Materials Monday - Uniquely BDC
June 3: Here's an unique image from our Lucille Hasell Culp Collection hosted on the Lowcountry Digital Library website in honor of "World Bicycle Day".
June 10: "Uniquely BDC:" I count BDC blog posts as "unique" to us items. Cassandra and I both worked on updating a long neglected BDCBCL blog post about Chlotilde Martin last month. Chlotilde Rowell Martin was a journalist and author. She is most remembered for her lowcountry plantation sketches in the Charleston News and Courier that were republished as Northern Money, Southern Land (2009). Stephen Hoffius and Robert Cuthbert served as editors and updated the text to include some of what happened beyond the 1950s to certain of the plantations featured. Read more about Mrs. Martin and her career.
June 17: "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday in 'Adventure Begins in your Library' SRP 2024" - By their very nature the BDC's vertical file are unique compilations and selections about the people, places, themes and events of Beaufort District's long and storied history. When I searched for "adventure" in the BDC to give me ideas for 8 Mondays in June and July, one of the "hits" was for "Adventure stories -- Authors -- South Carolina -- Hilton Head Island" given as subject headings for the vertical file about Lew Dykes.
My oh my! what that vertical file tells us about the Baltimore policeman, FBI undercover agent, former resident of Hilton Head Island and Bluffton and his life. It appears to me that Llewellyn Moore Dykes (nicknamed "Kelly" by his mother; pen name Lew) "is" the adventure story, not just the writer of adventure stories. This is one of the many vertical files from Hilton Head Island Branch that Laura, Val and I have been trying to merge in with the BDC's array for the past 5 years or so.
The best thing about this job? Every day in the BDC is an Adventure!
Black History Notes
June 5: "Black History Note in 'Adventure Begins at your Library' SRP 2024:" The BDC doesn't collect many children's books but we do have one from the Travel Adventure series entitled My Trip to St. Helena Island: Discovering Gullah Geechee Culture by C.M. White. The illustrations are photographs of some of the local sites related to Gullah culture including a two page spread about the artistic interpretation of a sweetgrass basket that's in the middle of the St. Helena Branch Library. Most of the narration is a sentence or three relevant to the photographic image written at an elementary school grade level. The glossary contains succinct definitions of some key terms. We have a permanent copy available for review in the BDC or you could use your BCL library card and borrow one from the St. Helena Branch Library or the SCLENDS consortium.
June 12: "Black History Note in 'Adventure begins at Your Library' SRP 2024" - SCETV rebranded and marketed a lot of its 1970s-2010s catalog into a series called "ETV Video Adventures" in DVD format. Among the series is a documentary about Gullah culture done in 1997/1998 by Teresa Bruce called God's Gonna Trouble the Water. Beaufort's own Paul Keyserling was the videographer; Ruby Dee performed the script written by Bruce. The title is taken from the spiritual "Wade in the Water." The documentary won a CINE award. The BDC has copies in VHS (remember that format?) and DVD. Some other parts of the BCL and the State Library have circulating copies of the DVDs. In 2015 Bruce uploaded the documentary where one can view it at no charge.
June 19: "Black History Note in 'Adventure begins at your Library' SRP 2024 -" Another item in the "ETV Video Adventures" DVDs that I mentioned last week is episode 8 from Season 4 of the 1990s classic series "Mary Long's Yesteryear." The BDC and other parts of the BCL have DVDs of "Mary Long's Yesteryear: Penn School: Experiment in Freedom" for you to view. PBS lets you stream this documentary online at no charge. If you'd like to know more about what the BDC has about Penn School, the BDC has you covered.
June 26: "Black History Note:" The Honey Hill Battlefield Park near present-day Ridgeland preserves the site of one of the largest Civil War battles in South Carolina. Participants included a substantial number of Black soldiers from the Lowcountry, who in some cases were fighting against Confederates from the region who had enslaved them prior to the war. It recently joined the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network. The BDC has more than a dozen different, unpublished, and some rare materials about the military engagement and those who fought in it in our Research Room. We'd be happy to show you: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468.
Finding Aid Fridays:
June 21: Finding Aid Friday: Cassandra finalized the John C. Stevens III Research Files Finding Aid recently. In 2021 Judge Stevens gave us contains court transcripts, photographs, clippings, and interviews related to the Ribbon Creek Incident (1956) and subsequent court martial of SSgt. Matthew McKeon that he used in writing Court-Martial at Parris Island: The Ribbon Creek Incident (1999, 2007). Read more.
More Summer Reading Program Posts:
June 4: BDC staff hope that you have lifted off into your own Summer Reading "adventure." Parasailing is a popular activity for those who like adventure over the beautiful water. The colorful parachutes are often seen around the South Beach Marina on Hilton Head Island. The image is from the BDC Postcard Collection. Details about how to participate in SRP 2024 are on the Library's website:
June 7: Summer Reading is for adults, too. We recommend Adventure in the Woods and Waters of the Low Country by J.E. McTeer, local author of 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.
June 13: There's certainly plenty of time for your personal reading "Adventure" to begin. The game board is the same for all ages and has 30 "stops." No need to register. Just pick up a game board from a Branch library or bookmobile or download and print out one from the Library's website. It's easy-peasy: Read anything of your choice or listen to an audio book for just 20 minutes a day on 30 days between now and July 31st. Details.
PSST: If you get those 20 minutes a day reading a book or audiobook about the long and storied history of Beaufort District, you'll have the added bonus of making BDC staff happy- which I will admit isn't necessarily an easy thing to make happen. Make us smile by choosing a short local history book to read or hear today. Complete 6 of the 12 Super Reader tasks in Bonus Round and you'll get an extra entry in the grand prize contest.
Significant Days:
June 6: In honor and memory of all those Allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen who participated in the Normandy Campaign 80 years ago: General Jacob E Smart (Ret., USAF) compiled a large volume about Lowcountry Families in World War II: A Memorial (2004) that we have in our Research Room. Chapter 8 covers the land, naval, and air assaults on Normandy, pp. 89-99. The most significant feature of this volume are the 700+ pages worth of biographies of approximately 6000 men and women from Jasper County, Hampton County, and parts of Beaufort and Colleton counties who were in the military services during the war.
June 14: Flag Day is a great day for you to read one of my favorite local history books: Port Royal under Six Flags by Katharine M. Jones (1960) - seeing as how it involves 6 flags. Mark off another another dot on that "Adventure Begins at Your Library" gameboard!
June 15: There are a number of local Juneteenth celebrations going on this weekend. Here's some I have heard about. Be sure to follow up with the respective organizations for details. [The links have since been taken down.]
- The 9th Annual Bluffton Juneteenth Festival
- Historic Mitchelville
- Penn Center sponsored by the St. Helena Island & Lady's Island Legacy Keepers
- The Robert Smalls Men & Women of Action 4th Annual Juneteenth Freedom Day in Yemassee
- And tomorrow - Sunday, June 16th at 2 PM -- Project Freedom 326 will have a parade in the City of Beaufort followed by a cookout at Washington Street Park.
Program Announcements:
June 16: This week in the BDC: We are on the road again ... to Bluffton Branch to talk about library services to the area through time on Saturday.
June 22: Today is the day to learn about how public library services came to Bluffton from the early 20th century to the present. Deb Henderson and I will do our best to give attendees an overview of Bluffton Library services then and now. We'll open the doors for seating beginning at 10:30 AM. Hope to see you there!
Schedule adjustments:
June 23: Just a reminder: Because BDC staff will be out of the office on an archives related adventure on Thursday, June 27, 2024, the BDC Research Room will be closed. We expect to operate as per usual Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.
June 26 (at closing time): We will be closed tomorrow. Regular hours resume Friday, June 28.
June 28: Heads up: The Library will be closed on Thursday, July 4th for Independence Day.
Just because Post:
June 30: The 3rd Secretary of the Navy, Paul Hamilton, died on this date in 1816. He's buried in Beaufort County. During the American Revolution, by his own admission he "had some hair breadth escapes" that you can read about in the classic Six Flags over Port Royal by Katharine Jones (1960). One involved a mother's love, a pillowcase, and a bunch of British regulars. Quite a combination to begin an adventure, don't you think? For more about Paul Hamilton, 1862-1816 explore the recently revised bibliography about him that Cassandra and I did.
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