Programs Coming Your Way in October

October is traditionally the BDC's busiest month for programming. 

We begin October with a nod to National Archaeology Month - and the annual "What the Heck Is It?: Artifact Identification Session" in cooperation with the Hilton Head Island Chapter of the Archaeological Society of South Carolina on Saturday, October 4th at Hilton Head Branch Library. 

I love💕💕💕 these sessions because one never ever knows in advance quite what to expect customers to bring in. Over the years folks have brought in a full range of artifacts – prehistoric, historic, projectile points, ceramic sherds, Civil War crypto devices, African dolls, 1st century lamps, etc. – to name a few. Look around the house and bring in that thing you wonder what the heck it is. Archaeologists Dr. Jon Leader, Dr. Eric Poplin, and Jeff Sherard are simply the best at what they do - and they do it for free at these sessions. No registration. No limit of the number of items you can bring. Just understand that whatever you bring, you have to do all the lifting and toting to get it into the building and to get it back to your vehicle.

Note Well: Do not bring any weapons (guns, swords, daggers, etc.) to be examined. It is the policy of the Beaufort County Library not to allow any weapons in the libraries. No monetary valuations will be provided.

BDC staff live and breathe archives all year long but particularly so in October when it's American Archives Month. We've planned 2 archives related programs this year. Both will be held at Beaufort Branch.

The BDC's own Cassandra Knoppel will talk about new archival collections and the eerier side of archival and library preservation and processing on Wednesday October 8 at 5:30 PM. From arsenic to red rot and everything in between, learn more about the fascinating backstories of our newest collections. She's even come up with a mocktail to share in honor of one of the challenges she faces every day at work as the Library Specialist for archives here in the BDC. "Happy Hour" at a Library program: how cool is that? And I'd bet that you thought librarians and archivists were boring folks who only read all day. 

I'm doing a session of "Tales from the Crypt" at the request of Beaufort Branch on October 29. The content will cover some of the Research Room materials about how humans mark the universality and inevitability of death, i.e. obituary files; cemetery records; murder vertical files, etc.

On October 23 the BDC travels south of the Broad River to Bluffton Branch where Eliza Lucas Pinckney will be portrayed as a time traveler from the 18th century by experienced historical interpreter and author Peggy Pickett. Pickett's interpretation of this figure from the past gives modern audiences Eliza's view of the American Revolution from a woman's perspective as the mother of two Continental Army officers. One of those sons, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, left his plantation on Pinckney Island in her care while he was off at the Continental Congresses and fighting for independence from Great Britain. Please note: The local history program is brought to you by the BDC, Beaufort County Historical Society, and the Beaufort County 250 Committee. 

Margaret Pickett, or Peggy as she prefers to be called, is a graduate of the University of Maryland and a former teacher who spent 20 years working in museum education in Virginia's historic triangle-Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown. In 1999 she became an independent Living History Interpreter researching and developing documented programs based on the lives of prominent 17th and 18th century Virginia women. She has presented programs attired in historical clothing reproductions and in modern clothing for the National Park Service, at colleges and historical organizations in both Virginia and South Carolina.

After moving to Bluffton in 2010 she has added three 18th century South Carolina women - Eliza Lucas Pinckney, Dorothy Sinkler Richardson, and Rebecca Motte - to her repertoire. Her published works include The European Struggle to Settle North America (2011) co-authored with her son, Dwayne, and a biography of Rebecca Brewton Motte: American Patriot and Successful Rice Planter, 1737-1815 (2022). She authored the first major biography of Eliza Lucas Pinckney since 1896, Eliza Lucas Pinckney: Colonial Plantation Manager and Mother of American Patriots, 1722-1793 (2016). 

We end the month by focusing on the Civil War history of Beaufort District. The Beaufort History Museum is hosting a Civil War re-enactment on Saturday, November 1, 2025. The afternoon before the re-enactment at the Arsenal (that is, on Halloween, October 31) the BDC and the BHM are hosting re-enactor Tom Vaselopulos who will speak about the life and military career of the 79th New York's commander, Gen. Isaac I. Stevens. 

Tom Vaselopulos is the only native New Yorker in a New York reenacting unit and has been reenacting for over 15 years as part of H Company, 79th NY Volunteer Infantry. Currently serving as a Captain, he is the Aide-de-Camp to the commander, and is also the recruiting officer and the Provost Marshal for the unit. Retired from a 20-year career as a US Air Force / Air National Guard Security Police Supervisor and served in the First Gulf War. He also worked as a security contractor to the US Dept. of Energy for Safeguards, Security and Emergency Services issues, working at several national security sites before retiring at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN. The highlight of his career was teaching a security course for his Russian counterparts at the Karchatov Institute in Moscow.

Cassandra, Sydney and I hope to see you at at least one of these October local history programs.