Days" of Penn School's past in 1981 as a way to promote the West African roots of Gullah culture. Held in November of most years, the festival was cancelled in 1998 and 1999 and again during the COVID pandemic. This 2025 festival included a parade re-routing that caused friction between the Sheriff's Office and the Penn Center community and supporters. The BDC's vertical file "FESTIVALS- HERITAGE DAYS, 1981 - " contains clippings, brochures, and flyers about many of the annual celebrations.

February 12 - For your Winter Reading, the BDC recommends... Blue Roots: African-American Folk Magic of the Gullah People by Roger Pinckney. Enclosed in this short book “are stories of haunts, hags, the dreaded spirit called the plateye, root doctors, spells, and hexes, as they were told by people who loved me...,” according to Roger Pinckney. Pinckney was raised in mid-century Beaufort as the grandson of the much-respected local journalist Chlotilde Martin, and encountered many local legends, both fictional and physical, throughout the course of his long life.

In Blue Roots, Pinckney writes at length about Sea Island root work and the most famous local "Doctors” who practiced it. He also gives context for these folk tales and traditions, detailing the dark history of slavery that brought African spirituality and medicine to the Lowcountry and forced it, and its people, to adapt to the coast. If this discussion of supernatural forces and cultural history is of interest to you, you can check out a copy of Blue Roots from a BCL Local History section near you!

February 13 - 10 AM - "Finding Aid Friday:" A very happy birthday to the Beaufort County Historical Society - 87 years old today and still going strong. On February 13, 1939 Mrs. Howard Danner, Mrs. Etta C. Foster, Mrs. P. Theus, Miss Mabel Runnette, Mrs. Chlotilde Martin, J.F. Morrall, Major Geo. H. Osterhout, and W.E. Nelson met for the purpose of organizing a Historical Society in Beaufort, S.C. The BDC is privileged to care for their records.

4:50 PM Reminder: The BDC will be closed on Monday to observe Presidents' Day. We'll be back on Tuesday to tell you who was the first President to visit Beaufort District.

February 14 - 10 AM - Excerpts from letters of love from Mae Onthank of Seabrook, SC to her fiancée, Billy MacLeod as found in our archives:

* July 18, 1914 - Darling I love you to death - Crazy 'bout you - Your Maezie

* October 20, 1914 - Dearest Boy: ... You know I love you too much and I think you were made for me and I had never thought that the war would make any difference with our marrying each other. Write and tell me about it. Do you really think it will? I hope and pray it will be best for us to get married in June.

The Finding Aid to the Onthank Letters is on our BDCBCL blog.

6 PM - We got some love from our customers [in this Library Lovers' Month].

February 16 - In honor of Presidents Day, read about POTUS #5's visit to Beaufort in 1819. (All units of the Library system will be re-open Tuesday, February 17.)

February 17 - And the short answer is ... Our nation's first president under the US Constitution, George Washington, visited Beaufort District as part of his Southern Tour in May 1791. For more about the Presidents who have dropped by, see Connections, the BDC's blog since 2008.

February 18 - "Black History Note:" The Gullah Festival held in May around Memorial Day was incorporated in 1987. The Deloris Brazel Nevils Collection contains a copy of the 1987 Articles of Incorporation for the Gullah Festival and a roster of board members and technical advisors for the 1988 Gullah Festival. Contact us if you'd like to see the archival collection or the BDC's vertical file about the Gullah Festival: 843-255-6468; bdc@bcgov.net.

February 19 - You still have time to read our final recommendation for you to participate in the Library system's Winter Reading Program (which ends at closing tomorrow). Sydney recommends: Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls by Rob Edwards, 2025.

“We were almost there... We were racing Relyea. Fighting the current. And trying to outrun the sun.”

One of our newest titles just so happens to be one of our most interesting titles (in my opinion, of course.) Author Rob Edwards along with artists and designers from Legion M Entertainment and Stranger Comics all joined forces to create this new perspective of the legendary story of Robert Smalls. Defiant follows Smalls as he begins to tell his life story to his grandson. From being born into slavery to becoming a war hero by commandeering The Planter, this first volume covers just the beginning of Smalls’ inspirational story.

February 20 - In memory of Robert Duvall (Grace's favorite actor), we feature the Paul Siegmund Collection that documents the World Premiere of Pat Conroy’s the Great Santini movie held at the Beaufort Plaza Twin Theatres on 19 October 1979. As some of you know, Robert Duvall played Bull Meechum in the film. What you may not know is that the BDC is physically located in the Paul Siegmund Room named in memory for his service as the first President of the Friends of the Beaufort Library.

February 21 - Looking ahead: The BDC is involved with our sister cultural heritage organizations and USCB. For example, we'll be tabling and on a panel at the ISRE's 4th Annual Symposium, March 20 -21. Be sure to drop by to learn what the Library's special collection has to share about this year's topic: "Securing the Economic Foundations of Citizenship." A few weeks later, we're giving Dr. James Shinn's students a behind-the-scenes tour geared to their Spring project topics.

February 23 - Independence (Mon)Day - If the section about the Revolutionary War in Historic Beaufort County: An Illustrated History by Michael C. Taylor was too short for you and the 4 chapters I recommended from volume 1 of the History of Beaufort County, South Carolina by Drs. Rowland, Moore, and Rogers were too long for you, perhaps The Carolina Lowcountry, April 1775 - June 1776 and the Battle of Fort Moultrie by Terry W. Lipscomb, 2nd ed., 1994 might be the perfect amount of pages (54) and illustrations (21) for you to learn more about the early days of the Revolution. You can read the booklet in the BDC, borrow a copy from one of the local history sections at our branches or you can download a copy from the South Carolina State Library Digital Collections website.

February 24 - The new website means that our Online Obituary Index's address has changed as has the appearance of the search screen and results page. The URL to access the OOI search screen is now https://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/research-and-services/local-history/online-obituary-index.

If you input the Month as "February" and the Day as "24," you'll get 132 hits. Then you can "Download Data" to get a spreadsheet of all the people in our index whose obituary notices were published on February 24th from issues of local newspapers across the years 1882 - 1999. Please note: The date refers to the publication of the obituary, not the date of death of the deceased person. The actual obituaries are in the BDC Research Room card files or on the microfilm inside the Research Room. Contact us if you have any questions: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468.

February 25 - "Black History Note:" The current Hilton Head Island Gullah Celebration evolved from the first annual Native Islander Gullah Celebration of February 1-22, 1997. The program's tagline was "Economic Development Through Cultural Enlightenment" and featured art exhibits, a business symposium, arts & crafts, a food expo, a golf scholarship tournament at Palmetto Dunes, and performances by Verta Mae Grosvenor, Ron & Natalie Daise whose "Gullah, Gullah Island" was a hit on the cable TV station Nickelodeon, and musicians performing in the Jazz Festival. How do I know this? Because our FESTIVALS- NATIVE ISLAND FESTIVAL just so happens to contain an original program brochure from 1997. Want to see it? Reach out to us: 843-255-6468; bdc@bcgov.net.

February 26 - 111 years ago today, all of Beaufort attended Robert Smalls' funeral at the First African Baptist Church , 601 New Street, according to newspaper reports.

Five Black ministers eulogized Smalls. The choir sang "Shall We Meet Beyond the River" as people paid their respects at the last viewing of the body. With the music of the Allen's Brass Band leading the cortege, members of Masonic Lodge, Sons of Beaufort, No. 36 and the Odd Fellows Lodge No. 2211 carried the body through the streets to the Tabernacle Baptist Churchyard where Smalls was laid to rest with "a most impressive Masonic ceremony.... The funeral was the largest ever held in this city." Floral arrangements were numerous but those sent by the City Council and the Grand Army of the Republic were praised in particular. His survivors were listed as daughters Elizabeth Smalls Bampfield of Beaufort and Sarah Smalls Washington of Orangeburg and a son, W. Robert Smalls of Austin, Texas and several grandchildren.

February 27 - "Finding Aid Friday:" Conrad Munro Donner (1844-1916), a German immigrant to Beaufort, SC, documented scenes from his daily life as a phosphate mining engineer, and later farmer on Hall's Island, during the turn of the 20th century. The collection includes 548 images (also available digitally through the Lowcountry Digital Library) and supplemental research materials related to the Donner family.

Many of the images include photographs of African Americans associated with the Donner Brothers. Link to the Finding Aid ; Link to the Digital Collection hosted for us by the LCDL

February 28 - Pencil this into your calendar: The Inaugural "Pen & Palmetto" writers' event at Bluffton Branch is drawing nigh. Please help us kick off this new literary event by attending!

March 2026 Research Room Display Case: "Leading the Change" by Sydney Whiteside

Happy March and happy Women’s History Month! For the year 2026, the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA) has chosen the following theme, “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.” This theme honors the women who have and are reimagining and rebuilding systems to ensure long-term sustainability, particularly in the following areas: environmental, economic, educational, and societal. It recognizes the powerful leadership of women in creating a future that is rooted in equity, justice, and opportunity for all.

Susie King Taylor 

A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, Late 1st South Carolina Volunteers by Susie King Taylor, 1988. 

Susie King Taylor was an American heroine who served her country as an educator and a nurse for the 33rd United States Colored Troops within the Union Army. She was born in 1848 into slavery in Georgia and freed at the age of fourteen. The state forbid the education of young African Americans, but she secretly attended two schools taught by Black women where she was taught how to read. These skills were later used to teach regiment members and freedmen in Beaufort how to read. She also aided the ill and wounded who were being treated in the Contraband hospitals of Beaufort. Years later, Taylor journeyed North and went on to become the only African American woman to write and publish a memoir about her experiences throughout the Civil War. The BDC has printed copies of her memoirs in two forms: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp, 1968 and A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs, edited by Patricia W. Romero with a new introduction by Willie Lee Rose, 1988 (in display case). 

Abbie Holmes Christensen 

Cultivating a New South: Abbie Holmes Christensen and the Politics of Race and Gender, 1852-1938 by Monica Maria Tetzlaff, 2002. 

Abbie Holmes Christensen was born in 1852 in Massachusetts to family who fought for abolition. The family soon moved to South Carolina and at only twelve years old, Abbie was given certification from the National Freedman’s Relief Association to teach freed people in Beaufort. Beginning with Sunday School, she continued to teach in Beaufort County, having class sizes as large as thirty children. She was a vocal abolitionist and women's suffragist; both of which motivated her to become a founding member of the South Carolina Equal Rights Association to fight for the freedom of Black and female South Carolinians. The BDC has a Christensen family photo album, Great2 Grandmother Abbie M. Holmes Christensen's Family Photo Album, 1938, and a Christensen Family vertical file. For a full list of resources, please visit Abbie Holmes Christensen, 1852- 1938: A List of Materials & Links.  

League of Women Voters of Northern Beaufort 

An important archival collection in the Beaufort District Collection is the League of Women Voters of Northern Beaufort County Records, 1973-2007. The League of Women Voters was founded in 1920 as a nonpartisan, grassroot activist organization with the purpose of embracing and shepherding women’s power in American democracy. The organization encouraged the education and involvement of all men and women in all levels of government. Voter registration, environmental issues, and women’s health were also important focus points of the organization. To learn more about the history of The League of Women Voters and see what their archival collection in the BDC consists of, please refer to the finding aid: League of Women Voters of Northern Beaufort County Records, 1973-2007 Finding Aid. We would be happy to set up an appointment for you to review the records in person: 843-255-6468; bdc@bcgov.net. 

Charlotte Forten Grimké 

I, Charlotte Forten, Black and Free by Polly Longsworth, 1970. 

The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimké edited by Brenda Stevenson, 1988. 

Charlotte Forten Grimké was born in 1837 to a free Black family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She became a member of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society and was an extremely vocal abolitionist, activist, and poet. She attended the Salem Normal School to further her education to become a teacher. When requests were sent for northern missionaries to participate in the Port Royal experiment to help educate formerly enslaved people, Forten volunteered. She arrived in the fall of 1862 to join the staff at the Penn School and continued to teach in the area until 1864 when she returned North due to her declining health. In 1878 she married the nephew of Sarah Grimké and Angelina Grimké Weld. She passed away in 1915. The BDC has quite a few materials on Charlotte Forten Grimké as well as other members of her family. For a full list of materials, please visit Charlotte Forten Grimké, 1837 – 1914: A List of Selected Links & Materials.  

Laura M. Towne 

The Letters & Diary of Laura M. Towne: Reconstruction Era Edition by Laura M. Towne, 2019. 

Laura Matilda Towne was born in 1825 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1862, Towne was asked to assist in the Port Royal Experiment by helping newly freed people adjust to their new circumstances. With a passion for teaching and homeopathy, she aided those in need through natural remedies and decided to open the Penn School with her friend and fellow teacher Ellen Murray. It became one of the first institutions created solely to educate newly freed people. She spent the rest of her life on the Sea Islands dedicating her time to aiding and teaching the African American Gullah community. There are many materials related to Laura Towne within the BDC; for a full list of materials, please visit Laura Matilda Towne, 1825 – 1901: A List of Selected Materials & Links.

Missionary Teachers to the Freedmen

The Port Royal Experiment was a Civil War initiative in which formerly enslaved individuals of the Sea Islands would be given any necessary aid in order to ease the transition to freedom. Susie King Taylor, Abbie Holmes Christensen, Charlotte Forten Grimké, Ellen Murray and Laura Towne were all missionary teachers to the Freedmen. There were many more women and men associated with the American Missionary Association, Educational Commission of Boston, the National Freedman’s Relief Association, and the Port Royal Relief Committee who established schools to educate the freedmen, dispensed medical services, and provided other relief as needed. For a list of online and in house resources, check out "Missionary Teachers to the Freedmen."

A wonderful resource in our collection is our vertical file collection. Vertical files hold materials such as clippings, pamphlets, or articles pertaining to the subject of the file. These files act as a gateway; they can provide context that may point researchers to a new path of resources. If you are interested in learning more about the importance and use of these files, check out The Value of Historical (and Permanent) Vertical Files.   

There are many files pertaining to the history of women in Beaufort District. Here is just a sampling: 

• VF BEAUFORT FEMALE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY 

• VF BEAUFORT WOMEN'S CENTER, 1985- 

• VF CLOVER CLUB 

• VF LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF BEAUFORT, SC AREA 

• VF LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF HILTON HEAD ISLAND/BLUFFTON AREA 

• VF SCHOOLS--MATHER SCHOOL 

• VF WOMEN OF HILTON HEAD 

• VF WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF HILTON HEAD ISLAND, 1961-  

• VF 100 WOMEN WHO CARE 

Harriet Tubman 

The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights by Dorothy Wickenden, 2021. 

The Agitators tells the stirring stories of three women who put their lives on the line to fight for their rights in a time when their country was uninterested in listening to female perspectives : Harriet Tubman, Martha Coffin Wright, and Frances A. Seward. Harriet Tubman was born in Maryland in 1822. Though she is primarily known for her abolitionism and social activism in the North and rescuing enslaved people via the Underground Railroad from the South, Tubman spent a small amount of time in the Lowcountry assisting the Union army during the Civil War. In 1863, under multiple roles as a scout, spy, and nurse, she helped lead hundreds of enslaved African Americans along the Combahee River to a life of freedom. This courageous mission is known as the Combahee River Raid.

Harriet Keyserling 

Against the Tide: One Woman’s Political Struggle by Harriet Keyserling, 2004. 

Harriet Keyserling was born in 1922 in New York and graduated from Barnard College in 1943. She did not begin her political career as a Progressive Democrat until 1977 when she was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. She served in the house until 1993 and was succeeded by her son, Billy Keyserling. Harriet Keyserling was driven by her passion for people. She was a major critic of energy usage, nuclear waste storage, and she led many successful efforts that improved state funding for the arts. For more information and a full list of resources on Harriet Keyserling, please visit The Legacy of Harriet Keyserling: Arts and Politics. 

Nancy Ann Ciehanski Papers

Nancy Ann Ciehanski was born in 1930 in Cleveland, Ohio. For the majority of the 1970's she was a Clerk to the Town Council of Middleburg Heights, Ohio until moving to Hilton Head in 1979. Beginning her political life on Hilton Head Island, she became the Administrative Assistant to Charles E. Fraser of Sea Pines Plantation. She served in more than ten different community groups, many with a focus on environmental protection and community development. Ciehanski was appointed to the Beaufort County Joint Planning Commission, Island Commission in 1979. In 1983, she was elected to serve on the Town of Hilton Head Island’s first municipal council, becoming Mayor pro tempore. In 1991, she was appointed to the Town of Hilton Head Planning Commission, and was re-appointment in 1994. However, she decided to leave the position in September 1995 to become a Director on the Public Service District #1 Board of Directors. To learn more about Nancy Ann Ciehanski and the materials in our archival collection, please refer to the finding aid: Nancy Ann Ciehanski Papers, 1969-2001, Bulk 1980-1984, Finding Aid. We would be happy to set up an appointment for you to review the records in person: 843-255-6468; bdc@bcgov.net. 

Kate Gleason 

The Life and Letters of Kate Gleason by Janis F. Gleason, 2010. 

Kate Anselm Gleason was born in 1865 in Rochester, New York. She was an American business woman and an engineer. Led by her ambition and inspired by her father's work in the industrial field, Gleason began her career as a child bookkeeper for Gleason Works, her father's company. She went on to become not only an engineer, but also a sales executive and a corporate secretary. She retired from the later two positions at the age of 49, but continued with her passion for engineering, development, and philanthropy. Gleason arrived to Beaufort in 1926, and though she only spent five years in the area, she made an everlasting imprint on the community. She skyrocketed the town's tourism by establishing the Gold Eagle Tavern and Lodge in downtown Beaufort and developing Colony Gardens, the County's first resort golf course with affordable apartments and estates. 

Clara Barton 

A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War by Stephen B. Oates, 1994. 

Clara Barton was born in 1821 in North Oxford, Massachusetts. When the Civil War began, Barton left her position at the US Patent Office in order to support the Union and serve as a nurse. She travelled to the Sea Islands in April of 1863 to continue aiding Union Soldiers as well as providing aid to former slaves who were severely affected by smallpox. In 1881, Barton founded the American Red Cross. Following the hurricane of 1893, she returned to the Sea Islands with the American Red Cross to administer aid and rehabilitation assistance to the people of Beaufort. For a list of resources related to Clara Barton, please visit Clara Barton, 1821 – 1912: A Selective List of Links & Materials.

Rachel C. Mather 

The Storm Swept Coast of South Carolina by Rachel C. Mather, 1894. 

Rachel Crane Mather was born in 1823 in New Hampshire. In 1867, Mather travelled to Beaufort in order to help educate newly freed people. That same year she founded the Mather School. With the help of the American Missionary Association, she sought to aid and educate young formerly enslaved girls. The boarding school focused heavily on biblical instruction as well as home economics. In the mid-20th century it became a co-ed facility for young men training for the ministry. The northern campus of the Technical College of the Lowcountry is known as the “Mather School Campus" and contains the Mather School Interpretative Center and Museum. The BDC holds many materials related to Rachel Mather as well as the Mather School. For a full list of materials and resources, please visit Rachel C. Mather, 1823 – 1903: A List of Materials & Links. 

 

Digital Collections

The Storm Swept Coast of South Carolina

The Storm Swept Coast of South Carolina describes damage and recovery efforts in Beaufort, South Carolina, and the surrounding coastal area after the hurricane of August 27, 1893. The author, Mrs. R. C. Mather, recounts personal accounts of others during the storm and the recovery efforts she and others undertook to provide clothing, blankets, tools, seeds, and other provisions to the needy.

Susan M.L. Wales Travel Journal, 1887 -1895

Susan Makepeace Larkin Wales was born in 1839 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. As a financially comfortable spinster, she travelled extensively through Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Susan M.L. Wales Journal, 1887 -1895 is a collection of illustrated letters sent to her sister, Annie Flagg Wales Stratton of Boston. It is a charmingly embellished record of three trips she took to hone her artistic skills and experience other cultures.

I hope you have enjoyed learning more about a few of the wonderfully courageous women of Beaufort District's past and present— there are oh so many more!                                                If you are interested in any of the materials I have shared today, or wish to explore our collection for yourself: walk-ins are sometimes accepted while appointments are always encouraged. To make an appointment, send an email to bdc@bcgov.net or give us a call at 843-255-6468. We hope to hear from you soon!