Ghost Stories on Library's Website

Looking for a spooky story to share on All Hallow's Even? Read ghostly tales retold by our Information Services Coordinator, Dennis Adams, on our "Local History & Culture" web pages.

You can find even more ghosts in the BDC vertical file labeled "Ghosts" and by browsing the 133 and 398.2 Dewey Decimal classification areas of your local branch library.

Also take a look at last year's Halloween article for materials to investigate.

Here's hoping that the goblins don't get you!

"People of the Light" on the County Channel

28 June 2024 - Jan Beaudrie of The County Channel confirmed that no known recording of the play exists in their archive. We do not have a copy here in the BDC Research Room. -- gmc 

"People of the Light," a play written by County PIO Suzanne Larson in honor of the 150th Anniversary of the Hunting Island Lighthouse will be shown on The County Channel, tonight at 8 p.m. with a reprise Sunday night at 8 p.m. You can also see and hear Dr. Larry Rowland, Professor Emeritus, USC-B talk about the history of the lighthouse during the broadcast.

The play stars County employees Dennis Adams (Library) and Christine Grefe (Solicitor) as well as Quentin Bell, the son of Belinda Green (Finance) who sings every year at our tree lighting ceremony. The play was funded through a grant from the S.C. Humanities Council and is based on the history of the Hunting Island Lighthouse. Grant advisors include Dennis Adams, Grace Cordial (Library) and Ian Hill (Planning).

The County Channel is a service of Beaufort County government. It is streamed on the home page of the County website, www.bcgov.net and broadcast on Charter Cable channel 20, Comcast Cable channel 2, Hargray Cable channel 252, Time Warner Cable Hilton Head Island channel 66 and Time Warner Cable Sun City channel 63.

The Beaufort County Library contains a number of materials on the subject of lighthouses, but the most interesting for us locals is the award winning documentary film, A light on treacherous waters : the story of the Hunting Island, South Carolina, Light Station produced by Larson. The video (call Number 387.1 LIG) is available at all our branch libraries in either/or VHS or DVD format.

Drop by the BDC to see these vertical files:
• Hunting Island – Lighthouse
• Lighthouses

"Maroon Communities" Lecture now available

We had 60 people, of all ages, races, and both genders, participate in the final program of the Archaeology Month series yesterday. Those who attended experienced a fine presentation about a little known topic and created the dynamic that only an engaged audience can provide.

Because Dr. Lockley is a generous (and tech-savvy) man, you can revisit his lecture about "Maroon Communities" at the University of Warwick website. You can download the audio from his homepage on the University of Warwick website. Go to the right side of the Dr. Lockley's webpage and below the photograph of Tim and his daughter (copied in this blog entry since she's so cute) you'll see:

I gave a talk on Maroon Communities in Beaufort, SC, on Oct 27, 2009. You can download the talk and the Q&A.

Thank you to all the folks who helped make this series happen, most particularly Ian Hill, Beaufort County Historic Preservationist who has been my partner for 6 years of Archaeology Month programming; Suzanne Larson, the County's Public Information Officer who took care of most of the 2009 marketing; and our co-sponsors: Evan Thompson and Maxine Lutz of Historic Beaufort Foundation; and Geni Flowers and Harvey Varney of USC-Beaufort Libraries.

Subscribe to this Blog by RSS Feed

Sometimes a question from a customer spurs action immediate changes to Connections.

A new reader was kind enough to send me an e-mail asking to be notified of future Connections postings by e-mail. I get updates for the blogs I follow by RSS. Why hadn't I put a RSS feed button on Connections for our readers? DUH!

Here's how I replied to the customer:

I’m glad that you discovered the Beaufort District Collection Connections blog and like it well enough to want to continue to get it. In fact, your inquiry spurred me to take advantage of one of our more tech savvy (you can read that “younger,” if you want) reference librarians, Amanda Brewer. She showed me how to add a RSS feed button to the Connections homepage! In less than 2 minutes we had ourselves a RSS feed button on Connections. I just hadn’t thought to add a RSS feed button nor investigated how to do so.

Just click “Subscribe To This” Posts button and follow the prompts. You should be good to go on your home computer to receive automatic notice when I’ve changed something on Connections. I post “stuff” at least 4 times a month, but more often when something is going on or strikes my fancy to write about or because several customers inquire about a specific topic.

Please feel free to subscribe to the Connections RSS feed if you wish. It'd be great to have "Followers."

Escaped Slave Communities Talk Concludes Series

The story of communities of escaped slaves in the South Carolina swamps told through historical records…

Dr. Timothy Lockley, University of Warwick, UK will speak at 1:00 p.m. about Maroon Communities in South Carolina: A Documentary Record on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 in the Performing Arts Center, USCB- North Campus (801 Carteret Street).


Timothy James Lockley is an associate professor of history at the University of Warwick, England, and a specialist in history of the American South. He is the author of Welfare and Charity in the Antebellum South (which mentions our own Beaufort Female Benevolent Society) and Lines in the Sand: Race and Class in Lowcountry Georgia, 1750–1860 and coeditor with Catherine Armstrong and Roger Fagge of America in the British Imagination.

This session is the last in the “Discover Expressions of African American Culture” series sponsored by the Beaufort County Library, Beaufort County Planning, Historic Beaufort Foundation and the University of South Carolina Beaufort Libraries.

This program is free and planned to be of interest to anyone over age 12 years who enjoys learning about the history, culture, and environment of our local area.

For more information contact Grace Cordial, Historical Resources Coordinator, 470-6525 or gracec@bcgov.net.

Free Podcasts -- Gilder Lehrman Institute

Occassionally, I highlight online resources about history that go well beyond the mission of the BDC "to acquire, preserve, maintain and make accessible a research collection of permanent value which records the history of the area of lowcountry South Carolina known as the old historic Beaufort District."

If you are at all interested in hearing lectures by world renowned historians over your computer, take a look at the free podcast series offered by the Gilder Lehrman Institute.

Among the 50 topics within the free podcasts are these which in some way directly relate to the history, culture, and/or environment of Beaufort District:

Harriet Tubman (she was here during the Civil War; the new Combahee River Bridge is named in honor of the raid she led)
The Significance of Reconstruction (there are those who call Beaufort District "Ground Zero" for Reconstruction) and
lots on Abraham Lincoln and the issue of slavery and race in American life.

You will have to register online with the Gilder Lehrman Institute before you can listen to the archived podcasts.

Lecture: Confederate Mars Bluff Naval Shipyard Oct 20th

The Archaeology Society of SC/Hilton Head Chapter is pleased to announce their Oct. 20th guest speaker, Chris Amer, the Deputy State Archaeologist for Underwater and Associate Director for Maritime Research at SCIAA. Amer's discussion will cover the campaign to locate the Confederate Mars Bluff Naval Shipyard on the Pee Dee River and the gunboat CSS Pee Dee which was constructed, burned and scuttled there late in the Civil War.

All meetings are held at Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island at 7 pm. The public is always invited and welcome to attend these interesting lectures at no charge.

Carter on Her Family History Research Tomorrow

Don't forget to come to the 2nd floor of the 311 Scott Street Library building for:

“Family History Research in Black and White,” Barbara Carter
Sat., Oct. 17, 1:00 - 2:00pm
Beaufort District Collection, 311 Scott Street, Beaufort, 2nd floor

Barbara Carter will share some of the insights she's experienced while tracing her personal roots.

African American Genealogy Class is Full

I am happy to announce that the African American Genealogy Class scheduled for Sunday, October 25th is full. We are limited by the number of computers in Bluffton Branch's computer lab and our ability to offer personal research assistance to more than a dozen family history participants at a time.

If you'd like to be put on an e-mail list to be notified when we offer this class again, please call 470-6525 or e-mail my assistant at cseabrook@bcgov.net.

Spots Still Available for African-American Genealogy Class

Please don't delay in signing up for the "African-American Genealogy Workshop," being held on Sunday, October 25th at Bluffton Branch Library.

The goal of the workshop is to introduce program participants to the proper research processes and the Ancestry Library Edition subscription database. Attendees must come to the workshop knowing how to point and click, open and close webpages, and type in a search box.

If you can, please bring a list of 3 people within your family who were alive to have been counted in the 1930 US Federal census. This will give you a very good start to uncovering your genealogical roots.

“African-American Genealogy Workshop,” Grace Cordial
Sun., Oct. 25, 2:00 - 4:00pm (RESERVATIONS REQUIRED: 757-1537)
Bluffton Branch Library, 120 Palmetto Way

Space is limited by the size of the Bluffton Branch Library's computer lab.

Cordial has been responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Beaufort District Collection at the Beaufort County Library since 1999. As a special collections reference librarian, she has extensive experience with explaining how research resources work, what those resources can tell you about your ancestors, and helping customers locate the information they seek. A genealogical dabbler herself, she offers advice on how to blast through family history research brick walls.

Family Historian to Share Her Research Strategies

A family historian, Barbara Carter will discuss the trials, tribulations, successes, and surprises she has encountered as she has walked along the trail of her ancestors, many of whom were from South Carolina. Carter will present our 4th program in the Archaeology Month series, co-sponsored by Beaufort County Library, Beaufort County Planning Department, Historic Beaufort Foundation, and USC-B.

Carter holds a BA in history from Hunter College and a master’s degree in the Education of the Gifted from The College of New Rochelle.

In 1991, reversing the migration of her ancestors northward, Carter headed south upon her retirement from 30 years of teaching. Beaufort’s rich history immediately became Carter’s passion particularly when it pertains to slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Presently, she is busy transcribing and indexing the journals of Beaufort Reconstruction Era minister, George R. Newcomb and his daughter, as her project for the Beaufort District Collection of the Beaufort County Library. (Yes, Barbara Carter is one of the few, the proud: the Beloved BDC Docents!)

Carter's session will be held on the weekend in an attempt to accommodate the working folks of our community who want to participate in some of our Archaeology Month programming efforts. Please join us if you can.

“Family History Research in Black and White,” Barbara Carter
Sat., Oct. 17, 1:00 - 2:00pm
Beaufort District Collection, 311 Scott Street, Beaufort, 2nd floor

HBF Fall Tour, Oct. 22-24

Heritage Tourism also includes visiting historic homes, churches, and gardens -- all of which Beaufort County is blessed to have in abundance. You can take a tour of some of these places and help fund historic preservation efforts at our sister cultural heritage agency, Historic Beaufort Foundation towards the end of October.

Historic Beaufort Foundation will open doors to visitors for three days October 22, 23 & 24, allowing an intimate view of 22 private homes, churches and gardens at the Fall Festival of Houses & Gardens. A fundraiser for Historic Beaufort Foundation for more than 26 years, the tour features Beaufort’s diverse architecture and interiors representing three centuries.

Tickets are available online at www.historicbeaufort.org.

For more details, please contact: Maxine Lutz: phone: (843) 379-3331; fax: (843) 379-3371; email: mlutz@historicbeaufort.org.

Campbell to Present 3rd Program in Series Tuesday

Native Islander Emory Campbell is our third speaker within the Archaeology Month series being co-sponsored by Beaufort County Library, Beaufort County Planning Department, Historic Beaufort Foundation and USC-B.

Campbell grew up on Hilton Head Island as one of the 12 children of schoolteachers, Reginald and Sarah Williams Campbell. He was the 1960 valedictorian of the then segregated Michael C. Riley High School in Bluffton. He furthered his studies at Savannah State College and Tufts University. He returned home from Boston in 1968 to work along with Tom Barnwell at the nascent Beaufort-Jasper Comprehensive Health Service. In 1980, he became Executive Director of Penn Center, and set about repairing buildings on the historic campus and restoring relationships, as well as establishing the “Heritage Days” Festival. He retired from Penn Center twelve years later.

Quite the man about the media, Campbell has appeared on “60 Minutes,” “the Today Show,” and been interviewed on National Public Radio and the Public Broadcast Service. Recipient of the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award in 2005, “In recognition of 30 years as an activist for preserving the Gullah heritage, protecting the environment, and improving his community’s living conditions,” Campbell is helping mark a new trail, the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, as chairman of the National Park Service commissioners.

That new trail, the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, will be the subject of his presentation on Tuesday, October 13th beginning at 1 pm in the Hilton Head Branch Library, 11 Beach City Road.

Please join us for what is sure to be an informative and educational session on the vibrancy of the contribution of Gullah culture to American life.

Thompson, "Architecture & Slavery" Tomorrow

We are pleased to have Evan Thompson, Executive Director of Historic Beaufort Foundation, present our 2nd program of the Archaeology Month series. Thompson's talk is “Architecture & Slavery: Sites & Stories from Beaufort in the Mid-19th Century.” He will highlight the African American contribution to the built environment within the National Historic Landmark District and beyond. As Maxine Lutz has pointed out:

"His research always illuminates little-known facts about and connections between the people and places associated with Beaufort’s history."

Join us Thursday, Oct. 8th to experience his presentation. Please note: This session is being held in the Beaufort County Council Chambers, 100 Ribaut Road, 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

This year our Archaeology Month series is co-sponsored by Beaufort County Library, Beaufort County Planning, Historic Beaufort Foundation, and USC-Beaufort.

Time to Register for Drawing Extended

I found out just this morning that the Public Library Foundation of Beaufort County is extending the period during which a donation to the Compact Shelving Fund will also enter your name into the drawing.

If your donation is received by the Public Library Foundation of Beaufort County before November 30th, your name will be placed in a Friends of the Beaufort County Library drawing to win an autographed copy of A History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, vol. 1 by Dr. Larry Rowland.

Checks should be made out to the "Public Library Foundation of Beaufort County" with a notation that your donation is for the "Beaufort District Collection" compact shelving project.

Mailing Address:

Public Library Foundation of Beaufort County
311 Scott Street, Suite 201
Beaufort, South Carolina 29902


Any donation that you can make to help us reach our goal of $85,000 will be graciously appreciated. We really need proper storage for the "Treasures of the Beaufort District Collection." We cannot be good stewards of the historic materials entrusted to us without your financial help in raising the necessary funds to purchase the mobile, high density storage. Please help if you can.

"Image Archivist at Work" Day (the Sequel) -- Oct. 7

The theme for Archives Month 2009 is “Visions of Yesterday, Memories for Tomorrow.”

“Image Archivist at Work” Day
Wed., October 7th
10 am until Noon ; 2 pm until 4 pm

Watch staff perform basic preservation work on images drawn from the Lucille Hasell Culp Collection. The demonstration is free and open to anyone over age 12 with an interest in photography or photographs preservation.

Celeste Wiley, Image Archivist, (pictured above with some of last year's attendees) will offer advice to participants about how to properly care for your personal photographs. You can bring a photograph or two from home to give her a better idea of condition of the actual image.

This demonstration is on a first come, first served, space available basis.

The demonstration is part of the third annual South Carolina Archives Month Celebration.

Trying to Capture a Culture -- Teresa Bruce

To kick off our Archaeology Month series, Teresa Bruce, documentary film-maker of the CINE Golden Eagle award winning "God's Gonna Trouble the Waters," will discuss the trials and tribulations of trying to capture the essence of a culture within a 60minute film.

Bruce is originally from the Pacific northwest, but spent some of her formative rattling around in a homemade camper along the Pan-American highway. Settling down, Bruce worked for SC ETV affiliate WJWJ in the early 1980 and 1990s. She left the area -- and ETV -- in 1996, but like so many others, was drawn back to Beaufort in 2004.

She and her husband, Gary Geboy, collaborated on Transfer of Grace, a book of lowcountry photographs by Geboy with narrative by Bruce which earned them national recognition on the CBS Morning Show in 2007.

“Trying to Capture a Culture,”
Discussion with film-maker Teresa Bruce
Tues., Oct. 6, 6 - 7:30pm
Beaufort District Collection, 311 Scott Street, Beaufort , 2nd floor

Partners in the Archaeology Month series are: Beaufort County Library, Beaufort County Planning Department, Historic Beaufort Foundation, and the University of South Carolina at Beaufort.

SCLENDS Catalog Update and the BDC

The re-inventory process has been done. Still, we have problems. We have reported the situation to the SCLENDS consortium. Unfortunately, we have not received a timeline from the consortium regarding their plan to fix the on-going issues we are having. Therefore, 4 months after the "Go Live" date for SCLENDS (May 28th), we must continue with Plan "B":

If you can't find what you are looking for on topics of local history, culture, and environment within the SCLENDS catalog (i.e., those topics that fall within the responsibilities of this department), just give us a call at 470-6525 or e-mail us at gracec@bcgov.net with your specific questions regarding BDC and local history holdings.

We'll do our best to try to help you in spite of our continuing database problems.