Latest update: 16 December 2024 - gmc
There are those who say that there would be no United States Constitution without the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects 5 freedoms concerning religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. The actual text of the First Amendment is:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
As Executive Editor of the Richmond Daily News and the Excelsior Springs Daily Standard, Jack Ventimiglia states in his article "First Amendment binds all American freedoms":
Freedom of the press, of speech, of religion, of assembly and to petition the government are woven, like stars in the flag, into the fabric of the First Amendment.The blood of patriots is the seed of the Republic. The founders and those who followed in their footsteps invested their lives in this country. They assured there would be freedom of religion, and from religion, so the government could neither bless nor ban what anyone believes, as occurs under radical theocracies and communist regimes. The founders secured freedom of speech, to assemble and to petition the government to redress grievances, which is denied by China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and others that fear opposition. They also created one freedom that binds and protects all others, and has done so from before the founding of the republic – freedom of the press....
In short, "Journalists
help keep us free to question, learn and disagree." One can often identify the editorial position of a particular newspaper by careful reading of its contents, position of its articles, what it includes and what it omits. This has been the case historically and it remains the case in the contemporary newspaper publications both in print and online. For example, the Civil War era newspapers published in Beaufort District were pro-Union newspapers after the Battle of Port Royal Sound. We have the Free South, New South, and Palmetto Herald on microfilm - all Union instruments and on Friday, a book with transcriptions of the 100th Pennsylvania Regiments soldiers' newspaper, The Camp Kettle, arrived in our Research Room. There was no corresponding Beaufort published newspaper from a Confederate perspective.
Sometimes the political disagreements get so out of hand that people end up dead. Listen as Dr. Curtis Rogers of the State Library interviews author James Underwood about one of South Carolina's most notorious crimes. Underwood's book Deadly Censorship: Murder, Honor and Freedom of the Press is available in the Research Room and through the SCLENDS consortium. The book recounts the circumstances surrounding the 1903 murder of Narciso Gonzalez, editor of The State newspaper and member of the extended Beaufort Elliott family, by the brother of Governor Ben Tillman.
Sometimes the political disagreements get so out of hand that people end up dead. Listen as Dr. Curtis Rogers of the State Library interviews author James Underwood about one of South Carolina's most notorious crimes. Underwood's book Deadly Censorship: Murder, Honor and Freedom of the Press is available in the Research Room and through the SCLENDS consortium. The book recounts the circumstances surrounding the 1903 murder of Narciso Gonzalez, editor of The State newspaper and member of the extended Beaufort Elliott family, by the brother of Governor Ben Tillman.
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| Poster by Jack Ventimiglia |
Though many traditional newspapers are struggling financially,
newspapers remain a critical resource for current information and
historical documentation. Back files of newspapers provide historical
researchers with information that helps us understand the perceptions of
historical events at the time the events were actually happening. As
anyone who has tried to recall a specific past event can tell you, the
human memory can be fleeting. Daily, weekly, and periodic newspapers can
help provide continuity and show historical development of subjects
over time. Newspapers help hold the government accountable. Newspapers
include
contemporary information about key people, places, and events that
historians can use to document what was really going on.
We have several histories of newspaper journalism in the Research Room. South Carolina Newspapers by John Hammond Moore, 1988 is the go-to guide for identifying newspapers published in the state and coverage. It is arranged by county. Palmetto Press: The History of South Carolina Newspapers and Press Association and Fighting Words: The History of the Media in South Carolina were authored by Patricia G. McNeely and others and published in 1998. Frank H. Ramsey, a Beaufort based newspaperman himself, wrote "Beaufort County Newspapers" for the Beaufort County Historical Society in 1957. It is BCHS Paper #18.
The Beaufort Township Library recognized the importance of providing access to local newspapers back files way back in 1954 when the Library paid $184.00 to Donald McChesney of Greensboro, North Carolina to microfilm issues of the Palmetto Post newspaper. 14 years later, Library Director Betty Ragsdale appealed to the Library Board of Trustees to authorize microfilming the Beaufort Gazette "because of deterioration and theft." By October 1968, the Library and the Beaufort Gazette agreed to share the cost of microfilming back files 50%-50%. For many years, this agreement held though with time the total cost of doing so fell to the Beaufort County's Record Management unit and the Library by 1986. The process of microfilming the Beaufort Gazette and later the Island Packet continued through March 2015. Microfilming ceased in March 2015 due to circumstances outside of the Library's control. From April 2015 to the present, one can find partial files of the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet through the Island Packet website ($ after a set number of free articles) and the NewsBank subscription database. (Please note: The Beaufort County Library does not have a subscription to NewsBank).
However, it is a grievous error to rely solely on newspaper accounts for historical documentation. As with all good historical research, a variety of sources should be used to help illuminate, evaluate and analyze the past. Newspaper articles - just as is the case with other contemporary and historical resources - may include errors and discrepancies due to misreported events, unreliable sources, or political slants and biases. One such example has appeared in Connections. Upon further investigation, only one of the Bush brothers died at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
By far, the dominant format of the newspapers we have in the Research Room is microfilm.
Microfilm is a very stable form for preservation purposes. All one needs is reel of film, a source of light and a wall upon which to throw the projection to get to the content. With proper temperature and humidity controls, and decent film stock, a newspaper preserved via microfilm can be expected to last 300 years or more. Software supporting digital delivery of newspaper images may not last even 10 years. Give me microfilm any day.
Here is a list of the local newspapers that the Research Room makes available to our on-site customers on microfilm. Some of the back files are incomplete and individual issues may be missing. The list is arranged roughly chronologically. The newspapers that we have on microfilm are listed in the SCLENDS catalog.
19th Century Newspapers on Microfilm
Palmetto Herald (1864)
Free South (1863 - 1864)
New South (1861 - 1866)
Port Royal Commercial and Beaufort
County Republican (1873 - 1874)
20th Century Newspapers on Microfilm
Palmetto Post (1882 - 1906)
Beaufort Gazette (1903 - March 31, 2015) : The Beaufort Gazette began as a weekly newspaper. Our first issue on microfilm is dated July 16, 1903. On April 30, 1973, it started publishing 5 issues per week, Mondays through Fridays. Almost 18 years would pass before it added a Sunday issue. On September 2, 1995, it became a daily paper by adding a Saturday issue. We have microfilm in the Research Room that you can use through March 2015.
County Democrat (1910 - 1911)
Beaufort Times (1944 - 1945)
Sea Islander (1968 - 1974)
Island Packet (1970 - March 31, 2015)
Hilton Head Report (1986 - 1988)
Hilton Head Sun (1988 - 1989)
Lowcountry Ledger (1988 - 1991)
Hilton Head News (1993; 1996)
Beaufort Catalyst (1995 - 1996)
Bluffton Packet (1994 - 1995)
Savannah Morning News (1996 - 2008)
21st Century Newspapers on Microfilm in the Research Room
A condensed version of the Beaufort Gazette/Island Packet in which duplicate pages appearing in both titles are omitted (April 2010 - March 2015). This was done as a stop loss measure to conserve costs and thereby prolong the newspaper coverage for another five years. My greatest failure as the keeper of all things historical is the cessation of the microfilming of the Beaufort Gazette/Island Packet but it was completely out of my hands and the Library's hands to prevent.
We got a new microfilm reader/printer in October 2019. Thanks go to the Clover Club and the Friends of the
Beaufort Library for paying for the upgraded microfilm machine purchase.
Historical Newspapers available online without a Subscription
Here's a list of local newspapers that we have in hard-copy in the Research Room:
Bluffton Eccentric (1987 – 1991)
Lowcountry Ledger (1988 - 1991)
Lowcountry Weekly (2000, 2002, 2008 - present)
City Sun (2002, 2004 - 2008) - some issues are on CD
Island News (2008 - present)
Beaufort Today (2008-2009)
Bluffton Sun (2009) - some issues are on CD
Plus we have some individual issues of some very short-lived periodic publications in hard-copy. You can also find some of these newspapers archived on the company websites that own them or pay for access to certain titles through commercial vendors such as NewsBank or Newspapers.com among others. Coverage will vary.
The only known image in the Research Room of a newspaper office is from the Library's L.A. Hall Collection of Civil War and Reconstruction Era photographs shown below. The former residence of Rev. Stephen Elliott was converted into the Free South newspaper office during the Union occupation.
The only known image in the Research Room of a newspaper office is from the Library's L.A. Hall Collection of Civil War and Reconstruction Era photographs shown below. The former residence of Rev. Stephen Elliott was converted into the Free South newspaper office during the Union occupation.
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