"Adventure Begins" in the BDC's Display Case

With Jalen's departure, I am stocking the BDC Display case with "Adventure" for June and July.  

According to the online Cambridge English Dictionary, adventure is "an unusual, exciting, and possibly dangerous activity, such as a trip or experience, or the excitement produced by such an activity." At first, I thought that the BDC might not have enough material to highlight this theme. But as I explored our holdings looking for "adventure stuff," I was pleasantly surprised (again). Oftentimes I go into a topic expecting to find little or not enough for a display but then poof! there's more than enough to go around. As it turns out, the BDC can definitely share some local history related adventures with our customers!

Shelf 1 contains three classics. 

I choose Adventure in the Woods and Waters of the Low Country by J.E. McTeer on account of its book cover and the author's reputation for delivering entertaining tales of shipwrecks, hunting, fishing, and creatures in the Carolina lowcountry. Sheriff McTeer was not one who let truth get in the way of a good story. Caution: Lots of references to smoking cigars, drinking of alcoholic beverages, and killing of animals.

The ship on the book cover is the City of Savannah that was shipwrecked during the Hurricane of 1893. When I do the "Tide of Death" lecture, I always include a lot (perhaps too much) information about what happened to her. One of the men marooned on the steamer ended up being Clara Barton's right-hand man on Hilton Head during the recovery effort. By the way, I'm doing that lecture at Beaufort Branch Library at the end of August.  

William Elliott's Carolina Sports by Land and Water is considered a sports literature classic. It has stayed in print since 1846. The USC Press reprint of 1994 with a new introduction by Theodore Rosengarten (author of Tombee) has a beige, brown and red cover that is more suitable for a display than the other copies we have. Mid-19th century book covers tended to be rather formal. The BDC has a first edition copy and several other reprint editions in the Research Room.

Plenty of circulating copies of this classic are available through the SCLENDS consortium. It's also available on Hathitrust, the Internet Archive and the Digital Public Library of America. In other words, there is no reason at all why you shouldn't check out Carolina Sports.

BTW: William Elliott III was an interesting very important person. Cassandra and I recently updated a long neglected bibliography of materials by and about him on the BDCBCL: Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog. We have an original copy of his Address to the People of St. Helena Parish (1832) in our stacks in which he expressed his opposition to nullification. It cost him his political career.

A Sea Island Adventure : Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1999, 2007 is a video introduction to the area's natural environment, Gullah culture and long history. Not only does the title of the video include the word "adventure," it is included in the ETV Video Adventures series. I like the VHS cover of the boats silhouetted in the sunset. [The DVD copies that are in the local history sections at some of the Branch Libraries have plain covers.] The writer and producer was local resident, Suzanne Larson; videographer was local resident, Paul Keyserling; and the narrator was Miles Mead.

I like Thomas Schotter's artwork for Summer Reading 2024. He took the islands portion of Beaufort County with 30 "stops" along the way to indicate one's path to successful completion of the program by July 31st. I think that the gameboard makes a fitting backdrop for Shelf 2. 

I included a copy of the Civil War Times Magazine because the article "A Slave's Great Adventure" is about the same person featured in Captain of the Planter by Dorothy Sterling. That man with guts of steel was Robert Smalls.  

As most of you know Smalls steamed the Planter into the Union's naval line under the nose of the Confederates in Charleston Harbor in 1862. Though the man and his feat were nationally famous during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, Dorothy Sterling (1913-2008) was the first author in the 20th century to take note of the significance of the act in her book Captain of the Planter: The Story of Robert Smalls (1958). We have letters between Sterling and Beaufort Township Library staff from 1955 to 1956 in the Research Room as Sterling was doing her due diligence trying to separate fact from fiction and reconcile conflicting accounts of some of the details of Smalls' life before the book's publication. The Dorothy Sterling Letters Finding Aid is in the BDCBCL: Lists, Links and Finding Aids blog.

Andre Michaux: Journals and Letters, 1785 - 1797 edited by Charlie Williams, E.M. Norman and Walter Kingsley Taylor (2020) is the first English translation of this naturalist's personal journals and correspondence written from America. King Louis XVI sent him on nine "adventures" to identify unknown plant species that might improve French forestry, agriculture and horticulture. Two of those journeys crossed into Beaufort District. If you're into botany, you will find "Michx." at the end of more than 700 plant names in his honor. Unfortunately, none of his letters directly commented on species he discovered within our historic borders. But the book is just beautiful and chocked full of primary source documentation. I can see this volume being an useful item for research 25, 50 or even 100 years from now.

The alligator has swum his/her way through many a BDC display over the past 13 years. If I recall correctly, I raided my children's long discarded toy box to bring it to work.

We have a number of cruising guides here in the Research Room. The  6th edition of the Cruising Guide to Coastal South Carolina and Georgia (2007) has the marina and fake lighthouse at Harbour Town in Sea Pines Plantation on the cover. 

American Conquistador: An Action-Adventure that is more Robin Hood than Robin Hood. And the Story is True! by Daryl Arden Ferguson covers the early Spanish and French settlements in our area. There are also copies of this title that you can borrow from the Local History sections at the branch libraries. The BDC is honored that Mr. Ferguson gave us a pre-publication proof of his book back in November 2021 for our archives.

I rather like lighthouses - and I like the word "treacherous" because it just oozes "adventure." I included the VHS copy of the award winning documentary by Suzanne Larsen and Paul Keyserling, A Light on Treacherous Waters: The Story of the Hunting Island, South Carolina, Light Station for its attractive cover. It's also an important history. [Teaser: You'll hear more about that in early August]. The Beaufort County Library owns and shares copies of this title on DVD through the Local History sections at some of the branch libraries. 

I placed the front and the back cover of the Summer Reading Program pamphlet on the shelf in hopes of drawing attention to the fact that it is possible to get an "extra" entry into the Grand Prize sweepstakes by doing 6 of the 12 additional activities, 3 of which I can directly relate to Local History. 

1) You can "Attend a [Local History] Library Program" of which we are offering three! 

2) You can "Read about Local History" by following our many suggestions here in Connections, on Facebook, or by picking a title from one of the more than 125 topics on the BDCBCL: Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog. 

3) You can "Use Hoopla" to read some audio and e-books about our long and storied local history, too. Of course, I'd prefer that the "local history" titles were about this area, but a search on "local history" in Hoopla brings up tons of titles about local history in other locales. For example a search on "Hilton Head Island" as an e-book results in 188 hits. The downside is that the Hoopla search engine is not optimal. Only a few of the "hits" are local history non-fiction titles relevant to Hilton Head Island. Among the successful hits are Hilton Head Island in the Images of America series; Captain William Hilton and the Founding of Hilton Head Island; The Dolphins of Hilton Head; Hidden History of Hilton Head Island; and Remembering the Way It Was by Fran Marscher. If you want a 5 minute history in a nutshell version that covers colonial times to the present, then The Birthplace of Hilton Head Island in South Carolina by Charles J. James, Jr. (2024) may be your best bet.  [Caution: The narrator doesn't correctly mispronounce "Daufuskie" Island.]  You can search in Hoopla on other places in Beaufort District to discover even more options!  

The bottom shelf includes the definition of the word "adventure." I know that some people find Fishin' (1993) an exciting activity but I really liked the cover of this book about where to go around Hilton Head Island to hook a fish or four. The BDC has a number of guides from the 1970s - 2000s on how to find the right fishing holes across our coastal waters for those who want to come into the Research Room to plot their next marine adventure. 

I can't say that I am a fan of fishing as a personal recreational activity. But I generally don't pass up the opportunity to accompany fishermen and fisherwomen on their boat-bound adventures in search of hooking just the right species. It's just that I take along not a pole or a rod or seine net but a book, lots of sunscreen lotion - and plenty of iced water and snacks. I've even been known to sing to a fish or two in my time. [That used to really aggravate my Daddy way back in the day.] 

Sea Kayaking the Carolinas (1997) "is a where-to, as opposed to a how-to, guide to kayaking." It assumes that its readers know how to sea kayak already. It's meant to help you choose a destination along the coastal plain of North and South Carolina for your adventure. Information includes places to put-in and take-out, camping regulations, suggested base camps, and the location of useful facilities such as fresh water sources and toilet stations. The most relevant sections for this area are the ACE Basin, Hunting Island State Park, Pinckney Island and the Savannah National Wildlife Refuges covered on pages 177 - 199. 

If you'd like to tap into "adventure" in the Research Room, please make an appointment for assured service: 843-255-6468 or bdc@bcgov.net. 

A reminder: The BDC Research Room will be closed on Thursday, June 27, 2024. 

Heads up: All units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed on Thursday, July 4, 2024. Regular hours resume on Friday, July 5th.