Local Artists "Color Our World" in the BDC Research Room

As Conscious Magazine states: "While the life of an artist is mostly one of solitude, their work is for others." There are many artists in Beaufort District's past and Beaufort County's present who help "Color Our World." 

I would wager that Jonathan Green is Beaufort County's most recognized working artist today. You can see his influence in the work of many others, too. Read more about this Beaufort County native painter, printmaker, and book illustrator in the South Carolina Encyclopedia. His work is well represented in the holdings of the Library. He's made something of a side career illustrating the books of others. 

For example, a re-issued children’s book Freedom Ship of Robert Smalls by Louise Meriwether (1971, 2018) contains his wonderfully vibrant paintings about one of the most important persons in Beaufort’s long and storied past. He was the illustrator of these books as well: Father and Son by Denize; Crosby by Patricia Lee Gauch; Amadeus, the Leghorn Rooster by Delores B. Nevils; and Gullah Cuisine: By Land and Sea by Charlotte Jenkins. 

The award-winning but publicity-shy Aldwyth of Hilton Head Island creates collages and assemblages. You can see examples of her work in a book we have in the Research Room Aldwyth work v./work n. (2009). We have a small vertical file about her work and career too.

Capturing Life: The Art of Jack Williamson includes plates of his paintings from 1947 to 2002. After a career in business, he retired to Hilton Head Island around 1990. He includes many scenes from the local area.

Sam Doyle (1906 - 1985) was born and lived his entire life on St. Helena Island. He used cast-off materials at hand, like house paint, softened plywood and roofing tin, to paint his colorful and vibrant vision of Gullah life on the Sea Islands. The greater folk-art world discovered his work in 1982. See our BDCBCL: Links, Lists & Finding Aids WordPress blog for more information about this important folk artist. This year Cassandra processed the Elizabeth Caldwell Collection of Sam Doyle Materials in which you can hear him sing "The Hurricane of 1893." She made a service digital file from the cassette tape (remember those?) so that those with appointments can listen. 

Ten percent of the watercolors in A Charleston Sketchbook, 1796-1806 by Charles Fraser (1782-1860) are of sites in Prince William's Parish, Beaufort District. His elder brother, Capt. Frederick Fraser owned the Fraser's Place Plantation near Old Sheldon Church. Odds are he painted some of the included images during a visit to his brother. 

Art in South Carolina, 1670-1970 compiled and edited by Francis W. Bilodeau and Mrs. Thomas J. Tobias with E. Milby Burton (Columbia: South Carolina Tricentennial Commission, 1970) has Jacque Le Moyne's "Rene de Laudonniere and the Indian Chief Athone visits Ribaut's Column" (1564) gracing the cover. Sections are arranged chronologically and each is prefaced with an introduction about the art and artists featured.

Local artist Nancy Ricker Rhett's family ties to Beaufort District go back many generations. In addition to running a gallery on Bay Street in downtown Beaufort, she has illustrated a number of books housed in our Research Room including Pierre McGowan's two books The Gullah Mailman and Tales of the Barrier Islands of Beaufort County, South Carolina. 

 

Diligent research into identifying the artist of one of the most famous paintings of the enslaved led Susan Shames to some ground-breaking conclusions. Read more about John Rose of Beaufort District and his "The Old Plantation" painting. Better yet? Borrow her book and marvel at how Shames figured out which John Rose was the painter. 

Gullah Woodburning Folk Art by Rev. Johnnie F. Simmons [2018], is a delightfully colorful little book (literally little, the book measures 5 inches by 4 inches) of his wood-burned depictions of Gullah culture and life on St. Helena Island. This book is so special that both copies in SCLENDS are held in special collections at the Beaufort County Library.

Called "one of Beaufort's gifted sons whom she has lent to the outer world", James Reeve Stuart (1834-1915) had a long career as a portrait painter and artist. Read more about his life and work in our WordPress blog.

(Beaufort District Collection Archives)

We have other visual art related materials to "Color Our World" in addition to books. For example, we have a number of vertical files on some specific local artists, on local artists in general, and some public art installations from the recent past such as the COWS ON VACATION and the BIG PIG GIG. There are other relevant vertical file materials about ARTISTS, FOLK ARTISTS, GULLAH CULTURE--ART/ARTISTS, ARTS AND CULTURAL COUNCIL OF HILTON HEAD and ARTS COUNCIL OF BEAUFORT COUNTY among others. 

We have a number of mid-19th century illustrated newspaper prints - some of which are hand-colored. We also have some Crosscup & West sketches of Beaufort in the late 19th century and some mid-20th century prints by George F. Bauman to share inside the Research Room. One of my personal favorite prints is the "Battle of Coosawhatchie" - probably because my late husband and I own a small bit of that battlefield in Jasper County.

Our poster collection includes ones promoting local art exhibitions with a concentration on those from the very late 20th century to the present day. We have more than 200 posters so far and are adding to the quantity virtually every month.  

Postcards can "Color Our World" too.  The BDC takes care of several thousand postcards in our archives. One can review our postcard collections in person with an appointment. But former BDC assistant Ashley Sylva worked very hard to scan and prepare metadata for the Russell J. Arnsberger Postcard Collection so that you can see all of its contents online through our long partnership with the Lowcountry Digital Library.

We "Color Our World" with archival collections as well. 

The Beaufort Art Association (1957-    ) donated its papers to the Beaufort District Collection in March 2019. The collection has twelve scrapbooks, two guest books, two binders, ninety-three posters, newspaper clippings, association records, photographs, negatives, exhibit brochures (1976-2013), newsletters (1995-2011) and other miscellaneous material. 

Mrs. Thomas Murray (nee Harriot Despaud) was better known as "Madame Murray". She was the mother of Ellen Murray who taught at Penn School and lived on St. Helena Island with her friend Laura Towne. Madame Murray created these sketches in 1863 while on a visit south to see her daughter.  The Madame Murray Sketches Collection contains reproductions of fifteen of her drawings. 

(Murray Sketches, reproduction, Beaufort District Collection)

The Susan Wales Journal, 1887 - 1895 is a charming daily record of her time abroad in Europe. Most pages contain a small sketch or painting of people, places, things she encountered that day.  One of our beloved and dedicated volunteers, Laura Lewis did almost all of the work necessary to get this journal online for your enjoyment and research. 

Beaufort Chronicles Portfolio was a partnership project between the USCB Art Department and the Beaufort Three-Century Project.  The partnership employed a semester-long course to create a limited edition fine art portfolio of 16 original prints based on Beaufort’s history. The exhibition opening was held in conjunction with the January 17, 2010 Anniversary Event with an estimated 1,000 people viewing the project during the month-long exhibition in the USCB Gallery as it was also in situ during three of the 2010 Tricentennial Lecture Series events. One of the limited edition portfolios is in the project archive for the Beaufort Three-Century Project.

Before I end this post, I'd like to remind you that many of our Branch Libraries contain art that was donated to or purchased by the Library Board of Trustees through the years. Be sure to keep your eyes open when you visit one of our locations because, truly, art does "Color Our World" in Beaufort County Library. 

Note: It's always a good idea to set up an appointment before showing up at our door because sometimes we have a prior obligation or are working with someone who has an appointment already. Give us a call: 843-255-6468 or email us: bdc@bcgov.net to set up a date and time to review our materials.