New (and New to Us) Materials in the BDC Research Room, January - April 2023

I began this series in 2018 more or less to help check off a box on the Library's then strategic plan involving communications: letting the public know what we had that might help them with their research. It has evolved into more a matter of transparency in light of all the scrutiny that library collections and librarians are under at the present. Given that the term "Collection" is in our title and is our primary mission, I hope that these posts demonstrate that I as a degreed librarian and certified archivist give a lot of thought about what materials I select either by purchase or by donation and am very comfortable in explaining why I chose what I chose and how what I chose helps the BDC provide a reputable research collection of permanent value that records the history of this area to our researchers. 

Here's what's been selected for the Beaufort District Collection during the first quarter of 2023: 

Smokin' Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier (ECCO, 2019) was a gift from the Beaufort Friends of the Library. Some of the best "stuff" comes through them to the BDC. I love the cover review authored by Richard Ford: 

Joe Frazier neither floated like a butterfly nor stung like a bee; he just beat the crap out of people -- including Muhammad Ali. He was an old-school thunderer and the heavyweight champ, and Mark Kram, Jr., much, much more than splendidly gets to the strange anomaly that was Smokin' Joe: you'd have thought the guy didn't get no respect. Only he did. Lots. He had a chin of molybdenium, a soft but steely heart, but was still somehow so easily bruised. His life is a story worth reading.

There are more antebellum ties between more northern parts of the East Coast of the United States and South Carolina than one might expect. Migration to South Carolina: Movement from New England and Mid-Atlantic States, 1850 Census abstracted by Margaret Peckham Motes (Clearfield Publishing, 2004, 2006) is a listing of 2694 persons of former northern residency who relocated to the Palmetto State in the mid-19th century.  The Name, Place from whence the person immigrated, and the Occupation indexes are helpful. 

I reached out to John Milner Architects for a print copy of the latest Beaufort Preservation Manual.  Though I was delighted that the latest iteration was posted online through the City of Beaufort's website, I was concerned about what would happen when the City of Beaufort inevitably takes it down. Local history librarians and archivists have to take a long-term view. So I asked the company for a printed copy of the Beaufort Preservation Manual (2022) for permanent retention in the archives to join previous editions of the Beaufort Preservation Manual already here in the Research Room. Beaufort District Collection. They graciously provided us one. 

Growing Up Gullah in the Lowcountry by Josie Olsvig  (Palmetto Publishing Group, 2020) is a children's book. The author tells the story of Gullah culture, particularly in the Charleston area, through granddaughter Veronica's retelling of what she learned from her grandmother. Gullah words, historic sites around Charleston and vignettes of mid-20th century daily life are featured. 

Hurricane Jim Crow: How the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 Shaped the Lowcountry South by Caroline Grego (University of North Carolina Press, 2022) uses the Storm of 1893 Death List I compiled from surviving Beaufort County Coroner Inquisitions records as the catalyst upon which the author examined the totality of the hurricane's impact on the area's economy and its political and social conditions. Grego also used some BCL photographs of the aftermath of the storm in her book. BTW: I will be giving my "Tide of Death" southern Beaufort County emphasis presentation at the Hilton Head Branch Library on Tuesday, August 22, 2023 at 1 PM - in case you'd like to make a note on your calendar. 

The fact that the Friends of the Beaufort Library book sale chair, Deb, lets me have first dibs on local history and/or South Carolina items that come to her led to the addition of two Penn Center related items that we did not formerly have: Penn Center Celebrates [the] 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, A Milestone in American Civil Rights History (2004) and 150th Anniversary of Penn Center: April 28th, 2012 from their respective 1862 Circle Gala celebrations.   

In the Affairs of the World: Women, Patriarchy, and Power in Colonial South Carolina by Cara Anzilotti (Greenwood Press, 2002) was a gift from the area chapter of the Colonial Dames. Carolina settlers imported English culture to the lowcountry and sought to preserve their "dominance in the face of demographic and racial disruption, empowering the women within the planter class became essential to the maintenance of the traditional social order... [women] were openly acknowledged by all as indispensable to the success of the plantation venture." (p. 5) The book examines the experience of landowning women in the colony and concludes that "they accepted the sexual hierarchy of planter society" seeing themselves even as widows as simply temporary caretakers of the familial properties until their children could inherit and take over operations. 

Peter N. Moore explains in Carolina's Lost Colony: Stuarts Town and the Struggle for Survival in Early South Carolina (University of South Carolina Press, 2022) how "two strange bedfellows [i.e. Yamasee Indians and Scot Presbyterian refugees] converged on Port Royal, South Carolina" to transform "a sleepy backwater of sparsely peopled Indian towns into a bustling regional power center." (back cover blurb.) We bought copies for the local history sections at the Branch Libraries as well. 

Genealogy Standards, 2nd Edition Revised and published by the Board of Certification of Genealogists (2019, 2021) modifies 4 previous standards and adds 7 new standards related to DNA evidence.  It begins with an overview of the Genealogy Proof Standard followed by chapters about standards for documenting, standards for researching, standards for writing, standards for genealogical educators, and standards for continuing education. The Appendices include The Genealogist's Code of Ethics, information about the Board for Certification of Genealogists, a list of recommended readings, and a glossary.  This title will be housed in the public area of the Research Room. 

James Montgomery: Abolitionist Warrior by Robert C. Conner (Casemate, 2022) is the first published biography of a controversial mid-19th century figure. Before he found himself in Beaufort, he had been a close associate of John Brown, a Free Stater, and well acquainted with other abolitionists such as T.W. Higginson, Harriet Tubman, Robert G. Shaw. He commanded the 1863 Combahee River Raid, a brigade assaulting Fort Wagner, and fought at the Battle of Olustee in Florida with his Black troops in the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers. "Montgomery's willingness to resort to violence in peacetime and defy legal authority, and his occasional executions of both deserters and prisoners, raise serious questions both of morality and realpolitik." (p. 4) [BTW: As of this writing, the Combahee Ferry Historic District exhibit is still at St. Helena Branch Library.] We bought copies for the local history sections at the Branch Libraries as well. So far the BCL is the only member of the SCLENDS consortium to buy this important book to share. 

Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy by Clarence Lusane (City Lights Books, 2022) "writes from a basic premise: Racist historical narratives and pervasive social inequities are inextricably linked -- changing one can transform the other. Taking up the debate over the future of the twenty-dollar bill, Lusane uses the question of Harriet Tubman vs. Andrew Jackson as a lens through which to view our national's ongoing reckoning with the legacies of slavery and foundational white supremacy." (back cover blurb) So far the BDC is the only member of the SCLENDS consortium to buy this title. If you were to review the Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid, 1863, you would see that I included links to articles about the $20 bill controversy because some of the reasoning given in favor of switching from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman is based on her liberation of enslaved people - the largest number of whom were liberated through the Combahee River Raid. 

We received a copy of the 1950 Beaufortonian, the yearbook for Beaufort High School, from Ms. Elaine Stacey. BTW: The BDC still needs a copy of the 1959 Beaufortonian to complete the 1950s if you have one to donate. 

We added a half dozen posters of local events, too.