September 2022 Posts to Facebook

Here's a recap of what I posted to the BDC's Facebook Page during Library Card Sign-up Month. 

Materials Monday: 50 Shades of Beige:

September 5: Even though the Library system is closed today for Labor Day, "50 Shades of Beige" must proceed. Molly Gray donated diaries from her ancestors that include entries about President U.S. Grant's visit to Beaufort in 1881; the earthquake of 1886; the Great Sea Island Hurricane and the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 among other topics. Ellen Chapman Crofut (Mrs. James Crofut) kept the diaries from 1874 until shortly before her death in 1905. Mrs. Crofut's hand is rather easy to read after one gets the hang of it over 5 to 10 pages of manuscript on beige paper. Please contact bdc@bcgov.net or 843-255-6468 to make an appointment.

PS: I am aware that I'll be one "50 Shades of Beige" post short for 2022 but I promise to make #50 as part of a 2-fer-1 deal on January 2, 2023.

September 12: "50 Shades of Beige: Materials Monday" : A job applicant asked me earlier this year what it was that I did here. My answer was "Build relationships." I went on to explain that I have worked with some of my researchers for a decade or more on one or more projects. There is a non-transactional nature of my reference work in the special collections and archives room that one doesn't necessarily find at a public library's regular reference desk. Yes, there are some one-time only brief interactions, but there are also plenty of through-the-years extended transactions as well. And honestly, the through-the-years extended transactions are the ones that make my job interesting, the ones likely to result in additional materials for permanent retention in the Beaufort District Collection, and sometimes evolve into future local history programs presenters.

Case in point: Today's beige selection is Last Ferry to Beaufort: The Life and Times of Captain Willie Roberts, 1865 - 1952 by Charles D. Wersler (2014). I became acquainted with this local author as he working on a newspaper article about truck farming - but as he did so, he also kept coming upon tidbits about one of his ancestors. One thing led to another. He told other members of his family what he had found and soon he was fleshing out memories of his grandfather with conversations with his elders, family photographs and documents, and some historical records that were in our Research Room. The result is a small self-published book about the life and times of Captain William P. Roberts. "Captain Willie" was best known as the last operator of the White Hall Ferry that once connected Lady's Island and Beaufort, South Carolina before the first bridge was built across the river in 1927.

The Beaufort County Library system has the only copies of this book within SCLENDS.

Limited publication numbers + very local content about Beaufort District = Perfect acquisition for the BDC and BCL Local History sections

Generations hence will thank the Library for this small gem of a book.

September 19: "Materials Monday: 50 Shades of Beige" The BDCBCL: Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog is published online in shades of beige. Keeping with a theme of education I recommend "Missionary Teachers to the Freedmen" to you.

September 26: "Materials Monday: 50 Shades of Beige" A Yankee Scholar in Coastal South Carolina: William Francis Allen’s Civil War Journals edited by James Robert Hester (University of South Carolina Press, 2015) is today's selection.

Transcribing the Civil War journals of William Francis Allen required a unique skill set. Allen was a New Englander with impeccable academic and abolitionist credentials who was "a perceptive observer of culture and events" in Civil War and Reconstruction era South Carolina. Taking an anthropological view of the former enslaved, Allen analyzed and collected their music to compile the first published anthology of Negro spirituals, Slave Songs of the United States (1867). He studied the syntax of their communication and dispassionately watched their interactions with others sharing his observations with his journal and a series of essays published in the Nation and the Christian Examiner.

Hester, an engineer by trade, is well accustomed to paying attention to all the details so vital in a scholarly transcription of manuscript material. Hester also has a deep interest in musical performance, theory and arrangement that equipped him to transcribe those portions of the journal relating to Gullah musical forms.

Professor George Rable, Charles Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama calls A Yankee Scholar "fascinating reading" and says that Hester's work "immediately becomes an important new primary source for studying the Civil War era."

The BDC has a copy for permanent reference but there are a few copies in the SCLENDS catalog that you can borrow to read at home.

Black History Notes: 

September 7: "Black History Note Wednesday:" Now that in-person schools are in session, I recommend that you consider Schooling the Freed People: Teaching, Learning, and the Struggle for Black Freedom, 1861-1876 by Ronald Butchart (2010), The blurb calls this title "the definitive book on Freedmen's teachers in the South as well as an outstanding contribution to social history and our understanding of African American education."

September 14: "Black History Note Wednesday:" A few months ago a BDC customer shared pdfs of issues of the Bluffton Newsletter from 1932 with me. They now reside in a vertical file.

Most of the news is about the white community but occasional glimpses of daily life and conditions in the Black community living in Bluffton are revealed. For example, in the undated initial issue "BLUFFTON THREATENED WITH RIOT" is on page 1, immediately under "Mrs. Mulligan Dies on Saturday Afternoon Candler Hospital." I can confirm with a Georgia death certificate that Mrs. Ella did indeed die on Saturday, January 23, 1932 - what I cannot confirm is the actual date of the threatened riot because January 20th wasn't on a Tuesday in 1932. (I think that the editor misdated the event.)

Obviously, things got out of hand on that mid-January Tuesday in Bluffton in the year 1932: The constable was loaded, his gun was loaded, he fired shots, women were exchanging fisticuffs, some arrests were made and some resisted, warrants were issued, and the Black community objected to all of the above in front of Mayor Heyward's house in the aftermath.

September 21: "Black History Note Wednesday:" Explore SCETV's Penn Center and Brick Church "Let's Go"

September 28: "Black History Note Wednesday:" Stay in de Boat is a 25 minutes long College of Charleston student film on DVD in the Research Room. Elder Carlie Towne, Ron Daise, Carolyn "Jabulile" White, and "Queen Quet" and others are interviewed about their experiences, dreams and hopes for the future of the Gullah/Geechee people, their language and their culture. St. Helena Branch has a copy you can borrow from the Local History section if you don't want to make an appointment to view it inside the Research Room.

Being a Good Historical Community Citizen

September 8: The rubric for official BDC programs is rather strict. Sometimes our partners include topics much, much broader than those that the BDC can provide or hold a members only event that does not allow open general admission or registration - which means the BDC cannot be a co-sponsor. There are two such events on Thursday, September 15th: 1) The Beaufort County Historical Society is hosting a program about the Middle Passage and 2) The Beaufort History Museum has a members only program re: Hidden Treasures. Check their respective websites for event details.

Looking ahead: The first BHM-BCL local history Season 6 program is October 4th; The first "Historically Speaking" BCHS-BDC Season 4 program is in January 2023. I hope to release the full BDC Local History programs and Community Events roster through June 2023 by October 10th.

September 15: A free webinar that just might help out the family historians: Join Library of Congress Reference Librarian Amber Paranick and Digital Conversion Specialist Mike Saelee to learn how to search for primary source materials in Chronicling America, a free digital collection of almost 20 million pages from American newspapers published between 1777 and 1963 for National History Day research. The presentation will cater to this year’s theme, "Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas," and will discuss the collection, its search interface, how to navigate the challenges of working with historic newspapers, and additional resources to assist students and educators. Chronicling America is jointly sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. [Note: It was supposed to be recorded for later viewing but as of 12 October, it was not among the Event Videos on the Library of Congress' website.]

September 24: Just sharing: One of our cultural heritage sister agencies is hosting a "What The Heck Is It?" session soon. Again just sharing: The Archaeological Society of South Carolina Hilton Head Chapter presents its annual "What the Heck Is It?" artifact identification program on Saturday, October 1, 2022 at the Coastal Discovery Museum from 1 pm - 4 pm. Dr. Jon Leader, the State Archaeologist, and Ron Anthony, retiree from the Charleston Museum, will be on hand to identify your objects. This event is free and open to the public.

Banned Books Week, September 18 -24, 2022

September 18: Banned Books Week (September 18 - 24, 2022) was founded in 1982 as a response to a big increase in the number of book challenges being submitted to school and public libraries. It's not an unfamiliar issue: The first book banning in what later became the United States occurred in 1637, a mere 385 years ago.

The thing to remember is this: Public library collections are designed to serve its community members, regardless of age or religious, political, social, racial, ethnic or sexual identification. That mission more or less guarantees that something we share is likely to upset someone sometime.

To cover just that probability, the BCL Board of Trustees passed a Challenged Materials Policy. It is posted on the Library's website under the "About" tab 's drop-down box under the "Policies and Forms". You can read the other policies passed by the BOT there as well.

Bottom line: BBW celebrates a person's freedom to read whatever he/she/they want to read - and lets someone else choose NOT to read the same title under the exact same principle. Each person gets to decide what to read.

September 20: EveryLibrary Institute, an advocacy group for libraries, recently conducted a national survey about book banning. Some people might find the results surprising. Read the full report for yourself.

September 23: Make sure that you read "Why Book Banning is Awesome" all the way to the end of the article.

Local History Programs

September 20: Registration opens today for the "History of Beaufort's Forgotten 11th South Carolina Volunteers" presented by Jackson Canaday. The program will be held on Tuesday, October 4, 2022 at the Beaufort Branch Library at 2 pm. Space is limited. Registration is required: https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4884467. Registration will close once capacity is reached.

September 27: One week to program time. Do you have your seat at the next BHM-BCL local history program? Register at https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4884467. Registration will close when we reach meeting room capacity.

Hurricane Ian

September 28: This just in from the Hilton Head Chapter, ASSC: "Due to concerns of the hurricane the "What the Heck is It?" event scheduled for Saturday October 1st is CANCELLED. - Stay safe, George Stubbs"

September 28: Public Service Announcement: Due to Hurricane Ian, the library will be closed Thursday, September 29 - Saturday, October 1. Please monitor the Beaufort County Library website at https://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org for updates regarding library services during this period of inclement weather.

Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 - October 15, 2022

September 29: Beaufort District has one of the longest Spanish histories in North America. Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month by learning more about this area's earliest colonial period, the 16th century.

Other Posts about Special Days, Library Materials and Behind-the-Scenes in the BDC:

September 1: Valerie of the Technical Services department reported to me yesterday that she has finished getting the fading labels and barcodes replaced in the BDC vertical files we have. Look how nice the heavy blocked letters labels look! In other words, phase 1 of the vertical file project is done. She started back on 11 July so I am delighted that this part of the project got done so quickly and so well. Val has worked steadily and diligently on phase 1 of the much larger vertical file project. Thank you, Val!

Next up: Photocopying newsprint, citing appropriately, merging and filing content from Hilton Head and Beaufort Branches vertical files that were transferred to the BDC several years ago.

September 6: Celebrate National Read-A-Book Day with one of these short local history books about Beaufort District's long and storied history.

September 9: Among the 646,144 e-book titles on Hoopla, the Library's streaming and electronic format service, are the Arcadia Press titles. Arcadia Press titles are short usually very illustrated local history related paperback books that appeal to the general public. Tip: If you are searching the SCLENDS catalog and run across an Arcadia Press title, odds are you can find that title as an e-book on the BCL's Hoopla platform as well.

September 11: Today is a solemn day of remembrance for much of the world - September 11, 2001 was a momentous day of tragedy that fundamentally altered our view of the world. Do you remember where and what you were doing when the world understood that the hijacked airplanes that struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and that the passengers forced down over Shanksville, Pennsylvania were an orchestrated attack on the United States?

In 2004 Beaufort Branch Library participated in the September Project gathering personal reflections about what that day meant to some Beaufort residents. We are proud to take care of the tapes in our Research Room.

September 13: Obit update from Beloved Docent, Kathy Mitchell: There were 1032 published obituaries in the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet newspapers for the year 1990. She has now indexed these for inclusion in the BDC's Obituary Online Index. Note: Some obituaries appear in both newspapers; some only appear in one. Next up: The year 1992 ...

September 17: Happy United States Constitution Day! September 17 is designated as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787. Learn more about Beaufort District's role in creating it in this recently updated "Connections" blog post.

September 22: With plans for commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the United States underway, expect to see rather more frequent posts about all things Revolutionary War over the next 8 years or so.

Case in point: American Migrations 1765 - 1799 by Peter Wilson Coldham (2000) contains records of the American Loyalist Claims Commission including applications, correspondence, depositions, affidavits, and legal transcripts of 5,800 individual claims that affected at least 15,000 persons of which approximately 75% left after the American Revolution. This is an important source for understanding the consequences of the War for Independence. All copies within SCLENDS must be used inside the building of the owning library. Make an appointment to see the BDC's copy: 843-255-6468 or bdc@bcgov.net.

September 30: Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database is a database run by researchers at Emory University which aims to present all documentary material pertaining to the transatlantic slave trade. It's a massive project that the Middle Passages Project uses to identify landings of human cargo as well as contributes to as their research discovers formerly undocumented enslaved people disembarkations.