I'm going to put 6 weeks worth of Facebook posts into this re-cap to finish Fiscal Year 2025. As per usual I will omit any references to announcements for programs and holidays that have already occurred. I will leave some of the "This Week in the BDC" posts. - gmc
May 16, 2025 - Today's "Finding Aid Friday" post fits beautifully with "National Preservation Month" because it's about one of Beaufort's most famous historic houses, "The Castle." John Staelin and Elizabeth Locke, former owners of Beaufort's "Castle," donated this collection of materials related to the history of their former home. This collection details the house's rich history, architecture, and community impact and includes a report by Penelope Holmes Parker.
May 17, 2025 - Happy Armed Forces Day. Armed Forces Day honors and recognizes those service men and women who are currently serving in the United States military. This photo is from our Digital Culp Collection hosted by the Lowcountry Digital Library.
May 18, 2025 - "This Week in the BDC" we have is a Local Author Book Talk on tap on Wednesday afternoon at Beaufort Branch. Longtime local resident Annelore Harrell shares some of her award-winning newspaper columns from Bluffton Today, Carolina Morning News, Bluffton Sun and Hilton Head Sun in the first installment of a planned series of Et Cetera Y'all volumes. Patti Callahan Henry lauds Harrell's writing as "A treasure trove of insight, offering a fresh perspective on the essence of the people, places, and things she has chosen to share." I am going to interview her about her book, life and career to get the program started. Feel free to come with questions of your own to ask her about her book, life and career.
The County is putting down new flooring in most of the 2nd floor, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Access to the BDC Research Room will be restricted until the installers get done. Reminder: The BDC will also be closed on Monday, May 26th for Memorial Day.
May 19, 2025 - Another "Uniquely BDC" vertical file we have is about a ship named for a local military hero.
Dr. Eleanor I. Barnwell attended the christening of the ship in 2002 recounting the event and remarks made by Bagwell's son: "It wasn't a matter of two strangers, one Black, one white, ... it was just two sailors in deep trouble, and thank God one of them had the courage and the strength to save the other....[Pinckney] carried him [his father] up several decks even though he was burned himself.... I believe my dad was blessed with a guardian angel, and that angel's name was William Pinckney."
Mr. Pinckney died on July 21, 1976 aged 61 years old. He is buried in the Beaufort National Cemetery in SECTION 33 SITE 81.
May 20, 2025 - May is Jewish American Heritage Month. The online Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities has a substantive overview of the people of Jewish ancestry in Beaufort since colonial days into the 2020s.
May 21, 2025 - "Black History Note:" We have one of the largest collections of research materials about Gullah Culture in the South. Gullah culture has a past, is present all around us, and is ever evolving. You can experience the vibrant spirit of the Gullah people at the Original Gullah Festival of South Carolina being held this weekend. The festival celebrates the unique language, heritage, and contributions of the Gullah community, offering a deep dive into their vibrant culture. Just search for "Original Gullah Festival" in your browser for details about this year's celebration. You can also use the QR code in the photos to find out more about the research materials the BDC shares.
May 22, 2025 - South Carolina was unique among the British North American colonies in that persons of Jewish lineage were welcomed to settle in the colony. The 1669 charter of the Carolina Colony (the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina), drawn up by the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and his secretary John Locke, granted liberty of conscience to all settlers, including "Jews, heathens, and dissenters".
May 23, 2025 - "Finding Aid Friday": Because Deloris Nevils was part of the original planning group for the Original Gullah Festival, today is a great day to highlight a small archival collection of her personal papers. Ms. Nevils donated the collection to the BDC in 2019.
May 29, 2025 - Thanks to the generosity of researcher Stanley Farbstein, we have a lot of biographical information about and obituaries for the people buried in the Beth Israel Cemetery at 906 Bladen Street. The cemetery was purchased in 1910 and the first burial was of Bessie Katzif on March 13, 1912. The listing of interments goes up to 2008.
May 30, 2025 - “Finding Aid Friday” in National [Historic] Preservation Month - Architect and architectural photographer Charles Bayless captured exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in Beaufort County as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey in the late 1970s. You can see most of his images online in the massive HABS/HAER/HALS Collection at the Library of Congress – or you can make an appointment to see the photographic prints in our Research Room: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468.
May 30, 2025 - It's neck and neck re: the people's favorite Beaufort County historic site. Want to help break a(n almost) tie? The poll [ URL deleted ] will close tomorrow, May 31st, at 11:59 PM. BTW: The ultimate winner was Old Sheldon Church. Penn Center was a close second in the polling.
May 31, 2025 - There's lots of activity at the branch libraries today for the Kick Off of the 2025 Summer Reading Program "Color Our World." Here in the BDC we are taking a more subdued approach. Expect to often read about how the BDC "Colors Our World with History" before the end of SRP on July 31st.
June 2, 2025 - "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday" in SRP "Color Our World" - Sydney recommends Vivid: Living Life in Full Color: Images and Writings from Around the World, Passionately Explored by Jeffrey Keefer (2019) to you. Keefer is known for his "eye-popping" placement of color in his photography. One of his favorite places, Hilton Head Island, is frequently featured in this book - including the front cover. The BDC is the only library in SCLENDS to have a copy of this title.
June 3, 2025 - In honor of World Bicycle Day: According to the Palmetto Post newspaper of 4 October 1900, [p.2]: "It is estimated that there are 500 bicycles in Beaufort, and only one first class repair shop. The business ought to pay handsomely." I wonder if the business made a profit. BTW: I just love the Palmetto Post's slogan: "Worms can't affect it."
June 4, 2025 - "Black History Note" during Summer Reading (SRP): Jonathan Green, arguably Beaufort District's most well-known artist, uses lots of color to share his interpretation of Gullah culture and spirituality. He's a master of multiple media platforms: painting, posters, book illustration, opera, ballet, and film. Seeking: Poetry and Prose Inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green shows his ability to inspire poets, too.
June 5, 2025 - It's World Environment Day - which makes it a great day to highlight the fact that hurricane season has come around again. And as they say: "Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now." FEMA has a short guide on how to be ready to "Save Your Family Treasures" in case this area gets hit, directly or indirectly, before the end of November by a tropical event.
June 6, 2025 - Today's featured "Finding Aid Friday" relates to tourism - which from the looks of it is very much in full swing now. Beaufort County has a lot of visitors at the moment.
Jeanne Harman and her husband Harry E. Harman were travel writers based in the Virgin Islands. They wrote travel and relocation guides for the Caribbean and the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The materials in this collection relate to their publication, the Hilton Head Island Report.
Also included is correspondence related to the purchase and upkeep of the Harman’s villa in Sea Pines Plantation during the 1970s. We enjoyed learning about all the requirements one needed to meet to stay in the good graces of the property owners association of the day. The checklist was quite specific and extensive.
June 9, 2025 - Today's "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday" selection actually has 2 colors in the title: Shrimp: The Endless Quest for Pink Gold. This book about the 4000 different species of tasty swimming crustaceans was written by Anne Rudloe, a marine biologist, and her husband Jack Rudloe, a naturalist in 2009. From the history of shrimp, to shrimping, and the biology of shrimp, you are sure to learn something new about appealing (and peeling) prawns. (That's Sydney's bad pun, not mine this time). This title is a BDC exclusive.
June 10, 2025 - As BDC Display Case Designer in chief, Sydney wrote about BDC materials she selected to "Color Our World with History."
June 11, 2025 - "Black History Note:" Yesterday the BDC staff was proud to host the 2025 Campbell-Wright HBCU Gullah Geechee Interns cadre. Tendaji Bailey of the Gullah Geechee Futures Project coordinated visits to the BDC and "Research 101" sessions taught by Nathan Betcher, Integrated Resources Program Manager, Reconstruction Era National Historic Network, National Park Service for the college students at the Beaufort Branch Library.
Anyone who's been on a BDC Behind-the-Scenes tour knows that our closed stacks area can't hold many people at once. So we held 2 sessions. We appreciate Nathan and Tendaji's willingness to work with us on the split schedule.
The students came from Benedict College, Claflin University, Clark Atlanta University, Florida A & M, Hampton University, Howard University, Morehouse College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Savannah State University, Spelman College, and Tennessee State University to learn more about Gullah Geechee history and culture. Cassandra, Sydney and I shared information about some of the many Gullah culture related materials we have, gave the students a tour, and offered some advice about how to use archives more effectively.
June 12, 2025 - The American Historical Association is running another Summer Reading Challenge this year. See some of the local history suggestions we have for you to complete it. BTW: You can read any of the items for 20 minutes and color in one blob of the BCL's palette gameboard for "Color Our World" reading program too.
June 13, 2025 - "Finding Aid Friday:" Cassi recently finished the Finding Aid for some Together for Beaufort County directories to resources for seniors, disabled veterans, and individuals with disabilities.
June 14, 2025 - Happy Flag Day! The delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress decided on June 14, 1777 to select and standardize a flag to indicate the new nation. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson commemorated that decision by declaring June 14th of each year "Flag Day." Most folks - me included until I did a little research preparing this post - don't know that there have been 27 versions of the United States' most recognizable symbol to date.
Here's one of my favorite "Old Glory" images to commemorate the day. The US flag proudly flies in front of the Beaufort Grammar School for white children that opened in the old Beaufort College building in 1909. This postcard is from the Arnsberger Postcard Collection that is hosted online for us by the Lowcountry Digital Library.
And a very happy 250th birthday to the United States Army, too.
June 16, 2025 - "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday" that "Color[s] Our World" with History: The Red Bird and the Devil is local resident Robert Lanham's historical novel about Henry Woodward's life. It's a novel because so much of Woodward's personal history is a matter of piecing together bits and pieces from a variety of rather scanty source documents. Nevertheless, Lanham provides a fresh look at the origin and first decades of Carolina Colony from the perspective of its first permanent English settler. The BDC has the only copy of this title in the SCLENDS consortium.
June 18, 2025 - "Black History Note" in "Color Our World" [with History] SRP 2025: The Risen Phoenix: Black Politics in the Post-Civil War South by Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego highlights the Reconstruction Era careers of six African American legislators, including Beaufort District's own Robert Smalls. Drawing on a rich combination of traditional political history, gender, Black history, and the history of U.S. foreign relations, the book argues that African American congressmen effectively served their constituents' interests while also navigating their way through a tumultuous post-Civil War Southern political environment.
June 23, 2025 - "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday:" Sometimes deadly diseases have "colorful" names. Like "Black plague" the color in "Yellow Fever" relates to a symptom of the disease. "Yellow fever" has several other colorful names: yellow plague and bronze john.
Spread by the bites of mosquitoes, symptoms usually were apparent within 3 to 6 days. Symptoms included fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, back pain and headaches - but these symptoms could describe a lot of illnesses. However, approximately 15% of its victims would suffer a second more virulent return of the fever the following day and go on to develop severe abdominal pain, liver damage resulting in the yellowing of the patient's skin, a risk of bleeding, and kidney damage. Those patients whose skin turned yellow in appearance had a 50-50 chance of surviving the disease. There is no known cure for yellow fever but there is an effective and safe vaccine against the disease.
Beaufort District's most serious outbreak of yellow fever was in 1817 when 7% of the population died and Beaufort College was temporarily shuttered on account of the number of students who perished. Local physician Dr. James Robert Verdier developed a treatment commonly used but ineffective. When Beaufort was a bustling 19th century seaport, there was a quarantine station for merchant sailors and ships on Parris Island.
You can find out even more about how this deadly disease affected Beaufort District history by reviewing the contents of the BDC's "Yellow Fever" vertical file.
June 25, 2025 - "Black History Note" in "Color Our World" [with History] SRP 2025: Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen leads off with a chapter about Beaufort District's own Robert Smalls. The goal of this short-listed Pulitzer Prize in History book by Philip Dray was to view Reconstruction from the perspective of the first Black Congressmen. And he does. There are plenty of copies in the local history sections at the Branch Libraries for you to borrow.
June 26, 2025 - A little known local history fact is that in the aftermath of the Spanish American War, the US government leased property on Daufuskie Island for a yellow fever quarantine station for returning veterans of the Cuban theater of the conflict. Authors Jenny Hersch and Sallie Ann Robinson gathered some great photos of the station from the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard College and the Burton Historical Collection in the Detroit Public Library for their book Daufuskie Island (2018), pp. 18-22. The BDC and some of the BCL Branch libraries have a copy of this title. You can also borrow the e-book on Hoopla.
June 27, 2025 - Mark your calendars: The BDC is helping bring you 2 free previews of the upcoming "Da' Gullah American Revolution Show" by the Gullah Traveling Theater, Inc. The performance will illuminates the untold stories of the Gullah people and their vital, yet often overlooked, contributions to the American Revolution. You can join us at either - or both - sneak peek showings.
[I've only posted the notice about the Hilton Head Island showing on account of the July 2nd one at USCB in Beaufort was held yesterday afternoon. There's no reason to add that first session here now.]
June 28, 2025 - One month to "Moo-fort, Mermaids, and More" with Cassandra Knoppel.
June 29, 2025 - This Week in the BDC: We have a local history program about the context of Lafayette's brief visit to Beaufort in 1825 on Wednesday after which the BDC Staff will go to the Beaufort session of "Da' Gullah American Revolutionary Experience" at USCB. (In other words, no appointments or walk-ins after 12 PM on Wednesday.) The Library system will be closed on Friday, July 4th for Independence Day.
June 30, 2025 - "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday": The BDC is the only SCLENDS library to hold An oration delivered before the Philomathean Society and inhabitants of Beaufort, South-Carolina : on Monday, July 4, 1803, in Commemoration of American Independence by Robert Barnwell (1761-1814) that was printed by John J. Evans & Company in Charleston in 1803. As you can see from the images, our copy has water stains.
This Robert Barnwell is referred to as the Senator in The Story of An American Family (1969). He was an ardent Federalist. When he was President of the State Senate, another member described him this way: "a tall, portly, well built man ... of singular gravity and possessed of a great influence in the Senate ... he is considered one of the greatest orators in the State. He has a heavy sonorous voice which completely fills the room. It is somewhat rolling ... smooth and pleasant."
If you decide to read the speech on Google Books, try to imagine the Senator's heavy sonorous, somewhat rolling, smooth and pleasant voice filling the room.
BTW: The word "philomath" is from the Greek meaning a lover of learning. As some of you may know, Beaufort County Library's tagline is "For Learning. For Leisure. For Life." Perhaps we should call our customers and patrons, philomaths in honor of Senator Barnwell. What do you think: Philomaths or customers or patrons?
Don't forget: The Library system will be closed tomorrow, Friday, July 4th to observe the 249th Independence Day. 
