South Carolina Signers of the Declaration of Independence by David Reuwer

Note 1: I am re-posting "South Carolinians Signing Liberty's Blessings" by David Reuwer below. I received it two years ago by email from the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust. Please overlook any formatting issues. 

Note 2: I am also reminding you that the SCBPT's Executive Director, Doug Bostick, is presenting "The Legacy of Carolina Day" on Carolina Day [that is June 28, 2022] for the Beaufort County Historical Society and the BDC. Check the BCHS website for remaining seats - registration is required! 

Note 3: All units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed Monday, July 4, 2022 to celebrate Independence Day. Regular operations resume on Tuesday, July 5, 2022. - Grace Cordial

From South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust <dbostick@scbattlegroundtrust.org> 7/03/2020 Email to gracec@bcgov.net South Carolinians Signing Liberty's Blessings A poetic songwriter, a jurist-minded attorney, an art collector, and a sickly son from South Carolina  - each highly educated in England; aristocratic planters all; all provincial legislators -  affirmed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, birthing the United States of America. These South Carolinians began more concretely and heartily to secure "the blessings of liberty" for all of us. South Carolina’s four signers of the Declaration, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Thomas Heyward, Jr., and Arthur Middleton were the youngest group at ages 26, 27, 30, and 34 years old. Rutledge and Heyward each commanded cannon at the Battle of Port Royal Island on February 3, 1779.  These two and Middleton were active soldiers captured at the 1780 British siege of Charles Town, made prisoners-of-war, and incarcerated from August 1780 until July 1781 in Fort St. Mark at St. Augustine, East Florida colony of Great Britain.  Edward Rutledge attended the First Continental Congress at 24 but was the most experienced SC delegate by the Declaration's debates.  "Young Ned Rutledge is a perfect Bob-o-Lincoln - a swallow, a sparrow, a peacock; excessively vain, excessively weak, and excessively variable and unsteady; jejune, inane and puerile," denigrated John Adams.  Rutledge is generally credited with the postponement from June on the vote for independency until July 2. This may have been based on the South Carolinians' uncertainty about breaking completely with the mother country. He became Governor in 1798 but died at 50 before completing his term.   Thomas Heyward served in the U.S. Congress until 1778 when he became a circuit court judge in South Carolina, serving caseloads of dockets for 20 years. President Washington stayed at his home in Charleston in 1791.  Benjamin Rush called him a " firm republican" and described him as "a man of good education and most amiable manners who had an elegant poetical genius." He wrote patriotic songs about the United States for his fellow prisoners to sing at St. Augustine, which they did on the anniversary of the Declaration. Heyward participated in the state constitutional convention of 1790. He died at 62.  His descendant wrote the play Porgy which George Gershwin turned into the opera, Porgy and Bess. Arthur Middleton, in his person, was of "ordinary size, symmetrically proportioned, with fine features, and countenance expressive of firmness and decision." He refused to serve on the congressional committee of accounts because he disliked accounting and lamented that he did not even keep up with his own books.  His sister, Henrietta, married Edward Rutledge.  He was one of 11 men to draft the new SC Constitution in February and March of 1776, which "should most effectuate secure peace and good order in the colony, during the continuance of the dispute with Great Britain."  Together with William Henry Drayton, he designed the State Seal of South Carolina. He led passionate rebuke of and aggression against Loyalist Carolinians while serving on the state's Council of Safety. When Gov. John Rutledge refused to accept the revised 1778 SC Constitution, he resigned the governorship, and Middleton was elected.  However, Middleton refused to accept also on the basis of disagreement with the SC Constitution. Much of his personal property, including an extensive art paintings collection, was destroyed by the British during the war. He died at 47 in 1787, leaving nine fatherless children.  The SC State Gazette death notice described him as a "tender husband and parent, humane master, steady unshaken patriot, the gentleman, and the scholar." A World War II U.S. Navy transport ship was named for Arthur Middleton.  Thomas Lynch, Jr., of Hopsewee Plantation on the Santee River, served as substitute for his ailing father in the Continental Congress.  After his dad died due to another stroke, his widowed mother married Governor William Moultrie. Lynch was sickly, feverish, and frail much of his short life. He and his wife, Elizabeth, sailed to the West Indies in late 1779 on their way to Europe, for better health purposes. The ship was never heard from again; the youngest signer to die at age 30.  He had made a will requiring that the heirs of his female relatives change their last name to “Lynch” in order to inherit his family estate. His sister, Sabina, did so and upon her death, his youngest sister, Aimee, did likewise. Thomas Lynch, Jr. is one of the Declaration’s signers rarest signatures; his autograph can bring up to $250,000. The tomb of Middleton is on the garden grounds at his famous family plantation, Middleton Place, and Thomas Heyward, Jr. is in his family cemetery at Old House Plantation near Ridgeland. Edward Rutledge lays in St Philips Church yard in Charleston. Lynch's Hopsewee, Heyward's Charleston townhouse, and parts of Middleton Place are all extant and open for visitation and reflection. Heyward’s plantation is private and has two story tabby walled ruins. As dangerous and uncertain their time, South Carolina’s four signed their lives away.

Diversify Your Reading 2022 Challenge: Thriller

Back on January 11th [2022] I proclaimed here in Connections that I could cover the monthly themes offered by the Diversify Your Reading Facebook page with materials in the BDC and/or Local History sections. Pickings are a little slim this month but the BDC does indeed have three titles that qualify as "Thrillers." 

So what are thrillers and suspense stories? According to the NoveList Plus database: Though similar to mysteries - which tend to focus on a criminal act that has happened - thrillers and suspense stories are more about a crime that is ongoing or is coming. Mysteries allow readers to puzzle out whodunit. Thrillers and suspense stories feature how a protagonist tries to thwart or takes action against an ongoing or impending crime. Emotions get involved in thrillers: plots usually evolve quickly with lots action-packed, high pressured decisions and events. Readers are often suspended between thinking that everything will be okay for the protagonist or thrown into the depths of despair that the protagonist cannot meet his/her objective. A sense of menace tends to build to a dramatic climax. Endings are bittersweet though often have an underlying message that ultimately someday good will triumph over evil.   

Dead Low Water (2019) by lowcountry born and bred author Roger Pinckney is based on real events related to my April selection. Pinckney uses the Harbour Town lighthouse as a metaphor for what lurks beneath the surface of human relationships and politics. When the owners of the Harbour Town marina turn up missing, two cops go rogue trying to find them and uncover a vast and seething criminal conspiracy, embezzlement, smuggling and murder.   

Lowcountry Boil (2003) by Carl T. Smith also found inspiration from local events involving a notorious drug trafficking case of the early 1980s. In Smith's novel Sam Larkin and undercover federal agent face an entrenched society willing to look the other way when crime pays and a group of high-profile conspirators ready to kill to make sure it does. There are a number of titles that Sam Larkin's story but most fall outside of the BDC's collection development policy. (There are some who think that Pinckney's Reefer Moon draws inspiration from Operation Jackpot too. A non-fiction account of the drug sting by Jason Ryan is titled Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, and the Sting that Launched the War on Drugs (2011). I hope to host author Ryan at least one more time before I retire.)  

Ten Days in Brazzaville (2011) by Beaufort attorney and Island News columnist Scott Graber is a legal thriller with most of the action occurring on the African continent. A 750 word letter received in his lowcountry office takes him to sub-Saharan Africa and the denouement upends Jake Timrod's  understanding of how the world really works. We also have Graber's self-published novel Malachi (2009) in the Research Room. 

Due to a permanent reduction in staff, the BDC Research Room remains open by advance appointment only. Please make the necessary arrangements at least 3 to 7 days in advance: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468. 

Carolina Day Lecture 2022

The Beaufort County Historical Society and the BDC are absolutely over the Carolina moon to be able to once again host Doug Bostick, Executive Director of the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust for what had become, pre-COVID-19, our annual "Carolina Day" lecture. This will be lecture 4 of the "Historically Speaking" series for 2021-2022. 

Though I usually concentrate on just the Beaufort District side of history, the "Carolina Day" lecture is held in honor of the first decisive American victory of the Revolutionary War on a date that many native South Carolinians consider our state's Independence day. It is significant - to us proud native South Carolinians - that our Independence day pre-dates the Nation's Independence Day! 

On 28 June 1776 nine British naval ships began a bombardment  of Charles Town (Charleston), the fourth largest and by far the wealthiest city in its American colonies. In a battle lasting about 9 hours, a small force of patriots comprised of South and North Carolinians and their Native American allies commanded by Colonel William Moultrie and Colonel William Thomson successfully defended the harbor and town from a sand and palmetto log fort on Sullivan's Island. Using the 31 guns inside the fort to concentrate "hot shot" fire on the British's two largest ships, American forces prevented the landing of 2500 British soldiers and marines. Patriot actions that day helped delay British occupation of Charleston for another 4 years.

The anniversary was first observed in 1777 as Fort Moultrie Day eventually becoming known as Carolina Day in 1875. In 1995 the South Carolina State Legislature formally declared June 28th as "Carolina Day". 

Join us on June 28, 2022 to hear Bostick share "The Legacy of Carolina Day" in the Fellowship Hall of the First Presbyterian Church of Beaufort at 11 AM.  Registration opens on June 14, 2022 and is required through the Beaufort County Historical Society's website. Space is limited.

BDC's Facebook Posts in May 2022

I was out of the office on personal and FMLA leave for much of May 2022. That I try to schedule my Facebook page posts at least two weeks in advance can be seen in the re-postings below as anything posted after May 6th was already scheduled to post. The Meeting Room capacity limit increase was expected so I had that one ready to remove - if required but didn't expect to have to do so. Otherwise, posts covered local history programs, postcards and other collections inside the Research Room and several public service announcements re: historical topics or databases that I thought that the BDC's FB followers might like to know about. 

May 1 - Overview of the month of May in the BDC: Because of the concurrence of MayDay 2022 and the start of National Postcard Week, I have decided to skip MayDay and go straight for the postcards this year. Expect to see a few postcards through May 7th.

As of this writing, we have two local history programs scheduled: An author book talk about Paradise on May 17th in concert with the Beaufort History Museum and a lecture by Professor Vernon Burton on May 19th in concert with the Beaufort County Historical Society. Registration will open 14 days in advance of each program date.

All units of the Library system will be closed on Monday, May 30th in honor of Memorial Day.

May 2 , 2022 AM - "50 Shades of Beige" in National Postcard Week and in National Preservation Month is the perfect opportunity to share this particular item. Courtesy of the Beaufort County Historical Society who received it from Betsy Knox, the BDC has its first fold-able Mail card for our postcard collections. There is no message. BTW: You can see the left side of the image as a separate postcard in the digital Arnsberger Collection.

May 2, 2022 PM - Beloved BDC docent Kathy has added another 972 names of the deceased as published in the Beaufort Gazette in 1989. Check out the BDC's Online Obituary Index to see if one of your loved ones is listed.

May 3, 2022 - Registration is now open online for the next BHD/BCL Local History program. Nelle and Ora Smith will talk about their memoir, Paradise. Listen, laugh, and learn with these two indomitable ladies of the Lowcountry. Be sure to register through the Beaufort History Museum website’s events page. Registration will close when room capacity is reached. [Note: This program occurred in the past. The link has been removed.]

May 3, 2022 - "The Tide on the Beach"

Higher, higher rushes the tide

Running, foaming, spreading so wide,

The beach disappears

And sand dunes high

Rushing, swirling waters defie.

The tide comes in with a zooming blast,

The sand dunes high are holding fast,

The growing waves

With crests so high --

Break loudly in a wild sea cry.

The poem is by Marie E. Reddy, a member of the Poetry Society of Bluffton, South Carolina, from her poetry booklet, Beloved Low Country (no date, no publisher), page 37.

The postcard is from our Arnsberger Postcard Collection. It is image 115277. See it and 358 more postcards online.

May 4, 2022 - "Black History Note" in National Postcard Week: Patricia Bee included a poem "The Bridge" in her book Mama's Pearls: Gullah Poetry to Live By (2003):

         Remember the bridge that took you

For you may come again

Every day won't be sunny

Some days will have rain.

Remember the bridge that took you

And don't pull up the plank

For it was this very bridge

That launched you from the bank.

(Psalm 103:2 - Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits), p. 51.

The verso of this image taken by Werner J. Bertsch says "The gracious J. Wilton Graves Bridge is the island's only connection to the mainland." There's plenty of discussion about what is to become of this bridge - and the second one to go along side it at the moment in an attempt to ameliorate the traffic problems. This postcard is also from the BDC's created postcard collection.

May 5, 2022 - I ran across the poem to illustrate today's postcard during a reference transaction totally unrelated to poetry. One of the joys of the job is all the serendipitous finds I make in the course of the work.

"Beautiful Beaufort" No author provided

Beautiful Beaufort, the bride of the sea,

Briny the breezes that blow over thee;

Balm-laden zephyrs, lulling to sleep,

Born in the caves of the fathomless deep.

Beautiful Beaufort! Joyful our lays'

Beata, sancta, pulcherrima es!

Bedecked in fair robes, the gray and the green,

Be now and for aye our Palmetto Queen!

Beautiful Beaufort, Queen of the Strand,

Blossoms of orange they coronal band:

Bright are thy banners, leafy of fold,

Blazoned at sunset with purple and gold.

Beautiful Beaufort, belle of the isles,

Basking in bliss in the light of thy smiles; --

Burgeoning bud and flowering tree

Bring their sweet perfumes as tributes to thee.

Beautiful Beaufort, bonnie thy braes,

Broad are thy rivers and deep are thy bays, --

Breathing the breath of the billowy tide,

Bathing the marshes all bristling and wide.

Beautiful Beaufort, azure thy sky,

Boasting a light with Italia's to vie, --

Blessing the night with a silvery gleam,

Beaming in shadows where fond lovers dream.

(From: Southern Auto Guide and Directory of Beaufort County for 1918 - 1919 (1918), p. [1])

The postcard is in the Arnsberger Postcard Collection hosted on the Lowcountry Digital Library website.

May 6, 2022 - Local poet and librarian at Parris Island, Martha Ann Tyree Moussatos had these "Reflections on Port Royal, My Home":

How I yearn for the sunset, red and bold,

Silhouetting my land of marsh and trees,

Sprinkling the river with flecks of gold,

Enlightening the barrenness of the leas.

Grey beards of moss sway to and fro

In the warm, salt breezes of my mind,

And the great gnarled oaks from which they grow

Intermingle with palmetto, dogwood, and pine.

The sand lies deep beneath their roots,

As deep as is the briny sea,

But it brings them life and gives them fruit,

This good, sweet earth of my memory.

My heart is buried in this sand,

My soul in the gnarled oak tree,

But I am far from the sliver strand,

And my being no longer breathes free.

The phantom called life challenges me now

To untangle its snarled and depthless maze;

So I leave to the past the sunset glow,

And the beckoning land of my childhood days.

The postcard "Scenes from Port Royal" is from our own BCL created postcard collection.

May 7, 2022 - I end National Postcard Week with a humorous poem by Arthur G. Foster about "The Steam Cannon" from his booklet Island Sketches (1971):

What a blast

that must have been

(not at Woodstock

but the Island's north end)

One shot only

and none since

(sounds like typical

planned obsolescence)

This postcard is from the BDC's created postcard collection. Read more about the Steam guns.

May 5, 2022 - Registration for the next "Historically Speaking" lecture brought to you by the Beaufort County Historical Society and the Beaufort District Collection is now open. Sign up before all the seats are taken! The direct link [is no longer active.]

May 6, 2022 - PSA: Because the BDC has a copy of Deborah Willis' The Black Civil War Soldier in the Research Room, I'm letting you know about a free online opportunity to explore it more deeply with some of the experts in their field on May 14th. Details:... in case you'd like to register. [This too has passed so I deleted the link.] In the spirit of full disclosure, the BDC has been the recipient of some Gilder-Lehrman traveling exhibits in the past: "The History of US" (before 2007) and "When This Cruel War is Over" (2013).

May 8, 2022 - Happy Mother's Day. Stick with me here and you'll discover just how some of the content in the volume described below links me to my own maternal ancestors. - And with luck, perhaps it will link you to some of yours too.

The BDC is a recipient of a lot of gifted material which helps me fill in gaps of coverage in the collection. For example, the BDC has the other 3 volumes of the classic "History of South Carolina" by David Duncan Wallace (American Historical Society, 1934). Back in April I got volume 4 the Biographical volume to complete the set from a donor - all 1000+ pages of it.

In volume 4, I found my own ancestors! - which was exciting for me and of course, I had to share it with my children on What's App who of course just ignored the post - as grown children are wont to do when the subject of ancestors arises.

Rufus Duncan Lewis was one of my maternal great grand uncles. His brother, Archie "the printer of Abbeville" was my great-grandfather. My mother was named for their sister Nina. Great-Grand Aunt Nina bequeathed my mother a diamond ring. Unfortunately, the center diamond fell out of that ring - because I remember that my Big Pop and Daddy opened the septic tank in the house on Fraser Street and searched it in hopes of finding the diamond when I was a child. I particularly remember the smell of said septic system. But I digress - as family historians are wont to do.

Getting back to the point: The significant thing about this volume, I think, is that the arrangement is not chronological nor alphabetical nor by county of residence nor by city of residence. One must use the index to locate the biographical entries.

If you think that one or more of your ancestors who were alive before 1934 might be in it, contact me and I'll look in the index to see: bdc@bcgov.net.

May 9, 2022 - "50 Shades of Beige" Materials Monday highlights also include current items such as this invitation for the Beaufort County Historical Society's historic marker dedication ceremony on April 21, 2022.

I attended the ceremony for a number of reasons: The Society's researcher and I have spent (and will spend) a considerable amount of time together in the Research Room as she continues to work on the texts for the Society's historic markers. It was so close by I could hobble there. Plus, the BCHS is a particular friend to the BDC as we host the "Historically Speaking" local history series together. The Library and the BCHS have a special relationship of long standing, second only to the length and depth of its relationship to the Clover Club.

Besides, I do my best not to miss anything that Dr. Rowland does. No matter where we are or what we are doing, out of Dr. Larry Rowland's mind and mouth comes something that I did not know about the history of this place and its people. He helps me do my job by sharing what he knows so that in turn I know more to help my in-person and remote customers better. He is one of the District's true living treasures - and a genuinely lovely gentleman and human being.

The invitation will be added to the BCHS collection that is here in the Research Room.

You can read transcriptions of newspaper coverage of the Fire of 1907 on the BDC's WordPress blog.

And you may want to see if there are any seats still left at our next "Historically Speaking" local history program!

May 10, 2022 - The University of South Carolina's Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) sent the BDC its latest Legacy magazine issue (dated December 2021) in mid-March. It includes several articles related to this area: "Spanish Halberds in South Carolina?" by Chester B. DePratter and James Legg; "Santa Elena Research Trip to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center" by Heathley A. Johnson; "The Civil War at Santa Elena" by James Legg and Heathley Johnson; "Update on the Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey 2021" by Albert C. Goodyear and Joseph A. Lindler, Jr.; and "Prospecting for Shipwrecks off Port Royal Sound" as part of the "Maritime Research Division: A Year of Fieldwork in Review."

As of this writing (that is, 21 March), this issue of Legacy hasn't yet made it into the Scholar Commons. Make an appointment to read it here in the Research Room: 843-255-6446 or bdc@bcgov.net.

May 11, 2022 - "Black History Note Wednesday:" Gullah Woodburning Folk Art by Rev. Johnnie F. Simmons [2018] is a delightfully colorful little book (literally little, the book measures 5 inches by 4 inches) of his woodburned depictions of Gullah culture and life on St. Helena Island. He gave the BDC a copy of the booklet via former St. Helena Branch Manager, Maria Benac, a few years ago.

May 12, 2022 - The Library Board of Trustees voted last night to allow greater capacity in the system's meeting rooms. This means that there are now more seats than we originally expected available for Nelle and Ora Smith's Authors Book Talk about Paradise being held at the St. Helena Branch Library on May 17th! Sign up through the BHM website before all are taken.

May 13, 2022 - Sometimes I have a really, really hard time finding the upsides of certain situations. But here are two things that I can be happy about relating to work: 1) The vacancy of the BDC Circulation position and the elimination of the Preservation Associate position by others at least meant I didn't have to write any performance evaluation documents so far in 2022. 2) Unlike the folks at a historic home in Iowa asking for advice through the Connections to Collections Care list serv, I have not had to deal with "removing bat guano and urine from artifacts" this year. (I have had to deal with rat and roach feces in some incoming archival collections from time to time but never any bat poop - yet.)

May 14, 2022 - A customer inquiry led me to do some newspaper research in the year 1918. In search of an answer for the customer, I came face-to-face with local reaction to the Influenza Pandemic. Given that we've been dealing with a pandemic of our own for several years now, I was struck by just how much local newspaper reporting has changed in the past century.

Case in point: the Beaufort Gazette issue of 11 October 1918 (p. 4) declared "Oh dry and dead as an old navy bean, Is Beaufort town under quarantine!" The social column below that little ditty tells us who is afflicted or recovering from influenza - now a huge "No-No" HIPPA violation.

Those listed as ill or recovering were: "Little Sydney Smith; Miss Davidson and Miss Cooner (teachers); School children: Adelaide Colcock, Dolly Elliott, Florence Walpole, Pauline & Calhoun Thomas, Virginia Pollitzer, Frances Heath, Jennie Bostick, Margaret Raney, Hazel Varn, Margurite Long and Hammie Lea; Miss Lillian Long and Harold Long; Mrs. Junker; Little Louis Lengnick; Louis Hewlett; Sgt. Lucas (USMC); and Lt. Ryan (USMC).

The disease was so rampant "All schools in this county are to be closed until further orders are issued, on account of Spanish Influenza." (Which, by the way, we now know actually began in Fort Riley, Kansas in March 1918. )

The issue the previous week (4 October 1918, p. 4) announced that "Although many people on the Island both Marines and civilians, are under special quarantine as suspected Influenza patients, no positive cases have been reported to date. These precautions are taken, it is understood with all who have bad colds." What a difference 7 days can make in disease transmission.

See the CDC's History of the 1918 Flu Pandemic for more about this scourge that killed approximately 675,000 Americans (roughly 0.5% of the country's population at the time) and an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

Make an appointment to review the contents of the BDC's "History - World War, 1914-1918" to see clippings related to local news about the war and the Influenza Pandemic. (bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-4668.

May 15, 2022 - Please mark your calendars now that the Library system will be closed on Monday, May 30, 2022 in honor of Memorial Day.

May 16, 2022 - "50 Shades of Beige" Materials Monday: A daring Huguenot sea captain, Jean Ribaut (aka Ribault) landed on Parris Island on May 17, 1562 and established the first French colony in North America. It also just so happened to be the first Protestant settlement in the New World. Read more about Ribaut, the French presence in Beaufort District, and the 400th Anniversary commemorative events related to same in Connections. The highlight of the commemoration was the production of Prologue to Freedom, a lavishly staged local drama presented 6 times between March 26 and March 31, 1962 in the Depot Theatre on Parris Island.

May 17, 2022 - PSA: Virtual Lunch and Learn (from the Native American Studies Center in Lancaster, SC) on May 20th, 12:00 pm: Rice Culture in South Carolina, Past and Present,

Join Amanda McNulty of SCETV’s Making It Grow for a discussion of South Carolina rice culture. Rice culture shaped the society and health of freed and enslaved South Carolinians. Today, breeding has brought back the original “Carolina Gold” rice which at one time gave South Carolina the highest per capita income in the world. Registration required [but has since passed so I removed the link.]

And don't forget the "Rice Culture" list of resources on the BDC's WordPress blog!

May 18, 2022 - "Black History Note Wednesday:" As most of you are aware, the BDC is a geographically based local history collection which means that we concentrate on the people, places, events, and themes of Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton County. But the National Archives also has materials on the topic of African American history that could include references to the people, places, events and themes of Beaufort District's history. Explore NARA's landing page to see what treasures you may uncover!

May 19 , 2022 - SC Humanities works with organizations nationwide that create digital humanities content for the public. COVID-19 made all of us recognize just how valuable digital humanities resources are. Explore!

May 20, 2022 - One manual that a librarian/archivist hopes she will never need to consult: Documenting in Times of Crisis: A Resource Kit. [In light of recent events, I pray that neither I nor any of my successors in this office will have to use it for a tragedy in Beaufort County.]

May 21,2022 - The BDC has some antiquarian books - which sort of begs the question of what is an antiquarian book? Biblio.com shared a blog post by May Manikowski that answers that question.