New Archival Collections in the BDC, February 2024 - March 2025 by Cassandra Knoppel

As Grace promised in her Ch-Ch-Changes blog post from February, Sydney and I are taking over the regular "New (and New-to-Us) Materials" column here on Connections. While Sydney tackled the loooong list of newly cataloged materials from July 2024 to March of this year (see the previous Connections post), I'm highlighting the newly processed and available archival collections from February of 2024 to March of 2025.

As I discuss in my "Process of Processing" Preservation Week post, my main gig at the BDC is archival processing, which means I prep almost all of the new collections for use by our patrons. This includes rehousing materials in archival-safe containers, getting them generally organized while respecting the original order and context of the stuff, and then writing up a "finding aid" which describes all the said stuff in the collection. These finding aids are then posted on our bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids blog. Take a peek and see if anything catches your research fancy.

This format is a bit different from how it's been done before and how it will be done in the future. Next time, you'll have a combined yet brief post reviewing all of our new stuff, cataloged or archived, just like you're used to, but for this update - we're separate. Due to the backlog in review posts, we made the decision to separate out the content for the sake of our poor readers. We didn't want y'all bombarded with a wall of huge text and decide not to read! I also am taking this opportunity to divvy up the archival collections by type and insert some little comments on why the BDC decides to collect these sorts of things or things that came up during processing, just for fun! And, fitting the theme of the season, I figured, what better time than Preservation Week to recap all these new archival collections? 

Alright, enough technical talk - let's get into it!

Organizational & Society Collections

League of Women Voters of Northern Beaufort County Records, 1973-2007

The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a national, nonpartisan, grassroot activist organization that aims to engage and empower voters, particularly female voters, at all levels of government, beginning in 1920. The Northern Beaufort County branch was formed in 1972, and their records were given to the BDC in 2011. They reveal their longstanding involvement in national and local politics as well as broader community issues. Voter education, transportation and infrastructure changes along with environmental issues were a key focus for the group. Interestingly, in 1974, the League discussed the option of using a brand-new County educational TV station to host "voter education programs," and I believe in the 1980s, they started public candidate and issues forums in collaboration with WJWJ. We have two VHS tapes of these local issues forums in the collection, one is from 1995 and another from 2002.​ If you like local politics, are interested in grassroots political initiatives, or want to track a through-line from a current issue into the past, I couldn't recommend the LWV-NBC Records more!

Sea Island Garden Club Records, 1977 - 2018

The Sea Island Garden Club, organized in 1957, is the second oldest garden club in Beaufort. ​At one time an outlet for community-minded housewives, the organization has grown to include women of many backgrounds and ambitions, each with an interest in gardening, personal growth, and fostering female friendship while serving their community through the beautification of public spaces and conservation of the Lowcountry’s unique environmental resources.​ The bulk of the records fall between 1994 and 2018 and cover the regular activities of the SIGC documented on paper or in photographs and scrapbooks.​ If you are interested in learning floral arrangement or are perhaps curious about women's craftsmanship locally or how the floral trends have changed overtime, this is the collection for you!

Sea Island Quilters Records, 1987 – 2015

The Sea Island Quilters (SIQ), established in 1987, is a Beaufort-based quilt guild which promotes the art of quilt-making within the local community. The quilters gather at monthly meetings where they can share their projects, learn from each other, and participate in activities like the "Block-of-the-Month" or annual "Challenge" quilt. SIQ also hosts the biennial "Southern Comforts" quilt show and participates in other community-minded activities like donating quilts and funds to local charities and hosting workshops. This collection of the organization's records includes minutes, financial documents, newsletters, photographs, scrapbooks, and even quilt block patterns, all of value to researchers interested in local quilting history and women's social organizations from the late 20th and early 21st century. 

Sage Society Records, 2015 - 2025

The Sage Society is a Beaufort women’s organization founded in 2016 with the intent to increase the knowledge and curiosity of women in the community. In keeping with this purpose, the Sage Society hosts seven monthly meetings wherein a member of the organization gives a presentation on a topic of her choice, often on a subject of local interest. Their records are small but cover the founding of the group to the mid-2020s, with meeting agendas and minutes, program lists, membership records, and newsletters. 

Now, some of you might be thinking – this stuff isn't old? 1977? You may remember that. 2025? We're living that. Does it need to be preserved if it's so young? Is this history? And you're right in one aspect, it's not that old. But current age doesn't necessarily factor in here – As Grace says, you have to collect today for the history 50 years from now. What is important is the information, which can only increase in value through time. As people become more removed from these customs, these events, as recollection fades and materials become rarer - keeping a record of this information becomes so much more valuable – and when I say valuable, I'm not talking monetarily - I'm talking socially and culturally. Maybe it's not of much value to people now who can still remember it clearly, but in the future, these collections will be historic material showing the issues of Beaufort in the 20th and 21st centuries. As we like to say, we're saving for the future, now.​

Personal Collections

Delores Brazel Nevils Papers, 1987-2004

Delores Brazel Nevils relocated to South Carolina in 1977 where she became a contributor to the local newspaper, joined the Penn Club, and helped incorporate the Gullah Festival in 1987. Originally made up of newspaper clippings pasted on paper, the original clippings were photocopied onto archival paper and originals were discarded during the processing stage. Her collection is comprised of two folders containing the preservation facsimiles (meaning an exact copy or reproduction) of clippings related to the Gullah Festival during the late 1980s through to the early 2000s. Also included is a photocopy of the 1987 Articles of Incorporation for the Gullah Festival and a roster of board members and technical advisors for the 1988 Gullah Festival.

Presentation Copy of Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina Album, Embossed to Mrs. F.W. Scheper, Jr., 1964

This collection contains a single album housing commemorative material on the Parris Island Recruit Depot, highlighting the leadership of Parris Island circa 1964, the history of the Depot, and recruit training procedures at that time.​ A manuscript letter was also found in the album, along with eleven black-and-white photographs from the official visit of the Commandant of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kim Du Chan and his wife to Parris Island in May of 1964.​ The collection is rather small, so there was minimal preservation work necessary. The real work came when researching the key actors in the story of the collection, determining who gifted it to Mrs. Scheper, why it was done, and learning more about Lt.Gen. Kim Du Chan. You can read more about each of them in my published Finding Aid, but I encourage you to pay special attention to the story of the Korean War hero / potential war criminal - I had to do some serious Google-Translating of South Korean papers to get that information!

John C. Stevens, III Research Files, 1956 - 2006 Finding Aid

John C. Stevens, III is the author of Court Martial at Parris Island: The Ribbon Creek Incident (1999). This collection, donated in 2021, contains the materials he compiled during his research for the book. For context, the Ribbon Creek Incident occurred on the night of April 8th, 1956, when Staff Sergeant Matthew McKeon, a Junior Drill Instructor, led a march of Platoon 71, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, into Ribbon Creek off of Parris Island which resulted in the drowning deaths of 6 young recruits. A Court of Inquiry was held immediately following the incident and SSgt. McKeon was subsequently court martialed that Summer where he was found guilty on two charges. Many remember the Incident for the changes to drill instruction and Marine Recruit training methods that occurred in the years following, a reverberation that can still be felt to this day. ​

The collection includes two transcripts of the Court of Inquiry, an original, unredacted copy and a photocopied facsimile. The collection also features a graduation book for the platoon, photographs, maps, clippings, research notes, and transcripts of interviews with key actors done in the 1990s. This collection is best for deeper research into the events and finding unique perspectives from witnesses to the march and the subsequent trials.

Elizabeth Caldwell Collection of Sam Doyle Materials, circa 1983-2003, undated

Elizabeth Gleason Caldwell was a longtime Beaufort resident and active participant in the local community. Among her many interests was an appreciation of local artists including Gullah folk artist Sam Doyle whom she recorded on audiocassette as he sang “The Storm of ’93” and several other spirituals. Materials within the collection include two audiocassette tapes and supplementary ephemera on the life and works of Lowcountry Gullah folk artist, Sam Doyle. On the tapes, Doyle sings four African American spirituals, including The Storm of ‘93, a song which details the experience of the 1893 Sea Island Hurricane. Because of its rarity and the increasing fragility and obsolescence of audio cassettes, we decided to digitize the recording as part of the processing of the collection. The digital recording, along with the rest of the collection, is available only in the BDC.

Paul Hamilton to Catharine A. Hamilton Conveyance, 1869

Our next collection is quite small, made up of just one item: the 1869 Deed of Conveyance of Property from Col. Paul Hamilton to his wife, Catherine Amarinthia Hamilton for a lot on Block 3, “Sams Point” in the Town of Beaufort (believed to be 100 Laurens Street / The Oaks). The deed itself seems to be loosely tied to a longstanding Beaufort legend which dictates that the house was put up for auction in about 1866 during the infamous Civil War Tax Sales. Col. Hamilton sought to secure the necessary funds to buy back his home before the sale began, but sympathetic neighbors and new residents are said to have come to the family’s aid and purchased The Oaks for him. That's how the story goes, at least, but finding concrete proof of this tale has been a little more elusive. This 1869 conveyance does describe the earlier sales of the property, which we believe to be "The Oaks," at public auctions in 1863 and 1866, but without seemingly confirming the legendary Good-Samaritan purchase. If you want to try gleaning more information from the deed, you can come read it in the BDC. But, to me, the mystery ~still remains~.

Please note: We do not have a deed collection in the BDC. This item was gifted to the Library in 1957 and is one of our only historic deeds. For that type of research, you'll need to actually visit the County's Register of Deeds.​

Beverly Bowers Jennings Postcard Collection, 1900 - 2018

This is a collection of postcards related to the Seafood industry - shrimping, specifically. Most of them relate to the shrimping industry along the coast of South Carolina and Florida. The donor, Beverly Jennings, is originally from Connecticut but now lives on Hilton Head. She attended the Clemson Extension Service Master Naturalist program and became involved in the development of the Port Royal Sound Maritime Center. Her work now includes collecting oral histories of local seafood industry workers and designing exhibits for the Port Royal Sound Maritime Center and Coastal Discovery Museum. Her book, Shrimp Tales: Small Bites of History (2020), rose out of that work and documents the history of the shrimping industry along the East coast of the US - and yes, we do have a copy in our collection, too! This collection is actually expected to grow into a larger research collection, but more will be said on that later once the accretion (meaning an addition to an existing collection) is accessioned.

"Artificial" Collections

In archives-land, "artificial" collections are collections created by archivists themselves out of materials given by different donors, often on the basis that they share similar subject matter or format. With artificial collections, the items have often been collected at the repository from a variety of sources versus coming from a single collector who donated them as a distinct group. In many cases, we don't even have clear provenance. In these cases, archivists sometimes merge similar orphaned items into one collection. 

Now, it is important to note that this is not something we do often. Also, we cannot take these items and add them to an existing collection with similar subject matter from a different donor – that’s a no-no in archives. For example, I can’t just say “Oh, here’s one shrimp boat postcard from John Smith, I’ll add it to Beverly Jennings's Collection of shrimping postcards since I have no other place for it and the subjects align.” No, Beverly’s Collection is distinct to itself, and it is important to keep it that way, so I'd have to do something different with this single item. But what if we had a collection of other, single postcards each with a different owner? Then, we could make an artificial collection for postcards (which we've actually done!). As I said, we try not to create artificial collections, but we did make two new ones in the last year out of necessity.

Miscellaneous Beaufort Photographs Collection, circa 1900 -

The Miscellaneous Beaufort Photograph Collection is an artificial collection created by BDC staff to encompass photos and prints of unknown origin, or those gifted as stand-alone objects, for greater patron accessibility. In some cases, these photographic prints were discovered in other media, and most are "provenance unknown." The collection contains photographs related to the Beaufort District or Beaufort County, including historic buildings, houses, waterfront and coastal scenes, portraits, etc. Some are labeled with identifying information, others are not. Most are unattributed and some appear to be reproductions of earlier images or other forms of media (like postcards). 

Miscellaneous Archived Newspaper Collection, 1803 - 1998

While organizing and rehousing our boxes of archived newspapers in the Spring of 2024, I ended up creating a separate artificial collection entitled the Miscellaneous Archived Newspaper Collection spanning from 1803 to November 2nd, 1998. The papers cover a variety of local topics, social activities, and political events. 

In the process of creating this collection, some papers were identified for a special preservation treatment. See, modern newspaper paper is terribly acidic due to it being made of wood pulp. As the paper ages, it will yellow and turn so brittle it can crumble in your hand. Because of this, archivists often copy newspapers onto more stable paper, convert them to microfilm, or digitize them before discarding the originals. However, this isn't always an option for all papers of significance.​

So how do we remedy this acidity issue? At the BDC, we sometimes use an alkaline solution sprayed on the surface of the paper. It can't reverse damage already done, nor can it fully stop acidification; we can't even do it for all of our acidic newspapers as it can be cost/time/and space prohibitive, but it is better than doing nothing.​ For this collection, we sprayed a few titles with the alkaline solution, then housed all of the titles in acid-free, lignin-free folders and boxes like we do for all of our other materials. 

Miscellaneous Archival Collections

Now, our Miscellaneous Archival Collections (not to be confused with our entitled "miscellaneous" collections above) are a bit of a special case – they aren't a “true” collection, like many of the others I’ve shared, which came from one donor or entity and have some sort of shared thread between all of the materials. It also isn’t an “artificial” collection either. Instead, referring to them as our Miscellaneous Archival Collections is more of a matter of organization. These are very small collections, often just fitting in a single folder, of original material that cannot be integrated into our vertical files. The materials are unique to themselves, so they cannot be added to an existing artificial collection either. Instead, we keep them in a series of boxes all together with each folder its own collection. This keeps the small folders organized neatly in an easy-to-find location while also ensuring that they are still each their own distinct-yet-small collections.

Because they were so small, finding aids had not always been written for each of these individual collections, but that is something that we will be working on moving forward.​

1992 Political Campaign Information Collection

Last summer, one of our technical services specialists, Valerie Lesesne, was working on an on-going project here at the BDC - taming our vertical files - when she found a pile of original documents in the "Elected Officials" vertical file – forms entitled 1992 Political Campaign Information, with photographs, resumes, with political fliers attached, and flagged it for our review. I dug a bit deeper into the materials and learned that the forms were part of a library service designed to collect “political campaign information” for local elections. The forms would be added to a reference file that would be made available to the public before elections. The forms ask for basic personal data, filled out by the respondent, and sometimes include campaign materials and candidate portraits submitted by the individuals. ​There are 21 candidates included in the collection, running for positions on the Beaufort County School Board, County Council, or the County Board of Education along with seats in the U.S. Senate and State House of Representatives. 

Other original materials found in vertical files were removed from the files, with photocopies being added to the files in their place. These items were then made into their own collections and added to the Miscellaneous Archival Collections boxes. These include Correspondence on Grayson Family, Beaufort (S.C.) Volunteer Artillery, Correspondence on the History of Parris Island, 1944, USMC Press Release on History of Parris Island and Recruit Depot up to 1948, and Campbell Family Correspondence and Related Materials.

Spanish Point Booklet

This booklet was a marketing publication circa 1929 related to the sale of the Spanish Point property, which was a large, single tract of land "on the beautiful Beaufort River, across the bay from and one and one-half miles below the old city of Beaufort, South Carolina." In modern parlance, it's the neighborhood across from Mossy Oaks between Beaufort Memorial Hospital and the Charleston ENT & Allergy on Ribaut Road. The information and photos within the booklet could be of interest to those of you with and without connection to Spanish Point, as it's a time capsule of Beaufort's landscape and scenery from a time before it was so built up.

Sea-Mosses Booklet

Gifted to BDC by LaRose Smith, this booklet contains pressed sea-mosses collected in Beaufort, SC and Florida from 1894 to the early 1900s. The samples are dated with locations provided, though species is not given. Based on the inscription, the booklet was gifted from Mr. and Mrs. E. Wells to an unknown recipient on Feb. 28, 1924.

Mary Lou Brewton donated Salvation Army Materials (1983-1991), including Salvation Army correspondence and certificates for Christmas giving to Southern Scooters/Port Royal Pub (located in Port Royal, SC), as well as three Girl Scouts of Beaufort "Court of Awards" programs from 1961 and 1962. The Salvation Army and Girl Scouts materials are separated into two collections. 

A previously donated collection of materials from Bubba Von Harten was also processed and formally added to the Miscellaneous Collections box. These include copies of clippings and game rosters related to Beaufort High School sports (mostly football) in the 1940s as well as photographs.

In addition, we added a "Perfect Attendance" certificate to Lucille Eva Lawrence (Seabrook School) from "The Adult Division, State Department of Education", dated March 25, 1949. Three Beaufort County Fair programs were also made into their own collection, including Beaufort County Agricultural & Industrial Fair, Inc.: Official premium list: October 23-24-25-26-27-28, 1967; Beaufort County Fair, Inc.: Official premium list: October 17-18-19-20-21-22, 1966; and Beaufort County Fair, Inc.: Official premium list: October 25 - October 30, 1965.

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So, maybe I've sold you on the value of 20th century records or enticed you to come to the BDC to do deeper research in one of these collections. If I have, I'd also like to add that if any of you are cleaning up house and come across historical documents or are looking for somewhere to place your organizational records, the BDC appreciates being given the "Right of First Refusal" for materials directly related to the Beaufort District & Beaufort County. Please keep us in mind! And an especial "thank you" to our donors for allowing us the opportunity to preserve these materials for generations to come.

Happy (soon to be) Preservation Week! It's one of my favorite celebrations of the year.