New (and New to Us) Materials in the BDC, January - February 2021

What follows is a list and blurbs about materials that arrived in the Research Room during the first two months of 2021. Most of the materials were donated to the Beaufort District Collection.I'm trying to stay on top of the new arrivals and share them with you in a timely fashion.

The ever reliable Friends of the Beaufort Library allows me first dibs of South Carolina related materials that they find in their donation boxes.

From them the BDC scored a presentation copy of Marine Corps Recruit Depot album from the mid-1960s embossed to Mrs. F.W. Scheper Jr., eleven 8" X 11" black and white photographic prints relating to the official visit of the Commandant of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps General Kim Du Chan and his wife to Parris Island in 1964, and a manuscript letter. This donation was accessioned as an archival collection. 

The Friends gave us a second copy of With Open Arms: The Robert Middleton Story, a privately printed title about the St. Helena Island resident and long time Penn Center volunteer's search for his birth parents.  

We added another copy of Historic Resources of the Lowcountry, Second printing, 1990 because the copy we already have is beginning to get raggedy due to frequent use. Alas, this copy did not come with a slipcover. [I really like the slipcover design: simple; traditional; and blue is my favorite color.]

Beaufort Junior High School Islander, 1968 - 1969 annual joins the volumes for the years 1963, 1965, 1975, 1976, 1978, and 1979 that we already have in the Research Room. Although there are lots of tween-ager angst and manuscript messages written in a variety of inks present in this particular annual, we did  not have a copy of this year. In spite of its flaws and preservation issues, I decided to add it to the collection as only a few of the teachers are wearing devil horns and pointy goatees.

River of Words: Musings on Port Royal Sound through Poetry and Art 2015 is another issue of student produced work that joins the compilations for 2013, 2017, and 2018. 

Key Ingredients: America by Food is a pamphlet co-sponsored by the Humanities Council South Carolina, Smithsonian Institution, and the McKissick Museum as part of a year long series examining the state's food story in relation to the Smithsonian's traveling Key Ingredients exhibit that was shown at five institutions in South Carolina during 2008 - 2009.  The pamphlet has essays written by Beaufort District residents Ervena Faulkner, "A Labor Day Celebration;" James Gardner, "Notes from a Carolina Rice Lover:" and "A South Carolina Shrimp Story," by Laura von Harten. 

We are grateful that Laura's mother, Pat von Harten, donated a copy of Oral History Project to the Research Room. It is a collection of Laura's newspaper articles about local shrimpers and the challenges of selling one's catch at a profit from the Beaufort Gazette  along with some other poems and articles penned by her.

The Research Room benefited greatly from donations by local authors in early 2021 too.  

Two books about the shrimping industry were recently published. Both books were authored by long-term or native Beaufort County residents. Both books add considerably to our understanding of the significance of shrimping for a living in the lowcountry and beyond. We have copies of both titles in the Research Room as well as copies that you can check out in some of the Local History sections at the branch libraries.

Where Have all the Shrimp Boats Gone?: A 100-Year history of the Shrimping Industry in the South Carolina Lowcountry was co-authored by former Shrimp boat Captain Woody Collins and Laura von Harten. Collins and Von Harten excelled at the gathering - and retelling - of personal stories of shrimpers. And both have a direct personal and familial connection to the industry and the people who did the work. This book is limited to 1000 copies. We are privileged to have received #1 and #5 with handwritten dedication statements directly from Captain Woody. Lavishly illustrated with more than 300 images (some from our own collections), this book is a substantive but fun read.

Beverly Bowers Jennings used her work designing exhibits for the Port Royal Sound Foundation Maritime Center as the basis for her treatment of the shrimping industry. She interviewed over 100 fishermen, biologists and others who were involved in the business from Fernandina, Florida to Georgetown, South Carolina to write Shrimp Tales: Small Bites of History. It to is lavishly illustrated - and again with some images from the BDC.

Sea Island Garden Club : A Legacy of Service compiled by Ruth Anne Lawson, documents the history and contributions of Beaufort County's second oldest garden club. The short history joins other materials that we have in the Research Room about local garden clubs: the Mossy Oaks Garden Club Collection, 1959-1996 and scrapbooks, 1959-1980; the Ribaut Garden Club scrapbooks, 1960-1962; and the Camellia Garden Club Collection, 1939 - 2018. (Finding Aids are available inside the BDC). We also have a vertical file of newspaper and magazine clippings about the Beaufort Garden Club.

First American Victory of the British Southern Campaign, February 3, 1779 Battle of Beaufort (38BU22336), Beaufort County, South Carolina is an archaeological study of  a Revolutionary War engagement (also known as the Battle of Port Royal Island or the Battle of Gray's Hill) written by Daniel Battle and his wife, Daphne Owens Battle. Daniel Battle also gave us a framed print of the painting "In the Glorious Cause of Liberty" by Jeff Trexler that he commissioned about the Battle of Beaufort to hang in our Research Room.  

We have an ongoing South Carolina Historical Society membership that entitles the BDC to issues of their journal. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, January 2018, volume 119, Number 1 arrived as expected several years behind the publication date on its cover. And though there are not any directly Beaufort District related articles or connections in this particular issue, I always read the book reviews to make sure that I haven't missed something that should be included in the Research Room. 

As it turns out, we already have two of the books reviewed in this particular issue on the Research Room shelves: South Carolina Roots of African American Thought : A Reader and South Carolina and Barbados Connections. 

Sometimes I borrow a copy of an item from another of the SCLENDS library to see if there are any Beaufort District connections before I spend the money. In this case, I placed a hold on The Curious Mister Catesby : A 'Truly Ingenious' Naturalist Explores New Worlds by Barbara Spence Orsolits to decide whether or not it belongs in the BDC. (If you see this title in a future post about "New (and New to Us) Materials," you'll know what the decision became.)

Sometimes I know immediately that I did indeed miss buying something for our shelves. For example, the book reviews included a series of which I was unaware, i.e., the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution edited by  Kaminski et al. Volume 27 is the Ratification of the Constitution by the States: South Carolina. I asked Valerie Lesesne who is my Acquisitions person in the Technical Services unit to order a copy for the Research Room.  

I was a little disappointed to discover that none of the SCLENDS libraries had bought Bad Scarlett: The Extraordinary Life of the Notorious Southern Beauty Marie Boozer by Deborah Pollack. It sounds like such a great read. However, I guess that Boozer's unsavory reputation in the state of her birth still holds sway more than a century later. [Just so you know, if Boozer had any connections at all to Beaufort District, I would order a copy for the Research Room.] 

Three other books reviewed, viz.   Backcountry Revolutionary: James Williams (1740-17890 with Source Documents, The Civil War Letters of Alexander McNeill, 2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment, and To Face Down Dixie : South Carolina's War on the Supreme Court in the Age of Civil Rights do not meet the BDC's collection development criteria. 

We were delighted to receive photocopies of family papers and personal correspondence pertaining to the Stuart family of Beaufort and Charleston over the years 1828 - 1881 from Isabella Stuart Reeves. Her ancestor Claudia Smith Stuart discusses family and community events, including a duel between young John Verdier and George Cuthbert at Pigeon Point. The originals are cataloged as the Stuart Family Papers, 1823 - ca. 1900 in the South Carolina Historical Society. Having the photocopies here may well negate the need for research travel to Charleston for BDC staff or customer some day. We will have to rehouse the photocopies but this gives me the opportunity to give Lori some practical experience processing an archival collection now that she's earned her certificate for completing the "Basics of Archives" course offered by the American Association of State and Local History.

Frequent donor of materials Mary Lou Brewton dropped off a Hunting Island postcard, a Beaufort High School "Undertow" newsletter from 1966, a couple of black and white snapshots of a tree-canopied road; and a Beaufort County Historical Society program from April 15, 2010.

Now that some community activities are being held, Beaufort Branch Library has started gifting us posters and flyers from their bulletin board again once the date of the event has passed. Depending on the size of the material, some go into the appropriate vertical file while others are encapsulated, cataloged, and become part of the BDC's Poster Collection.

If not for the generosity of our many donors, the Friends of the Beaufort Library, and our colleagues in other sections of the Library, the Beaufort District Collection would be far poorer in treasure and treasures.