New Harmonies: Roots of American Music Coming Very Soon

Removed broken links: 8 May 2020

New Harmonies is almost here -- and the excitement is growing day by day! New Harmonies is a traveling exhibit created by the Smithsonian Institution that will be on display at the Beaufort Branch Library at 311 Scott Street from December 17, 2011 through February 4, 2012.

New Harmonies celebrates American music: blues, country western, folk, and gospel music. Eight kiosks display instruments as varied as fiddles and banjos, accordions and drums, vintage sheet music, and program bills. A listening station provides an immediate opportunity to experience the music firsthand. In addition to the exhibit, the Beaufort Branch Library has developed and coordinated programming and activities to complement the exhibit—lectures, films, and performances.

There's even a panel with the world famous, often reproduced "The Old Plantation" by amateur watercolorist John Rose of Broad River, Beaufort District featured in the exhibit.

The BDC Research Room display will rotate from "The Civil War in Beaufort District" to "Through the Years: Music in the BDC" during mid-December. Drop by to see it. (More details forthcoming).

The Beaufort District Collection is a recognized contributor to the New Harmonies project.

Among the array of program offerings, here are the ones closest to the BDC's scope and mission:

Fri. Dec. 2^nd Photography Club of Beaufort exhibit opening reception 5 to 7 p.m. in the 2nd Floor Gallery at 311 Scott Street

The Photography Club of Beaufort presents its annual photography exhibit: “Celebration of American Music” a collection of photos submitted by members of the Photography Club of Beaufort. To coincide with New Harmonies, their theme is “roots music”. Visit the 2nd floor gallery (just outside the BDC's Research Room entrance) from Dec 2nd through January 30th to view the photographs. All are invited to attend the grand opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, December 2nd. The gallery will be open 9 am until 5 pm most weekdays.

Saturday, December 17^th New Harmonies Grand Opening 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Beaufort Branch Library, 311 Scott Street

Enjoy an afternoon of live music and explore the New Harmonies Exhibit. The afternoon will feature local performers Vic Varner, Beek Webb, Kirk Demspey, Queen Quet, and Crosstuned. Ribbon cutting begins at 2 PM at the Beaufort Branch Library (311 Scott Street) and admission is free.

Sunday, December 18th The Nativity Scene 6:30 p.m. at Frissell House at Penn Center, St. Helena Island

A re-enactment of the Christmas story with musical renditions of Old English carols sung by members of local choirs. This traditional holiday performance is based on the original "Mystery Play" that was performed at Penn School in the early 1950's.

Wednesday, December 20^th Dancin’ Wid We: Music & Dance of the Gullah/Geechee 6 p.m. at Beaufort Branch Library

Come and join the anniversary celebration of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition which is the premiere organization for the advocacy of Gullah/Geechee rights and cultural continuation. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition's homebase is St. Helena Island, SC and it was founded by Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation who is a native of St. Helena and has family roots stemming also to Polowana and Dataw. Queen Quet will lead an interactive evening in music and dance that celebrates the harmonies that Gullah/Geechees have brought to and sustained in North America as a part of this Smithsonian exhibition.

Wednesday, January 4^th Lunch & Listen “Sea Island Spirituals” featuring the Jones Family Noon to 1 p.m. at Technical College of the Lowcountry, Beaufort Campus

Listen to the Jones Family perform authentic renditions of spirituals originating in the Sea Island. Participants are encouraged to bring their lunch to eat in the Student Center prior to the performance.

Sunday, January 15th Community Sing 6:30 p.m. at Frissell House at Penn Center, St. Helena Island

Local gospel choirs will sing traditional spirituals in a community sing-along.

Tuesday, January 17^th Lecture: “African American Contributions to Music” by Dan Huff 1- 3 p.m. at University of South Carolina Beaufort, Auditorium, 801 Carteret Street

Dan Huff, musician, and music historian, will offer a presentation on the gospel, jazz, and blues roots of our African American culture which has contributed to our rich American musical heritage. Dan has played in numerous symphonies and orchestras in major cities, and has played his brass instruments for many. He is an accomplished musician and presenter for OLLI on Gullah history and music.

Thursday, February 2^nd Lunch & Listen: Livin' Music: A Gullah/Geechee Journey of Harmony featuring Queen Quet Noon to 1 p.m. at Technical College of the Lowcountry, Beaufort Campus
Queen Quet Marquetta L. Goodwine is a published author, computer scientist, lecturer, mathematician, historian, columnist, preservationist, film consultant, and "The Art-ivist." She is the founder of the premiere advocacy organization for the continuation of Gullah/Geechee culture, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. Queen Quet has not only provided “histo-musical presentations” throughout the world, but was also the first Gullah/Geechee person to speak on behalf of her people before the United Nations in Genevé, Switzerland. Participants are encouraged to bring their lunch to eat in the Student Center prior to the performance.

Saturday, February 4^th Closing Celebration with Aunt Pearlie Sue 2 p.m. at Beaufort Branch Library

Anita Singleton-Prather “Aunt Pearlie Sue” delights audiences with Gullah-flavored folktales, songs, skits and history passed down to her. This Grand Finale performance is sponsored by the Beaufort District Collection. 

We hope to see you at one (or more) of these very special opportunities to celebrate the "Roots of American Music" in concert with the Beaufort County Library system!

The 150th Anniversary Commemoration continues...

... with a gala 4 day event, Dec. 1st - Dec. 4th. Lead sponsors are the Coastal Discovery Museum and the Lowcountry Civil War Roundtable.

Nationally recognized experts in the history of the Civil War will be lecturing. (We're talking William C. Davis, Dr. James Robertson, Jr.and Col. Kevin Weddle, Ph.D.; Beaufort's own Dr. Larry Rowland and Dr. Stephen Wise; and Mike Coker, author of The Battle of Port Royal). Re-enactors will be on site doing their Civil War campsite activities. Watch performances by Clarence Felder and Chris Weatherhead using diaries, letters, and music from the era. Participate in the opening reception of a temporary museum exhibit on how the local area experienced the maelstrom. Find details at http://www.coastaldiscovery.org/civilwar.html. Fee.

Other historical organizations are involved as well with separately ticketed or free events. Be sure to read down the entire webpage for a vast array of Civil War related activities and events going on that weekend.

And, of course, in case you're of a mind to do some research on the Civil War, check out these lists of online resources, materials available through the Library system, or in the BDC Research Room:

Battle of Port Royal, 1861

Mitchelville

Life and Legacy of Robert Smalls

Missionary Teachers to the Freedmen

Selective Materials on the United States Colored Troops

Penn Center, a sister cultural heritage agency, has posted a short pdf on a sesquicentennial themed tour of their facilities and holdings online.

Grace's Bottom Line: There are plenty of opportunities - at all price points -- for you and yours to learn how the Civil War and Reconstruction history of this place and its people is different than the Civil War and Reconstruction history of any other place in this country. Embrace the uniqueness!

"The Planter" topic at HBF Dinner & a Lecture

An illustrated history of the CSS Planter from its life as a packet boat operated with an enslaved crew to its place in history as the US Planter, a political and naval icon, will be presented as part of Historic Beaufort Foundation’s “Dinner & a Lecture” series Monday, November 28, 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m., at the Verdier House, 801 Bay Street.

“The History of the CSS Planter,” will be presented by Robert Smalls’ scholar, lecturer and model maker Dennis Cannady. He will trace the ship from its construction order by Scottish Capt. John Ferguson in late 1859, its trial runs in Shem’s Creek in late 1860, its wartime use and its postwar history when Ferguson repurchased it for use as a commercial steamer. Cannady will also detail its demise.

In addition to lecturing on Smalls and the crafting of ship models for Osher Life Long Learning, Cannady, a retired mechanical engineer, is a lecturer for the nationally touring exhibition, The Life & Times of Congressman Robert Smalls, now on exhibit at the Verdier House, 801 Bay Street, until December 20.

Fee. Seating is limited; call 379-3331 to make reservations. Contact Maxine Lutz, mlutz@historicbeaufort.org for details.

Blackbeard the Pirate

A decade or so ago (yes, I've been here that long), a Beaufort District Collection Room customer got very annoyed with me upon learning that the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge was in that other Beaufort (the one pronounced Bo fert) in North Carolina. He was most definitely in the wrong state. Although Blackbeard plied these waters, he was captured and killed off Beaufort, NC 293 years ago today.

Read more about his final days in a History Channel online magazine article.

Maritime archaeology activities have been on-going since the ship was discovered in 1996. See artifacts and video of the recovery efforts in Beaufort, NC here.

For library owned materials about pirates, read the list on Pirates under the "Local History Treasures brought to you by the Beaufort District Collection" on the Library system's "Recommended Reading" page.

For just plain fun -- (it is the start of the holiday season after all) for a limited time only -- learn how to speak Pirate from the folks at Mango!

Free Civil War and Reconstruction Opportunities for Learning

The topic of the Civil War has been all around us since April. Recently there has been a bevy of programs, symposiums, exhibits, etc. all relating to some aspect of the Civil War in this blog. Why? Because even though the Civil War officially ended 146 years ago, it is ever present in the minds of many Americans. Let's suppose, though, that you are of a more academic bent and want to delve deeper than a short lecture, or a quick run-through of an exhibit or display can provide:

Longtime readers know that I often draw from the History Channel Club e-newsletter. Here's an opportunity to audit an Ivy League college course, on the Civil War and Reconstruction era, for free - without having to dress for class:

Didn't make the cut to major in U.S. history at Yale? Not to worry. Now you can attend virtually — without student loans — to achieve more than a passing knowledge of the Civil War and its times. Recorded in 2008 for the school's Yale Open Courses, history professor David Blight—director of Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, and the author of numerous books on the Civil War and its aftermath (his final presentations on Reconstruction are particularly involving)—offers 27 hour-long lectures in a course titled "The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877."

The online classroom features transcripts of all 27 lectures, the course outline, and a syllabus of recommended readings.

You have several options for downloading the classroom sessions: iTunes, as mp3 files, or as video files for your computer (high or medium bandwidth). You can even "test" yourself by answering the Final Exam questions.

Heads up: The Beaufort County Library will be closed this Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holidays. We'll look forward to seeing you during our regular hours on Monday.

Links to Digital Collections You May Wish to View

From Serving South Carolina with MORE (South Carolina State Library’s newsletter), Winter 2011 issue, p. 7:

Public libraries, universities, historical organizations, and museums from around South Carolina have made available many unique historical collections for the public to view. And the Beaufort County Library is among that number!

Opening History: U.S. History Resources from Libraries, Museums, and Archives website maintains a list of digital collections in South Carolina by organization. Opening History is a project of the IMLS Digital Collections and Content (DCC) registry. Sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the DCC’s purpose is to bring together digital collections funded by IMLS National Library grants.

The State Library also maintains a list of digital collections in South Carolina at our South Carolina Library Network wiki.

Heads up: We’ll be adding another digital collection real soon….

Don't forget: The Beaufort District Collection Research Room will be closed Thurs., Nov. 24th and Fri., Nov. 25th for the Thanksgiving holidays. You can visit us on the web through our "Virtual BDC" offerings accessible through the Library's homepage at http:www.beaufortcountylibrary.org. Choose the "Local History" tab to gain access.

Online Training for ALE

Although one has to always remember “There is no ultimate database that has every record ever,” there are some fine genealogical databases available in cyberspace. Numbering among those fine resources is Ancestry Library Edition, which just so happens to be the most used database that the BCL provides to its customers (which, incidentally, the BDC funds through its collection development monies).

There are two opportunities for you to register directly with ProQuest, our vendor for ALE, for a free ALE webinar at your home or office:

Wed., Nov. 23, 2011 3:00 pm Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) - US Focus

Mon., Dec. 12, 2011 2:00 pm Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) - US Focus

Go to http://proquest.com/en-US/support/training/webinars.shtml and click on “Genealogy” for the webinar list and to register for a session.

If you have any trouble with home or office access to the training sessions for ALE, contact Linda Cubias, MLIS, Supervisor, Customer Education & Training office +1 704 947 8170 mobile +1 240 672 5695 or linda.cubias@proquest.com.

Ancestry Library Edition subscription database is available inside all of our Beaufort County Library facilities during the branch library's regular business hours. Use any of the public access computers at our branch libraries to access the Ancestry Library Edition subscription database.

Please note: Use of the library's public access computers may include fees for some Library customers.

Lunch & Listen to Dempsey play the Blues

Beaufort Branch Library's Lunch & Listen music series continues Mon., Nov. 14th with Chris Jones, guitar maestro, tracing the history of Blues guitar from the mid-1930s until today.

Bring your own lunch (or buy one at the Outtakes Cafe) to the USCB Performing Arts Center from Noon to 1 pm and enjoy this free concert. Everyone is welcomed.

This fall's Lunch & Listen series is brought to you by Beaufort Branch Library and the USCB Performing Arts Center.

In Commemoration: "The War to End All Wars"

Today is Armistice Day, AKA Veterans Day. On the 11th day of the 11th month at 11:00 am in 1918, by agreement, the guns of the nations at war since 1914 fell silent. At its conclusion, the total military dead was 8.5 million. Estimates of civilian casualties range from 6 to 13 million.

Under any reckoning, World War I, "The War to End All Wars," (AKA "The Great War") was a catacylism of destruction and slaughter.

An unemployed but already published poet, Isaac Rosenberg became a reluctant soldier. When he enlisted in 1915, his first assignment was the 12th Suffolk Regiment which only took men no taller than 5' 3" . He was sent to fight in France in June 1916. His trench poems (of which the extract from Dead Man's Dump is below) were written on whatever scraps of paper he could find and forwarded to his sister. He died during the German Spring Offensive in April 1918. His trench poems were published posthumously in 1922.

The air is loud with death,
The dark air spurts with fire,
The explosions ceaseless are.

His work, and the work of other poets, are highlighted in the First World War Poetry Digital Archive is an online repository of over 7000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching, learning, and research. The heart of the archive consists of collections of highly valued primary material from major poets of the period, including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Vera Britain, and Edward Thomas. This is supplemented by a comprehensive range of multimedia artifacts from the Imperial War Museum, a separate archive of over 6,500 items contributed by the general public, and a set of specially developed educational resources. These educational resources include an exciting new exhibition in the three-dimensional virtual world Second Life.

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive is a significant resource for studying the First World War and the literature it inspired.

A companion website is the Great War Archive. The Great War Archive contains over 6,500 items contributed by the general public in the United Kingdom between March and June 2008. Every item originates from, or relates to, someone's experience of the First World War, either abroad or at home. Contributions were received via a special website and also through a series of open days at libraries and museums throughout the country.

A supplemental FLICKR site contains images uploaded by individuals from their personal collections after the deadline for submission to the Great War Archive.

These digital contributions from the United Kingdom documenting the World War I experience are quite sobering. Work is underway to include the German perspective as well.

For a closer-to-home view, we have The official roster of South Carolina soldiers, sailors and marines in the World War, 1917-1918 for family historians to find a synopsis of an ancestor's service record. We also maintain an obituary file which includes notices of local men killed during the War and a vertical file headed History--World War, 1914-1918. Our postcard collection contains a number of contemporary postcards about the training of Marines on Parris Island during the period.

Come visit us. We are usually open Mondays through Fridays, 10 am - 5 pm, except when we aren't - as in today. Today we are closed to observe Veterans Day. We resume regular hours on Monday.

For the official record of a U.S. military person serving during the Great War, one should contact the National Archives.