In Praise of Donors, Speakers, Partners, & Docents

As most of you know, the mission of the Beaufort District Collection is to acquire, preserve, maintain and make accessible a research collection of permanent value which records the history, culture and environment of the area of lowcountry South Carolina once known as the old historic Beaufort District. But we cannot fulfill our mission without contributions of time, talent and materials from the community and your attendance at one or more of our programs.

We are very grateful to all the generous individuals and organizations who helped us meet our mission in 2018.

Through the years, we have built a solid reference collection through a combination of purchases and donations. The Beaufort County Library and the Beaufort District Collection would like to thank the following people and organizations for their generous donations of local history reference books, videos, photographs, maps, posters, postcards and/or documents that were added to our holdings during 2018:

Furman University          Linda Neidich Hoffman          Dr. Lawrence B. Owen
Grace Cordial                  Beaufort Branch                      Molly Gray
John Kundrat                   Bill Pinkston                           Beaufort Friends of the Library
Karen Traub                     Lolita Huckaby                       Anne Christensen Pollitzer
Rev. Johnnie Simmons                                                    Debbi Covington

Although our primary charge is to be good stewards of the materials we hold in trust for our community and share them with researchers, a lot of people interested in local history do not necessarily enjoy the process of research. Accordingly, a special collections library needs to share its materials with the community in other ways such as programs. During 2018, we amped up opportunities for lifelong learning and leisure through 24 BDC sponsored programs on local history, oral history, genealogy, and archaeology and continued the highly successful Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library Local History series.

We are grateful to the folks and organizations who donated their services in support of the BDC @ The Branches local history series and/or Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library Local History Series during 2018:

Dr. Edda Fields-Black           Dr. Ted Rosengarten          Ora Elliott Smith
Sallie Ann Robinson             Jenny Hersch                      Bonnie Wade Mucia
Dr. Shep McKinley               Jeff Sherard                         Dr. Eric Poplin
Toni Carrier                          Dr. Jon Leader                     Dave Smoot
Nelle Smith                           Doug Bostick                      Dr. Richard Porcher
Dr. Larry Rowland                Dr. Stephen Wise                Andrea Allen

We are grateful for our collaborative ventures with the Beaufort County Historical Society, the Beaufort History Museum, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission, the International African-American Museum's Center for Family History, and the Coastal Discovery Museum.

And we cannot forget our most enduring supporters, the Beloved BDC Docents: Laura Lewis, Dennis Adams, Peggy Scott, Joe Noll, Nelson Brown, David Simpson, and Susan Hollingsworth. Each of them donated time and skill during 2018. They perform such tasks as diary transcription, magazine article title indexing, maintenance of our obituary index, archival photocopying of newsprint clippings, and filing "stuff" which helps us share our holdings with the community.

A heartfelt "Thank You" for your support of and donations to the unique Beaufort District Collection. The BDC serves our community much better because of you!

N. B. You, too, can be numbered in a similar list next year. Consider donating your local history materials, time or talents to the BDC. Contact me at 255-6446 or via e-mail at gracec@bcgov.net to discuss how.