New Materials in the BDC, January - April 2018

The Library's Strategic Plan has three priorities: Communications; Facilities; and Collections.

Given that the term "Collection" is in our title and is our primary mission, we give a lot of thought and put our money where our mouth is when it comes to strengthening our holdings. Stabilization in the Library's budget has facilitated purchase of new materials and in the case of this department even of some older but new-to-us materials that help us meet our core mission to acquire, preserve, maintain and make accessible a research collection of permanent value that records the history of this area. We have biographies and other nonfiction books, maps, video materials and archival collections about local history including Gullah traditions, natural history, archaeology, and genealogy as well as other topic relevant to Beaufort, Hampton, and Jasper Counties. With that in mind, we are always on the look out for appropriate materials to add to our holdings. Here is a list of the latest books to arrive in our Research Room to support your study of our area:  

A History of the 20th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861 - 1865 by James B. Clary joins the author's A History of the 15th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861 - 1865. Both are parts of the South Carolina Regimental Roster Set by Broadfoot Publishing. Clary spent countless hours compiling detailed information about the individual soldiers in these units. Other titles that we have in the Research Room from this series are:  No Prouder Fate: The Story of the 11th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry by Neil Baxley; And Were the Glory of Their Times - Artillery and And Were the Glory of Their Times - Cavalry both by Herbert O. Chambers, III; A History of the 3rd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Battalion (James Battalion): 1861-1865 by Sam B. Davis; The 14th South Carolina Infantry Regiment of the Gregg-McGowan Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia by Robert K. Krick; A History of the Hampton Legion Infantry by O. Lee Sturkey; A History of the 13th South Carolina Infantry by Mike Wadsworth; and A History of the 3rd South Carolina Infantry Regiment: Lee's Reliables by Mac Wyckoff.

Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina by Ryan A. Quintana which according to Seth Rockman, Brown University, "makes the social history of enslaved people central to the processes of state building and the political economy of capitalism. Indeed, the book's great value is its recognition of enslaved people as crucial historical actors whose everyday lives created the infrastructures of the state."


The BDC also collects some natural history materials. A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas (A Southern Gateways Guide) includes hundreds of full-color photographs of Carolina mushrooms, information about mushroom edibility and toxicity thus filling a gap for regional information on southeastern fungi populations.  

(I'd probably grab this book if we were bombed by North Korea or there was a zombie outbreak. If one has to take to the woods, it would be a good idea to know which of the many wild mushrooms were edible.)


Paradise by Nell and Ora Smith recounts what it was like to live on Hilton Head Island from the 1960s into the 1990s as development forever changed a quiet coastal island into the premier resort destination it is today. We will host two book talks with the authors, one on May 31, 2018 at Hilton Head Branch Library and a reprise at Beaufort Branch on June 26, 2018.

According to the blurb on Amazon.com, The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenberg instructs the researcher in the timeless principles of genealogical research, while identifying the most current classes of records and research tools. This 4th edition provides a clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date account of American genealogy--no sound genealogical project is complete without it.

It joins complementary genealogical reference books The Red Book, The Source, and Black Roots in the Ready Reference section of our Research Room.



Deceit, Disappearance & Death on Hilton Head Island by Charlie Ryan with Pamela Martin Ovens recounts the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance of prominent Hilton Head Islanders, John and Elizabeth Calvert, and the death of their accountant Dennis Gerwing after he was questioned about their disappearance in 2008. The authors gathered together existing documents via Freedom of Information Act requests to shed light on what remains an open investigation. (FYI: The BDC does not do programs on topics or events that are less than 30 years old.)

A New Plantation World: Sporting Estates in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1900 - 1940 by Daniel J. Vivian explores the massive land transfer of property along the coast and the transformation of the term "plantation" from an agricultural pursuit based upon the labor of the enslaved into a term usually describing large acreage for sporting at leisure, predominantly by Northern owners. This book complements the very popular Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin edited by Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius. We hope to be able to bring Dr. Vivian down to Beaufort for a lecture about his book later this year.

Drop by the Research Room to see this books and ever so much more.

Please note: All units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed Mon., May 28, 2018 for Memorial Day.