February Programs, Workshops and Community Events (Some with Advance Registration Required)

The BDC may have gotten off to a slow start with programs but things get popping this month. As frequent visitors to this blog may have gathered, programs held inside one of the Beaufort County Library's buildings are called "programs" while a program held anywhere else but inside one of the BCL's buildings is classified as an "outreach" activity. That's the way that our figures have to be tallied for the State Library's annual collection of statistical data about public libraries - so that's the way I have to categorize BDC activities trying to inform, illuminate, educate, and entertain the public outside our Research Room. Here's what the BDC is offering during February 2019:

Programs in a Library

Shell Middens of the Lowcountry

Wed., Feb. 20, 2019 @ 2:00pm

Site: BDC@ Beaufort Branch Meeting Room, 311 Scott Street

Jeff Sherard

Have you heard the term "shell midden" and wondered what it means and why archaeologists love to dig at one? Learn from Archaeologist Jeff Sherard and examine real artifacts from deposits left by Native Americans in our area.

No registration, just show up ready and willing to learn!

Audience: 12 years - up

Freedmen's Bank Records Workshop with Toni Carrier

Sat., Feb. 2, 2019 @ 1:00pm 

Site: BDC@ St. Helena Branch's Computer Lab

Records left by the Freedmen's Bureau through its work from 1865-1872 constitute the richest and most extensive documentary source available for investigating the African-American experience in the post Civil War and Reconstruction eras. The workshop filled up fast! Toni Carrier, Executive Director of the IAAM's Center for Family History is one of the best folks to teach others how to use these records. All seats were reserved by 15 January 2019. 

 

Heads up: The Library, the International African American Museum and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission will hold two sessions of this workshop on Saturday, April 13, 2019: 11 AM and 2 PM. There are only 20 seats at each session so seats will likely fill very quickly. Closed when capacity is reached. To register: Call 843-818-4587 or e-mail: info@gullahgeecheecorridor.org
 

W.J. Whipper and J.J. Wright: Beaufort's - and South Carolina's - First Civil Rights Attorneys with Distinguished Professor Emeritus, W. Lewis Burke, USC School of Law

Thurs., Feb. 7, 2019 @ 6:00pm

Site: BDC@ Tabernacle Baptist Church, 907 Craven Street, Beaufort 

Ticketed event: $ ; https://www.beauforthistorymuseumwildapricot.org/event-3119022

Prof. Burke

Learn about Beaufort's and South Carolina's first Civil Rights attorneys from Lewis Burke, author of All for Civil Rights. Lecture celebrates the 80th Anniversary of the Beaufort County Historical Society & the Beaufort History Museum. BDC slideshow of materials about the topic and history of the organizations during the reception and book signing afterwards.

Audience: 12 years - up

Some Library staff go out into the community with presentations about Library related topics and collections. You may have seen or heard Library Director Ray McBride share Library matters at one of your community meetings.

The BDC staff can come to your organization to talk about the topics that we cover in our collection: local history, genealogy, Gullah culture, archaeology, and natural history. We have prepared talks already on Child Labor in Beaufort District; Hurricanes of the 19th and 20th centuries; Postcards; Using Ancestry Library Edition and other genealogy related resources; Downtown Beaufort in the 1940 - 1960s, and How to Talk Say Names Wrong in South Carolina for All the Right Historical Reasons (aka "Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names"). I'm booking community outreach programs for Summer 2019 now. If interested, contact us at bdc@bcgov.net or call 843-255-6468 to discuss topics and schedule options.

Aaron Palmeri called us right after Christmas and I'll be going over to the Palmetto Bluff Conservancy Classroom at the end of this month with:

Hurricanes in Beaufort District's Past

Wed., Feb. 27, 2019 @ Noon

Site: BDC@ Palmetto Bluff Conservancy, 659 Old Moreland Road, Palmetto Bluff, Bluffton

Grace Cordial uses BDC materials to show how extreme tropical weather has impacted Beaufort District from the 17th century to the present. The talk is open to the general public free of charge. There isn't any registration process other than to let the gate personnel know that you're heading to the lecture.

Audience: 12 years - up

I'll be over at The Cypress on Hilton Head Island in April with the southern version of my popular "Tide of Death" talk about the Hurricane of 1893.

Programs and Community Outreach Activities requiring advance registration:  Because our programs and community outreach activities with registration required tend to fill up rather quickly, I suggest that you go ahead and sign up now for: 

12 March - Registration now open: "Making Sporting Plantations: Rich Yankees and the Transformation of the Rural Lowcountry" with Dr. Daniel Vivian at Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Island: 843-689-6767, ext.225.

Please note: If you live north of the Broad River, Dr. Vivian is presenting the same material in a BDC@ BDC (2nd floor lobby) program on Monday, March 11 at 11 AM. We can fit up to 40 people in the 2nd floor lobby if need be. It's not an optimal situation but the volunteers who help with tax preparation have dibs on many of the Library's meeting spaces during tax season. Dr. Vivian is doing this program during his Spring break so we didn't have a lot of flexibility for the date and times of his two lectures for the BDC and the Coastal Discovery Museum. 

27 March - Registration now open: "Remembering Ann Head" with her daughter, Nancy Thode in cooperation with the Pat Conroy Literary Center https://bit.ly/2Ddyda6

We continue our collaboration with the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission and the International African American Museum's Center for Family History by repeating the Freedmen's Bureau Records workshops in response to customer demand: 
 

13 April - Registration now open: "Finding Your Ancestors in Freedmen's Bureau Records" with Toni Carrier at the St. Helena Branch Library at 11 AM; Only 20 seats so seats will likely fill very quickly. Closed when capacity is reached. To register: Call 843-818-4587 or e-mail: info@gullahgeecheecorridor.org.

13 April -  Registration now open: "Finding Your Ancestors in Freedmen's Bureau Records" with Toni Carrier at the St. Helena Branch Library at 2 PM; Only 20 seats so seats will likely fill very quickly. Closed when capacity is reached. To register: Call 843-818-4587 or e-mail: info@gullahgeecheecorridor.org

We hope to see you at one or more of these programs and outreach activities.