The BDC's Facebook Posts for December 2022

I really tried to not research, write and illustrate a Facebook post every day - and being out on personal leave for at least part of the holidays should have made that quest a tad simpler but ... I made 31 posts in all though some days I didn't post at all which means that in the end I made no reduction in the total monthly number of social media posts at all. Dang! I am an overachiever yet again - but in my defense, the BDC always has a lot of "stuff" going on and I like to share such information with the public.

As has become my practice, the post I made on the first of the month alerts readers what to expect. 

December 1: Overview of December 2022 in the BDC: The BHM/BCL local history series continues with John Warley's talk about his ancestor "John Barnwell and His Fight to Save the American Colonies" on December 6th at the St. Helena Branch Library. Register for any remaining seats on the Beaufort History Museum's website.

Though the BDC has naught to do with the Beaufort Railroaders annual show held at Beaufort Branch, even we get asked about the schedule. Thus a picture of their flyer illustrates this post. [Which I have omitted as no longer relevant].

December has holidays. The Library system will be closed Friday, December 23, Saturday, December 24th, Monday, December 26th and Tuesday, December 27th (notification came after this was originally posted) for Christmas. The branch libraries normally open on Saturdays will observe their regular Saturday hours of operation on New Year's Eve, December 31st. Because New Year's Day happens to fall on a Sunday, Beaufort County policy is that it will be observed on Monday, January 2, 2023. Updated: 6Dec2022

I like to remind customers about the Library's subscription to electronic databases from time to time. 

December 2: The Library's subscription to Ancestry Library Edition allows you to find World War II Draft Registrations to enhance your genealogy research on our public computers. Read more about how to use these critical records. FamilySearch.org takes a slightly different approach to providing access to Draft Registrations. Check out the FamilySearch.org Research Wiki to learn more. Please note: No WW2 Draft registrations remain for residents of Maine; the "old man" registration forms from the states of AL, FL, GA, ME, MS, NM, NC, SC and TN are gone, too. Guess where my "old married man with children" grandfathers were? In SC.

I made four 50 Shades of Beige posts with topics ranging from the antebellum period to World War II.

December 5: "50 Shades of Beige: Materials Monday": Though the cover of the binding for 21 issues we have of Hoof Prints is not beige, most of the magazine's pages are beige. The Mounted Beach Patrol was headed by Beaufort County's Sheriff Ed McTeer who had to temporarily resign from his elected office to manage the look-outs for German submarines and infiltrators along the coasts of from Florida to Wilmington, North Carolina. Most of the look-outs were on relatively uninhabited islands, such as Hilton Head's Camp McDougall. The magazine has news stories, jokes, life tips, boxing, and stories by officers, a number of which would not be considered in good taste today for reasons of racism and sexism. I choose this particular issue because of its seasonal nature. I like that they adhered the "Merry Christmas" banner with a poinsettia sticker. The outcome of WWII was very uncertain in December 1943. The Allies had taken North Africa; The war in the Pacific was hot; D-Day was yet to come. This magazine and others like it tried to keep morale up.

December 12 - "Materials Monday: 50 Shades of Beige" is an ink drawing of a monument at the Beaufort National Cemetery honoring the Union soldiers who died in a Confederate prison camp in Charleston. I now know that it was installed by 1869, not in the 1880s as previously thought. Learn more about how I significantly narrowed down the date of installation in Connections.

 December 19 - "Materials Monday: 50 Shades of Beige:" Our visitor has a priceless reaction to seeing all those 25,000+ beige obituary cards in the closed storage area of the Research Room during a recent tour. Fun Fact: There are 38 entries for obituaries published in the local newspapers on Christmas Day on the Online Obituary Index.

December 26 - "Materials Monday: 50 Shades of Beige" selection is Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter by Theodore Rosengarten. If the holidays are somewhat trying for you, you are not alone.

Thomas B. Chaplin (1822-1890), heir to a fortune in land and slaves, was 22 when he became master of the 376-acre Tombee Plantation on St. Helena Island, S.C. There, with a wife and four children, he lived extravagantly, managed poorly and sank deeper into debt and opium addiction, ultimately losing everything when federal troops arrived in 1861. Rosengarten's book, in two parts, opens with a well-researched biography of Chaplin, who was always cash-poor and struggling to keep up appearances while battling a much-hated stepfather for his mother's wealth. The second half, edited with the assistance of Susan W. Walker, is the daily journal kept by Chaplin for 15 years to make sense of his life of "loss and disappointment."

In 1848, Chaplin wrote in his journal: "So far Merry Christmas is rather on the other extreme. But there is a party tonight at Pope's, I expect some amusement. Once upon a time, Christmas was to me a very jolly time, fun & frolic for a week, but times & disposition have both greatly changed."

Unfortunately, his subsequent entries do not mention whether or not he enjoyed Pope's party.

The Library has plenty of copies of Tombee to share with those interested in local history.

I made four "Black History Note Wednesday" posts that range from the early 19th century through Reconstruction Era up to the United States' entry into World War II.

December 7 - "Black History Note: Wednesday" on the Day that Will Live in Infamy: Two local men were numbered among the dead killed at Pearl Harbor but ... Read how I unraveled a mystery based on a tip from a Research Room visitor who just so happened to be a descendant of the two sailors who purportedly died in service to our country that fateful day.

December 14 - "Black History Note Wednesday:" Accepted facts can be altered by historical research as per my post here on 7 December. Another example: Based on the work of Kate Clifford Larson and National Park Service historians, it is now believed that Araminta Ross was most likely born in March of 1822. You may know of her by the name she used later: Harriet Tubman. I updated the BDC's WordPress list of links and materials about Tubman to reflect the latest finding.

December 21 - "Black History Note:" This notice about the Freedman's Bank assets from the New York Tribune issue of March 5, 1869 includes a luscious tidbit about the assets of its branch here: "At Beaufort, South Carolina, the increase was from $48,818 to $77,727. Figures like these [meaning all the branch data provided in the article], showing nearly $1,000,000 already saved by 9,000 persons hitherto almost wholly unacquainted with money, speaks louder than words."

December 28 - "Black History Note:" The Day of Jubilee is a red letter local history date, particularly in the African-American community. Read first person accounts of the activities at Camp Saxton on January 1, 1863 in Connections.

As the month's overview indicated, the BDC had a lot of program and presentations to get done during December. I made two posts on December 5: One was a photo gallery of images from the "Time for Tea" presentation while the other was about the session we held for the Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era. December 6 was a BDC Local History program day with our partner the Beaufort History Museum. I made two posts:

Today's the day for "Tuscarora Jack Barnwell and His Fight to Save the American Colonies." I look forward to seeing all y'all local history groupies with tickets at St. Helena Branch this afternoon.

Great turnout for the Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library local history program about John Barnwell today. Thank you, John Warley, Amelie Cromer, BHM's programs chair, Kathy Mixon, BHM President and Olivia of the BDC staff. None of this could have happened without the able assistance of Candy Van Tine and her staff at the St. Helena Branch Library who helped with set up and technical support. It was a pleasure working with you all today.

More photos tomorrow. [Not included here - there are too many of them.]

Reminder: Next programs are in January 2023. Be sure to subscribe to the BDC's Local History e-newsletter to get reminders when program registration begins.

December 7 - Photo gallery from the "Tuscarora Jack" program with John Warley [Not included here - there are too many of them.]

December 8 - Heads up: Local History programs return in January.

On deck: Dr. Michael Johns and his multimedia Civil War Union Bands presentation.

2 opportunities: Thursday, January 19, 2023 at St. Helena Branch Library or Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at Hilton Head Branch Library.

These local history programs are brought to you by the Beaufort District Collection, the Beaufort County Historical Society and the Coastal Discovery Museum.

Registration opens 2 weeks ahead of program date.

The BDC tries to support programs, events and even the occasional children's material held by our colleagues in other parts of the Library system.

December 11 - "Pouring on the Steam" for the annual Model Train Exhibit at Beaufort Branch, Tuesday Dec. 13 - Saturday, Dec. 17th. Read more about the history of railroads in Beaufort District.

December 12 - Today is "National Poinsettia Day." Congress chose December 12 in remembrance of former ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, a native South Carolinian who popularized the colorful bracts (another way to say "modified leaves.") Poinsett died on Dec. 12, 1851. Poinsettias (also known as poinsettas -- no "i") have become the quintessential Christmas plant. For me, a poinsetta says that Christmas is coming. (I leave out the "i").

If you have a young child in your life, I recommend "Legend of the Poinsettia" by Tomie DePaola. I tried to celebrate the day by reading it to my children back in the day when they were small tykes.

December 19 - The BDC staff is getting into the holiday spirit on "Ugly (or Pretty) Christmas Sweater Day [that was part of the Library system's seasonal festivities. You can see pictures on the Beaufort County Library's Facebook page.]

Promoting materials in the Research Room is always and ever on my radar.

December 10 - The BDC always tries to have hand-outs and/or displays at our programs and presentations that relate to the topic of the day. Here are two flyers that program attendees could pick up on December 6th at the "Tuscarora Jack" session with John Warley.

December 13 - Christopher Donner is checking his watch - the trains are due! Visit the Model Trains exhibit at Beaufort Branch, today through Saturday. (See more images of the Yemassee train station circa 1900 in our digital Donner Collection.) 

December 15 - Read about Olivia's "Favorite Things" (preferably with Julie Andrews singing in the background) on Connections, the BDC's longest running blog.

December 20 - I share my pick for the "Historical Fiction" category of the "Diversify Your Reading Challenge" in Connections, the BDC's longest running blog.

Given that December and early January included a number of schedule adjustments, there were a number of posts about those upcoming schedule adjustments, i.e. December 9, 18, 22, 26 and 29 - which I do not include above as those announcements are no longer relevant.