Registration Opens - and Closed Today - : Jackpot with Jason Ryan

Update: 1:15 PM 18 April 2023 - At record breaking speed, the next BDC co-sponsored program has reached room capacity. No tickets remain.  

Nothing draws in folks to local history programs like tales of death, destruction, and scandal! We end Season 6 of the joint Beaufort History Museum-Beaufort County Library local history series on one of the biggest scandals in Beaufort District's long and storied history: Operation Jackpot. I often tell those who ask to think of Operation Jackpot as the Murdaugh scandal of its day. It was - and remains - a big deal. In fact, you just might run across a participant or two in the course of your daily life in Beaufort County. I'm pretty sure that everyone who was sentenced has served their time and are back home now.  

Topographically speaking, if smuggling is on your mind, then our county's waterways are just about perfect! For centuries a variety of outlaws have used the twisting waterways of the South Carolina Lowcountry to conceal illegal activity. Pirates found refuge in Carolina creeks, Civil War blockade runners sneaked supplies past a naval blockade, and rumrunners imported alcohol in the midst of Prohibition. But smuggling didn't stop in the 1930s, though the product being smuggled changed and launched the country's War on Drugs.

Learn about the escapades of South Carolina’s “gentlemen” marijuana smugglers, who sailed nearly $1 billion worth of pot into Southern marshes during the 1970s and ‘80s from the man who literally wrote the book about Operation Jackpot. Come learn how a group of fun-loving college dropouts from the Palmetto State made it big in the world of marijuana trafficking before losing it all at the hands of a  federal investigation. 

Jason Ryan is a nonfiction author and journalist in Charleston. His books include the marijuana smuggling tale Jackpot: High Times, High Seas and the Sting that Launched the War on Drugs, the true crime thriller Hell-Bent: One Man’s Crusade to Crush the Hawaiian Mob, and the early aviation account Race to Hawaii: The 1927 Dole Derby and the Thrilling First Flights That Opened the Pacific. He is a former reporter for The Beaufort Gazette and The State newspaper and is currently at work on a book about the Murdaugh family of South Carolina.

Jason has been very kind to revisit his book periodically for us over the years, though he has moved on to other topics as the list of his books above indicate. I am very grateful that he consented yet again to my entreaties to do another Author Book Talk about his investigative look into Operation Jackpot. It's always a crowd-pleaser. Registration  opens today for this session through the Beaufort History Museum's website. Go to https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4962913 to reserve a seat.  

A few tips: If past attendance at a Jackpot local history program can be applied to this session, it will "sell out" quite quickly. And indeed they did - in record time. But even I was surprised by the speed at which we reached room capacity.   Sign up asap before the seats are all taken; We will provide seating for ticket holders beginning at 1:30 PM the day of the program. Our usual rules will apply: Any empty seats not occupied by a ticket holder will be offered to those standing by beginning at 1:55 PM. Don't be late the day of the program or your seat may be given to someone else. Please understand that given the speed at which tickets were expended, odds that there will be an empty seat at 1:55 pm on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 for stand-bys are slim. 

Local History & Family History Programs: January 29 - March 14, 2020

Since August 2019, the BDC has held 15 programs at 5 locations with 744 attendees. The BDC goes "on the road" with its next five programs before returning to Beaufort Branch (311 Scott Street, 1st floor) on Saturday, March 14, 2020.

Ron Roth reprises his Author Book Talk about The Civil War in the South Carolina Lowcountry on Wednesday at Bluffton Branch.

Two of the three programs scheduled for February are being held in honor of National Black History Month.

We begin with an author panel to talk about the soon-to-be released Gullah Days: Hilton Head Islanders Before the Bridge, 1861 - 1956. Local luminaries Tom Barnwell, Jr., Dr. Emory Campbell, and Carolyn Grant will share their memories and research about what was like to live on the Island before large scale real estate development occurred. Formal publication is scheduled for February 11, 2020 so attendees will get the first look - and hear the first talk the authors will give - about the completed book at this BDC program.

Family history is sometimes called the #1 hobby in America - though fishing is named by other sources as #1. I like to think that fishing for family members is what genealogy is all about. Toni Carrier, Executive Director of the International African American Museum's Center for Family History returns on February 15 to lecture about how you can find evidence relating to your ancestor's Civil War service in the Federal United States Colored Troops at St. Helena Branch Library. The workshop is divided into two parts: Part 1 is the lecture; Part 2 is an opportunity for guided practice.

The lecture is free and open to anyone who would like to attend and we have room for over 100 people. However, the St. Helena Branch Library's computer lab is rather small so we are requiring pre-registration for the guided practice session. Folks who have their own laptops or electronic devices can participate using their personal electronic equipment and the Library's WI-FI. 

• Register for this workshop by calling the fine folks at the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission to save a seat for you: 843-818-4587. 

Can't make it to our session? Ms. Carrier is offering other sessions in Charleston County Public Library branch locations on February 1 and February 8. This African American family history workshop is brought to you by the Charleston County Public Library, the Beaufort County Library, the Center for Family History of the International African American Museum, and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.

Neil Baxley brings another law enforcement/historical topic to the BDC local history series on February 20 at Bluffton Branch. His talk back in August about "Bootlegging in Beaufort District and Beyond" whetted everyone's appetite to explore more law and order topics. He's obliging us with "Dueling in Beaufort District" from colonial times to the late 19th century. The Union causeway in the southern part of the district was a popular location for settling matters of honor, particularly for Georgians who wanted to be out of the reach of Georgia authorities. 

Looking into March: 

Thursday, March 12th  - "Historically Speaking" 1.4 lecture presents Dr. Larry Rowland on 1920s Beaufort at St. Helena Branch Library. Registration is now open on the Beaufort County Historical Society's website https://www.beaufortcountyhistoricalsociety.com.

Saturday, March 14th - The BDC participates in the Beaufort History Museum's Living History Encampment with a booth on Craven Street, 10 AM - 1 PM and "Women of Civil War Beaufort" with Cora Newcomb at 2 PM in the Beaufort Branch Meeting Room. First come, first seated.  

Just so you are aware, the Beaufort County Council has added "Presidents Day" to the County's list of holidays. Thus, all units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed Monday, February 17, 2020. 

Author Book Talks in January

Ron Roth will present his new book The Civil War in the South Carolina Lowcountry: How a Confederate Artillery Battery and a Black Union Regiment Defined the War twice for the Beaufort District Collection in January. The first session will be held in Beaufort Branch Library on Friday, January 17th at 2 pm. A reprise will be held at the Bluffton Branch Library on Wednesday, January 29th at 2 pm.

Guests will view the war through the experiences of two radically different military units—the Confederate Beaufort Volunteer Artillery, and the United States 1^st South Carolina Regiment--the first Union Black regiment to fight in the war—both, ironically, organized and outfitted in the heart of the Lowcountry in Beaufort. As the Civil War Books and Authors Booknotes review points out, this is a rather rare approach. 

Roth is former director and CEO of the Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, and director of the Nebraska Museum of Art of the University of Nebraska. He is a SC Humanities Scholar lecturer, battlefield tour guide, and past President of the Lowcountry Civil War Roundtable. He also serves on the Public Library Foundation of Beaufort County, an organization that provides financial support for worthy Library projects and goals not funded by Beaufort County Council. 

Books will be available for purchase and autographing at the conclusion of the program. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Public Library Foundation of Beaufort County. 

The program is free. Seating is first come, first seated beginning at 1:30 PM at both locations.  

Reminder: All units of the Beaufort County Library are closed Monday, January 20, 2020 in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Regular hours resume on Tuesday, January 21, 2020. 

Daufuskie Daze - Take 2

The Pat Conroy Literary Center and the BDC were very pleased to have 55 people turn-out for Jim and Carol Alberto's excellent presentation about their life teaching at the Mary Field Elementary School beginning in 1974.  Library customers North of the Broad River have a second chance to attend the presentation as there will be a reprise on Friday at the Beaufort Branch Library.

Crowd at Hilton Head Branch Library (Jay Karr, BCL staff photo)

The Albertos were the first teachers who "stuck around" after Pat Conroy's brief tenure at the school. From navigating weekly boat rides to the mainland for groceries to learning to avoid dangerously close encounters with local wildlife, these teachers had no idea how they would learn from the island and the people who call it home.


Emory Campbell, a renowned Beaufort County native son, Gullah cultural historian, and former director of Penn Center, offered this review of Alberto's book:

This fascinating book tells a rare, unvarnished, important story of a committed teacher. Jim Alberto's pivotal experiences while teaching at the two-room school on Daufuskie Island with wife Carol. It is an extraordinary example of courage, caring, and perseverance. From his depiction of the Islands distinct smell in the first chapter to his deep exhale to contentment in the last chapter, Jim's detailed account will enthrall readers on every page. 

You can check out one of the Library's circulating copies or purchase a copy after the program. 

Pre-registration is preferred for the session at 2 pm in Beaufort Branch Library on 15 November: https://daufuskiedaze2.bpt.me

 

Also, please remember that the Research Room has a lunch time closure on Thursday, November 14, 2019 due to a staff shortage.

Local History Programs and Archives

We had 25 people attend the Bernie Schein Author Book Talk. Folks who came got to see about 50 images from the Lucille Hasell Culp Collection of Beaufort in the 1960s in honor of "American Archives Month."

We are now up to 227 guests at our programs thus far. We hope to continue the momentum with the other programs remaining on our schedule this month.



We kick off the new "Historically Speaking" lecture series with the Beaufort County Historical Society on October 17th with Dr. Stephen Wise about Civil War era photographs of this area. There is no better authority on photographs from the Port Royal Sound region taken during that late unpleasantness. We will explain how you can see even more Civil War era photographs online or make arrangement to see even more in the Civil War related materials we care for in our Research Room.

Please note: Although the lecture begins at Noon, we will open the Meeting Room doors at 11:30 AM on a first come, first seated basis.  If or when we reach room capacity according to the Fire Marshall's limit, access to the lecture will be closed.

We concentrate on the mid-20th century and a personal account of life on Daufuskie Island at the end of October at Hilton Head Branch Library and again in mid-November at Beaufort Branch Library. A memoir is the least objective, most personal form of writing and Jim Alberto has recently penned one about living, learning and teaching on Daufuskie Island beginning in the mid-1970s. We host Alberto in concert with the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

Starting in 1974, Jim Alberto and his wife, Carol, taught school at the Mary Field Elementary School for nine years. Little did they know that Jim's meeting with Pat Conroy in 1973 would play such an important role in their careers.

Alberto was the first teacher who "stuck around" after Pat Conroy's brief tenure at the school.

The Albertos experienced Daufuskie Island life firsthand when they moved out to this South Carolina barrier island to teach the local children. From navigating weekly boat rides to the mainland for groceries to learning to avoid dangerously close encounters with local wildlife, these teachers had no idea how much they would learn from the island and the people who call it home. He spent the rest of his teaching career south of the Broad River.

Emory Campbell, a renowned Beaufort County native son, Gullah cultural historian, and former director of Penn Center, offered this review of Alberto's book:

This fascinating book tells a rare, unvarnished, important story of a committed teacher. Jim Alberto's pivotal experiences while teaching at the two-room school on Daufuskie Island with wife Carol. It is an extraordinary example of courage, caring, and perseverance. From his depiction of the Islands distinct smell in the first chapter to his deep exhale to contentment in the last chapter, Jims detailed account will enthrall readers on every page. 

Registration is free and is now open for both sessions. Guests will get to see some of the BDC's Daufuskie Island and education related treasures at these programs in honor of October's status as "American Archives Month." 

To register for the Alberto's Author Book Talk at Hilton Head Branch Library on 25 October: https://daufuskiedaze1.bpt.me
To register for Alberto's Author Book Talk at Beaufort Branch Library on 15 November: https://daufuskiedaze2.bpt.me

Bernie and Pat: a Bromance

The Beaufort District Collection and the Beaufort Branch Library are teaming up to bring author Bernie Schein to share his cherished memories about his friend, Pat Conroy on October 1, 2019.
The Author Book Talk is first come, first seated so we'll open the doors to the Beaufort Branch Meeting Room at 1:30pm for anyone interested in learning more about the sometimes stormy relationship between the two outsiders who first stumbled into each other's lives in early 1960s Beaufort - and fell into a friendship that extended beyond Pat's death in 2016.

Watch Bernie talk about his book, a labor of love, in this YouTube video.

After reading Margaret Evans's book review in the Lowcountry Weekly, I'm sure that you'll want to read the book yourself - and won't want to miss out on this free opportunity to ask questions of the man who wrote the book on the subject of this particular bromance. In fact, she convinced me to read the whole thing - rather than the usual cursory scanning that I do while picking out new materials for the BDC. Randomly turning pages, I fell upon page 97 - and laughed out loud - and it didn't even have anything to do directly with Pat.

In other words, the book is a treat - and a treat to which one should treat one's self  - and if you want to put a cherry on the top on that treat -- come to the Beaufort Branch Library on Tuesday, October 1 at 2:00 pm for the Author Book Talk.

Looking ahead:

Sporting Plantations Local History Program with Dr. Vivian

During the first four decades of the twentieth century, wealthy sportsmen and sportswomen from northern cities created more than 70 large sporting estates in the lowcountry. Although this "Second Yankee Invasion" is familiar to many lowcountry residents, the making of these estates has received limited study. 

"Making Sporting Plantations: Rich Yankees and the Transformation of the Rural Lowcountry, 1900 - 1940" 

with Dr. Daniel Vivian 

Monday, March 12, 2019 - 11 AM

BDC@ BDC - 2nd floor lobby, 311 Scott Street

First come; first seated

Room for 40 people

In this presentation co-sponsored by the BDC and the Coastal Discovery Museum based upon his book, Dr. Vivian surveys their origins, the ideas that shaped their form and use, and their influence on popular views of the lowcountry. 

Daniel Vivian is a historian of the American South. He earned his PhD at the Johns Hopkins University and is currently chair of the Department of Historic Preservation at the University of Kentucky. 

His research concentrates on historical memory of slavery during the era of Jim Crow. He is the author of A New Plantation World: Sporting Estates in the Carolina Lowcountry, 1900-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2018), co-editor of and a contributor to Leisure, Plantations, and the Making of the New South: The Sporting Plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry and Red Hills Region, 1900-1940 (Lexington Books, 2015), and essays in Winterthur Portfolio, Ohio Valley History, Historic Preservation Forum, and the South Carolina Historical Magazine. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

His books A New Plantation World and Making of the New South are available in the BDC Research Room and for check out from the SCLENDS consortium of libraries to which Beaufort County Library belongs.  

Please note: No seats remain for the reprise of this presentation being held at Coastal Discovery Museum on Tuesday, March 12.  

An added dividend: The Sea Island Quilters exhibit is on display in the 2nd floor lobby. Not only will program attendees learn about how the sporting plantations transformed lowcountry culture in the early 20th century, they will be surrounded by beautiful 21st century hand-crafted quilts as they learn! 

Nancy Head Thode

Don't forget to register for "Remembering Ann Head: Beaufort's Forgotten Author & Mentor to Pat Conroy" with her daughter, Nancy Thode on March 27, 2019, Beaufort Branch Meeting Room, at 5:30 pm. This local history program is brought to you by the Pat Conroy Literary Center, Beaufort District Collection and the Beaufort County Library. 

Go ahead and mark your calendars for the return of "The Freedmen's Bureau Records" workshop with Toni Carrier on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Each session can accomodate up to 20 people. We will hold both sessions in the St. Helena Branch Library's Computer Lab: 

Session 1: 11 AM - 1 PM. Please register: Call 843-818-4587 or e-mail: info@gullahgeecheecorridor.org.

Session 2: First come, first seated 2 PM - 4 PM