BCHS Annual Meeting May 19th: Dr. Hawks

The Beaufort County Historical Society will celebrate their 72nd Annual Meeting May 19th at noon at the Beaufort Yacht & Sailing Club, Meridian Rd., Beaufort, SC.

Dr. Gerald Schwartz of Western Carolina University will discuss his book, A Woman Doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' Diary .
　
Esther Hill Hawks was an unusual woman in her time. She was a physician, a teacher, a school administrator, a suffragist, and an abolitionist. While most white women of the 1860s stayed at home tending to domestic matters, Dr. Hawks came South to Beaufort to minister to black Union troops and newly freed slaves as both a teacher and a doctor. She kept a diary of her time here and in Florida that shows her keen skills of observation and political beliefs.

The Library has copies of Schwartz's book in the BDC, as well as in the general collection at Beaufort and Hilton Head Branches. We have a vertical file on her in the BDC, too - just in case you'd like to drop by and review its contents.