Access to Research Room Closed ... for the time being

Circumstances are such that access to the Beaufort District Collection's Research Room ceased effective June 18, 2020 until further notice.  (I must admit that it felt very good to help customers the few days that the Research Room was open from June 15 at 9 AM - until closing time on June 18.)

What this means for you: No one will be able to do research inside the room. This is particularly problematic for the unique (and popular) items we share only inside the Research Room such as microfilm of the back files of the Beaufort Gazette (1906 - March 31, 2015), Island Packet (1970 - March 31, 2015) and Palmetto Post (1882 - 1907).

My advice about what to do during the Research Room's shutdown is "Pretend like it's March 16, 2020" again. During the Library system's shutdown, we drew attention to all the "stuff" available online. Take full advantage of all of the Library's digital assets to explore local history:

• The BDC's Photographs, postcards, unique documents in the Lowcountry Digital Library
• The BDC's Facebook page
• The BDC's Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog
• "Beaufort History Moments" videos on YouTube
• At least through the end of June, one can get access to Ancestry Library Edition with a valid BCL library card and the proper password. To receive the special password, Contact Us and be sure to include your 13-digit library card number. Don't yet have a card? Start here.
• Get Local History Reading Suggestions or Summer Reading ideas

Still having trouble finding the information you seek? Please let me know and I will try to help you from wherever I happen to be at the moment.

• You can call 843-255-6446 and leave a message.  
• You can send an email to gracec@bcgov.net or bcl@bcgov.net or bdc@bcgov.net. Those will be monitored Mondays through Fridays, 9 AM to 5 PM. 
• You can be old school and write a letter. Our address is "Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library, 311 Scott Street, Beaufort, SC 29902." 

Regardless of your choice of communication, I promise to respond as soon as practical. I will do my best to give you solid advice or point you to digital resources or to items in the Library's circulating local history sections that can get you further along your research path.

Please note: All units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed on Friday, July 3 and Saturday, July 4 for Independence Day.

Celebrate National Library Week 2020 from the Comfort of Your Home

National Library Week (April 19- 25, 2020) is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries and library workers and to promote library use and support. I always look forward to advocating for my industry of choice and employment during the celebration. However this year, I feel even more passionately that we lovers of libraries must speak out - and perhaps more forcefully than ever - as cutbacks are sure to come in the wake of all the death and economic disruption caused by worldwide attempts to "flatten the curve" of this dreadful pandemic.

Thus, like the rest of our lives as of mid-March, National Library Week 2020 is certainly different this year. Even the logo changed as library after library closed in the wake of all the disruption caused by everyone's attempt to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 virus.  We cannot have any large gatherings at the moment - and certainly not inside our buildings to mark this annual weeklong occasion.

While most libraries have closed their buildings to protect the public as well as staff members from contracting or spreading the COVID-19 virus, many are open for business online, providing and promoting their virtual services and digital content in new ways. Many like the Beaufort County Library have expanded access to digital content . Many like Beaufort County Library are finding innovative ways to continue programming efforts using technology tools that some have never used before.

As in the past, libraries as community institutions and library staff have proven themselves agile in reacting to circumstances and proactive in thinking of new ways to deliver services that the community needs. Almost overnight libraries transformed from places where staff deliver services to individual customers on a one-to-one basis into organizations of individual workers stationed at home who deliver personal services to other individuals primarily through technology and through our websites. Some of it has been fly-by-the-seats of our pants though Library staff are learning via free webinars how to better position Beaufort County Library to serve you, our community, in these unusual times by repositioning the Library as a trusted second line helper in the public health fight of the new century.

The BDC has long had "Virtual" services through its social media and presence on the Library's website. If you've attended any of our 20 local history programs or outreach efforts this fiscal year, you've heard about at least one or more of those services at each of those interactions with community members. I hope that you're using at least one or more of those portals to get your local history on!

Over the years, the BDC has as many website/virtual customers as it has had inside our physical Research Room. But COVID-19 now means that all our customers are at least temporarily somewhere else. The same is true for the Beaufort County Library as a whole. Library staff have been working hard since our buildings were closed to the public to serve our community in new and enhanced ways. Here are some of the changes:

• Temporary Library Cards
• Temporary Access to Ancestry Library Edition from home! 
• Temporary Suspension of Overdue Material Fines
• You can borrow more items from Hoopla
• Temporary Access to News Reliability database began April 2, 2020
• Library Book Drops Re-open, April 17, 2020
• A newly created Reading Suggestions for Downloadables page

According to reports submitted to the Library Board of Trustees by Library Director Ray McBride, Library staff have completed more than 1500 hours of continuing education and answered hundreds of questions through our home computers, internet connections and smart phones.  Staff have managed new services and promoted our website, databases, and downloadable services such as Hoopla and Cloud Library. Circulation of electronic formats have exploded. Staff received guidelines on how to do online presentations on Wednesday, April 15 so be alert for upcoming virtual programs, including (probably) one from us during May.

I have maintained all the BDC's social media from home during the shutdown. There is at least one Facebook post per day - and sometimes more. Please visit the BDC Facebook page for upcoming posts about these National Library Week events ... and more:

Monday, April 20: The 2020 State of America's Libraries Report is released
Tuesday, April 21: National Library Workers Day
Wednesday, April 22: National Bookmobile Day
Thursday, April 23: Take Action for Libraries Day

To stay in the know, please subscribe to receive e-blasts from the Library system and the Beaufort District Collection. #AloneTogether can't last forever. We will return to our buildings and to serving you with research help inside our facility and through gatherings with others interested in learning more about this wonderful place in which we are currently sheltering-in-place.

Mixing Up Men with the Same Name (revised 6 May 2025)

(Latest update: 6 May 2025 - gmc) Sometimes research mistakes get made - even by local history librarians and archivists who should know better. 

For years I have mixed up Robert Woodward Barnwell of Beaufort born 1801, died 1882 in Columbia with a poet by the same name. I have done some displays for National Poetry Month over the past decade that unintentionally ascribed the poems to the wrong Robert Woodward Barnwell. How did this happen? one asks. The answer is: "It is very easy to get persons with the exact same name mixed up when families perpetually use a name over and over through succeeding generations." In the course of unraveling this particular mystery, I discovered that The Story of an American Family by Stephen B. Barnwell, 1969 - considered the go to guide of all things Barnwell - lists a dozen different men named Robert Woodward Barnwell, the first one in 1801, and the last one listed born in 1959, though there probably are a few more RWB's now. In the index he calls the RWB I am most interested in today, "Senator." 

I discovered my mistake on 27 July 2017 as I was updating a WordPress blog post I created nine years earlier. I was wondering why I could not find any references to poetry writing in all the online sources I found for him nor in any of our own BDC resources at hand - except for three items.

Seeing the dates on the poetry book, Realities and Imaginations ... a Poem, [1938] and Dawn at Daufuskie and Other Poems (1936) got me to thinking about why the collections were published 50 years or more after RWB's death. I have these two titles on the shelves so I could look at the items in their entirety for clues. Luckily Dawn at Daufuskie had a copyright date of 1936 and a "Preface" written by the author in 1936. Obviously, the author was not my RWB as I had previously thought. The "Preface" also written by the author for Realities and Imaginations ... A Poem two years later indicates that he did not begin writing poetry until 1920 and that he was living in Florence, SC. More proof that I had mixed up the Robert Woodward Barnwells.

Researching deeper in The Story of an American Family (whose index only includes personal names, not topical subjects), I finally located the right Robert Woodward Barnwell, the Episcopalian priest and poet. I used information gleaned from a Florence Morning News obituary to narrow down my options for searching the name index of The Story of An American Family. The Florence Morning News obituary stated that he married  his second wife Malinda in 1902. 

I looked in the index to The Story of An American Family and found her name. I then read several pages both before and after page 354 to see if I could triangulate the proper RBW who wrote Realities and Imaginations ... a Poem and Dawn at Daufuskie and Other Poems. I have at last! 

Stephen B. Barnwell, author of Story of An American Family, writes about this particular Rev. Robert Woodward Barnwell, his wives, children, and grandchildren on pages 352 - 357 and includes a number of photographs. 

Rev. Robert Woodward Barnwell, author of Realities and Imaginations ... a Poem and Dawn at Daufuskie and Other Poems was the son of another Rev. Robert Woodward Barnwell who died in 23 June 1863. His wife Mary Carter Singleton died two days later thereby leaving three orphaned young sons to the care of relatives. In 1864 his brother Edward died leaving John Singleton Barnwell (1859 - 1932) and Robert Woodward Barnwell (20 November 1860 - 28 June 1952) to the care of their grandmother and aunts in Beaufort. 

John Singleton Barnwell never married and died without issue.  

His brother, minister and poet RWB had three children with his first wife Wilhelmina DuBose before her death in 1899. He and second wife Malinda McBee Brunson had six children. Malinda died in 1962 in Florence. All told then, minister and poet RWB had 9 children all of whom survived to adulthood, most of whom married, and some of whom had children themselves. For details, you can come to read The Story of An American Family in our Research Room. Just be sure to contact us ahead of time to make sure we're here: 843-255-6468; bdc@bcgov.net

You can see his headstone on the Find-A-Grave website.

RWB, 1801-1882

For nine years I had been unintentionally sharing bad information. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. 

This purpose of this post is to set the record straight and to encourage you to take your time before determining if you have the "right" person with a particular - and repetitive through the generations - name. Weigh all the evidence. Evaluate the documents. Use your finest most honed reasoning skills. When in doubt, explain your reasons why you think this particular person is the correct person for your genealogical chart. Doing so will make it easier for your descendants to evaluate any new evidence or documentation that may come to light in the future.

Learn more about Robert Woodward Barnwell, 1801-1882 in our "bdcbcl: Links, Lists and Finding Aids" blog on WordPress.

The image is from House Divided: A Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College. 

BDC Services and Programs

The Beaufort District Collection is a full service special library and archives in a public library as our logo indicates. We are a unit of the Beaufort County Library in South Carolina.

The purpose of the Beaufort District Collection is to acquire, preserve, maintain and share a research collection of permanent value about the history, Gullah culture, natural history, archaeology and genealogy of Beaufort District’s long and storied past. Our collection focuses on the people, places, issues and themes relevant to Beaufort County, Hampton County, and Jasper County history, 10,000 BCE to the mid-1960s.

Our Research Room is open for anyone over age 12 to explore their interest in any of these topics. We have books, audio-visual recordings, newspapers, illustrated prints, maps, photographs, postcards, and manuscript collections to support your historical and genealogical research. In addition to housing a fine collection of research materials, we employ competent staff to orient you to the possibilities and pitfalls of doing research in a “burned County.”

Contact us at (843) 255-6468 or e-mail gracec@bcgov.net to schedule Research Consultations.

Q: Want to do a little research from home before traveling to our Research Room?
A: Our “Virtual BDC” may include just what you need to know!
Q: That's great but how do I find the "Virtual BDC"?

* Search the BDC BCL Wordpress blog for materials and links about the people, places, issues and themes relevant to Beaufort County, Hampton County, and Jasper County 10,000 BCE to the mid-1960s. Just type in "Reconstruction" or "Root Doctor" or an event, such as the Battle of Port Royal Sound or the Hurricane of 1893,  to get a list of library materials and online resources about a specific local history topic.

* Visit us on the web http://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org. Click on the “Local History” tab and gain access to our Online Obituary Index files, Local History and Nature pages, two photographic digital collections, and Connections blog http://www.beaufortdistrictcollectionconnections.blogspot.com

* We post something related to local history, Gullah culture, archaeology, genealogy or natural history on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bdcbcl every work day.

Not really into performing research but love history? We offer local history, Gullah culture, natural history, and archaeology programs and genealogy and materials preservation trainings on a recurrent basis throughout the Beaufort County Library system. For scheduled programs and events, check the Library system’s calendar http://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/bcl_calendar or just monitor Connections for program announcements. For example, the BDC has four "specials" in August:
 
1)  "Reconstruction History Long Ignored, Neglected: Are We Finally Ready to Talk?" a three panel exhibit from the USC-B Libraries is currently on display in the 2nd floor lobby outside the BDC Research Room door. Drop by Mondays through Fridays, 10 am to 5 pm to view the exhibit.

2) We're reaching out to the community through the USC-B Reception and Book Signing with Dr. Larry Rowland and Dr. Stephen Wise on Wed., August 12th. We're taking some of our own Civil War, Reconstruction era, phosphate mining, and Hurricane of 1893 treasures to display.
3) The following day, Meg Gaillard, Archaeologist with the SC Department of Natural Resources Heritage Trust Program will be here to show documentary films about Fort Frederick and lead participants on a tour of the Fort Frederick historic site. (We regret that we cannot provide transportation to the site on the Naval Hospital grounds).
4) I'll be sharing images and personal accounts about the Hurricane of 1893 at Hilton Head Branch on the 122nd anniversary of the event.

We also expect that the "We Are P.I.: Making Marines" panel exhibit from the Parris Island Historical & Museum Society will arrive very soon. (Stay tuned for the announcement). 

For current hours of operation and library addresses consult the Library system’s webpage http://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/content/hours-locations

Who's Your Hero?

As readers are aware, this year's theme for Summer Reading for Youth is "Every Hero Has a Story." SRP ends this Saturday.  Over the past 6 weeks or so, we've highlighted some of our local heroes from Beaufort District's long and storied past here in Connections or on our Facebook page. However, your definition of "hero" may be different from mine. Which of the "Famous People of Beaufort County, SC" do you consider a "Hero" of Beaufort District's past and why?

April News & Notes

We celebrate National Poetry Month during April with a themed display inside the Research Room. You'd be surprised how many poetry books we have in our permanent collection. Expect to read a few of my favorite poems by local poets here in Connections this month.

The Library system is running a fun creative exercise to celebrate. 

If you've been in the Research Room, you'll know that we don't have much wall space in the public area - and the 2nd floor lobby is filled with the wonderful "Heart of the Home" exhibit through June 12th. It'll be fun to see what our budding poets write at other locations throughout the system, though.

The Preservation Associate position was frozen in late March so it looks like the temporary schedule will continue for awhile yet. Mondays and Fridays are as before: 10 am to 5 pm; but there is no access to the Research Room without an advance appointment on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays until further notice.

We've got three programs lined up for April:

Last Ferry to Beaufort: an Author Book talk, sale and signing with local author Charles Wersler.  He shares the life and times of Capt. Willie Roberts, 1865- 1952, the last ferryman in Beaufort County. Saturday, April 18th at 1 pm in the BDC. Come early and view the "Heart of the Home" exhibit 11 am - 1 pm.

Dr. Chester DePratter explains the archaeology at the mid-16th century capitol of New Spain, Santa Elena on Thursday, April 23 at 6 pm in the BDC. We're keeping the "Heart of the Home" exhibit open that day until 6 pm. This lecture is co-sponsored by Beaufort Chapter, Archaeological Society of South Carolina.

Above all else, the BDC strives to be a good steward of the materials entrusted to us. This also  means that we can teach you some basic strategies to preserve your own family treasures. Help us celebrate national Preservation Week at Bluffton Branch on Tues., April 28 at 1 pm to get some tips and suggestions from BDC Manager Grace Cordial. First come; first seated. Maximum of 20 people.

The Library system is closed Wed., April 22nd for Staff Development Day.

Remember that you're never far away from local history brought to you by the Beaufort District Collection, the Library's special local history collections and archives. The "Virtual BDC" is only a few clicks away under the "Local History" tab on the Library system's homepage.  

Brooker on Tabby at CDM

You can learn about the history of tabby construction at the Coastal Discovery Museum next week.  Colin Brooker will discuss tabby and similar building methods and materials in “Tabby, Pise and Cob: Investigations, Discovery and Interpretation,” at 3 PM on Wednesday, December 17^th in the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island.  Fee: $7.00 per person. 

Brooker will discuss his most recent research and restoration projects in the Lowcountry including: cisterns at Fort Johnson, an ice house on Edisto Island, an early Freedman’s house on Berry Island, and slave dwellings on Daufuskie Island.  In addition, he will address international projects in the Bahamas and in southeast England. Brooker is an international expert on form-built structures comprised of natural materials found on site.  His investigations have widened accepted scholarship about this subject. He will discuss the character and techniques of these sites as well as their meaning during the period of 1780-1845.

If you can’t make his lecture, you can visit the Beaufort District Collection room to review some of our materials about tabby (several of which he wrote) and/or read about tabby in the “Virtual BDC” http://bit.ly/1umfw4W

Reminder: The BDC Research Room is closed Fri., Dec. 12th due to staff shortage. We plan on returning to regular hours Mon., Dec. 15 - Tues., Dec. 23rd.  

Schedule Adjustments

When a unit has a staff of two and the Library system itself is understaffed on a daily basis, we cannot always find a substitute to cover the Research Room desk - although we always try.  Therefore it is sometimes necessary for the BDC Research Room to close at lunchtime to comply with federal law regarding hourly employees.  This circumstance arises twice soon:  Thurs., Nov. 21st and Wed., Nov. 27th.

• Please note that the BDC Research Room will be open 10 am until Noon, closed from Noon until 1 pm, and will re-open from 1 pm until 5 pm on both Thurs., Nov. 21st and Wed., Nov. 27th. 

BTW: I will be talking about "Child Labor in Beaufort District" at the Beaufort County Historical Society meeting Thurs., Nov. 21st at Noon - "if the creek don't rise."  This presentation is a revision of the one given as part of the Library system's "One County Reads One Country: Afghanistan" project in 2012. The Beaufort County Historical Society meets at the Yacht Club on Meridian Road.  The public is invited to attend.  It is free.

The Library system, as part of Beaufort County government, observes County holidays.  Thus, 

Regular hours resume at the Branch Libraries on Saturday, Nov. 30th.  Regular hours for the BDC Research Room resume Mon., Dec. 2, at 10 am. 

Anytime that the Research Room is closed - and you just can't get enough research material about the local history, culture, or natural environment of Beaufort County - you can always reach the components of the "Virtual BDC."  Go to the Library's homepage, select the "Local History" tab and explore!

  

Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month in the U.S. To honor this national month of commemoration and acknowledgment of the contribution of Native Americans, we’re posting historical tidbits about the lowcountry Indians on our Facebook page throughout November.  Click the “like” button if you want to encourage us to continue sharing local history with you via Facebook. 

As of 2012, South Carolina is home to one Federally Recognized Tribe and over a dozen State Recognized Tribes and Tribal groups. South Carolina’s Native population grew significantly in the 2010 Census, and now numbers 40,000+, mostly due to folks of Native American descent moving into this area from other parts of the United States.

Beaufort County is the one spot in South Carolina where there is no local Native American tribal organization representing the descendants of Indians who were living here when the Europeans arrived during the 16^th century. 

If you prefer your information to be more thorough and substantive, check out these links in our Virtual BDC: 
Lowcountry South Carolina Indians
NativeAmericans  

Yamassee artifacts from Altamaha

Although the Topper Site  is just outside the traditional boundaries of Beaufort District (in nearby Allendale County), it is a very important archaeological dig that has already changed our understanding of the Native Americans who came to South Carolina during the Ice Age.

For the more visually minded, you can borrow They Were Here: Ice Age Humans in South Carolina and Carolina Stories: Finding Clovis DVDs from our Branch Libraries. 

Talk Like a Pirate Day (continued)

Avast ye! Pirate booty awaits ye at the Beaufort District Collection! Aarrrhhhg!!!

Watch and listen as Dr. Larry Rowland tells all about local pirates in this Beaufort County History Moment. (Running time 3:36) [a joint project of the County Channel, the Beaufort County Planning Department, and the Beaufort County Library].


(PS: Some of the images are from materials in the BDC). 

Shiver me timbers! ...and more pirate stuff for you to be checkin' out: Pirates of the Lowcountry

Notable Women of 20th Century Beaufort County: Part 4

One component of the "Virtual BDC" is our Wordpress Blog, simply entitled "bdcbcl." We post lists of materials about the people, places, and themes of our long and storied history on that blog. Continuing our observance of National Women History Month we draw your attention to two notable women of 20th century Beaufort County among the "Local Notables" personages: Harriet Keyserling and Chlotilde Martin.

Harriet Hirschfeld Keyserling was born in New York City on April 4, 1922.  She married a Navy doctor, Herbert Keyserling in 1944.  At the conclusion of World War II, they moved to his hometown, Beaufort, SC. Here they reared 4 children, one of whom is the current Mayor.  The story of her transition from a liberal-minded Jewish housewife to an eight term South Carolina legislator (beginning at the age of 54), is told in her memoir Against the Tide.  (Against the Tide is available in the BDC and Local History sections under call # B Keyserling).  Her particular interests were funding for the arts and environmental issues. She died on December 10, 2010, aged 88.  To learn more, consult the resources we compiled about her for the Harriet Keyserling list.

Chlotilde Rowell Martin was a newspaper writer, deeply interested in history and historic preservation.  Born in Bamberg in 1895, she moved to Beaufort in 1911 and considered it her hometown.  She was likely the first woman reporter at The State newspaper (1919). She married Thomas S. Martin of Anderson County in 1923.  Four short years later he died and widow Martin had two children to support on whatever income she could cobble together to keep the wolf from the door.  The children and she returned to Beaufort to be nearer to her parents (Melvin L. and Eva Randall Rowell)  in 1930 and soon started her most famous work, "Lowcountry Gossip," for The News and Courier newspaper of Charleston.  Some of those columns have been reprinted and annotated in Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin, edited by Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius, University of South Carolina Press, 2009. (The volume is available in the BDC and Local History sections under call # 728.8579 MAR).

She was a charter member of the Beaufort County Historical Society and the "Committee for the Preservation of the Lafayette Building." She was an active member of the Historic Beaufort Foundation, the Beaufort Museum, and the St. Helena's Episcopal Church.  She died on November 17, 1991, aged 96.  To learn more about her, consult the resources we compiled about her for the Chlotilde Martin list.


Of course, if you read through the list of posts on bdcbcl, you'll find other women significant to the history of Beaufort District: Charlotte Forten; Harriet Tubman; Clara Barton; and, Rachel Mather.  

Penn Celebrates 150 Years of Service

Penn School was founded in 1862 as part of the "Port Royal Experiment."  This weekend Penn Center is honoring its long and enduring history with an "150th Annual Founders Day Celebration." 

If you'd like to know more about this National Historic Site, the Library shares a number of relevant materials on the "Port Royal Experiment" and the Penn Center through our holdings.

HBF Dinner & Lecture: Spanish American War

The Spanish American War: More Than a Run Up a Hill will be the topic of Historic Beaufort Foundation’s Dinner & a Lecture, Monday, March 26, 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m., at the Verdier House, 801 Bay Street. 

The lecture is part of a kick-off for a new exhibit at the Verdier House, “Fort Fremont: Homeland Security 1898” being sponsored by the Friends of Fort Fremont.

Dr. Mark Barnes, retired historian and senior archaeologist with the National Park Service will use period photography, illustrations, and images collected during research on an annotated bibliography of the 1898 War with Spain and the Philippine Insurrection, to discuss the conflict, its outcome, and some aspects from this war which are still with the United States of the present.

The largely-forgotten 100-day conflict touched Beaufort County with the construction and occupation of Fort Fremont on St. Helena Island and, according to Barnes, contributed to healing hard feelings remaining after the Civil War. The hospitality of the Charleston people to the northern National Guard troops was reported all across the nation.

Barnes’ lecture is a feature of the new Verdier House exhibit on Fort Fremont which opens to the public Friday, March 23. He will discuss the participation of South Carolina in the 1898 war, addressing current efforts to preserve the fort and interpret the significance of the site.

A wine and hors d’oeuvre reception begins at 5:30; the program is 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. Fee.  To reserve a seat and/or for details, call 379-3331. 

• Click here to read about Fort Fremont in the Library's Local History & Nature webpages.

Even More Changes Coming to the Virtual BDC

Reminder: We're upgrading to PastPerfect 5.0 on Monday, Jan. 23rd. The Research Room computer will be offline during the installation process. This means that customers won't have access to Ancestry Library Edition nor to the catalog to do their own searches.

The Library system is updating the software behind our web site. This impacts another part of the "Virtual BDC." The Local History & Nature pages are being converted into DRUPAL supported pages. You'll also notice a "new look" to the index page.

Work is currently underway, so please bear with us. We're doing our best to catch all the mistakes but something may well slip by us.

If while visiting our website or the "Virtual BDC" you notice something awry (as in links take you nowhere or a link for "Sweetgrass baskets" ends up at the Tabby article), please share the details with our website administrator at libwebmaster@bcgov.net.

We appreciate your patience. In the end, we hope that you too will feel that the changes are good ones which improve our customer service.

No ALE Searching on Monday in the Research Room

Visitors to the Research Room usually have access to a computer for searching the catalog and/or Ancestry Library Edition. An exception to this standing practice will occur on Monday, Jan. 23rd.

On Monday, Jan. 23rd, our systems specialist, Stuart Forrest, will be installing major upgrades to our PastPerfect software. The Friends of the Beaufort County Library originally paid for PastPerfect software for us way back in 2001. Since then, we've done several upgrades. Now, we have to upgrade from versions 3.5 to 4.0 and from 4.0 to 5.0 to move forward with our long-range plans for digitization of special collections materials.

Our ultimate goal has always been to share our holdings more broadly by using affordable technology to facilitate viewing inside our branch libraries of some of the "behind-the-wall" special collections materials we hold in trust. A successful installation to PastPerfect 5.0 is the long anticipated and necessary first step on our journey to reach out and share the wonders of the BDC with all our BCL customers, regardless of their branch library of choice.

While we apologize for the inconvenience to our Research Room customers on installation day, the upgrades will facilitate better services for Research Room, as well as "Virtual BDC," customers. It'll be so worth it.

The 150th Anniversary Commemoration continues...

... with a gala 4 day event, Dec. 1st - Dec. 4th. Lead sponsors are the Coastal Discovery Museum and the Lowcountry Civil War Roundtable.

Nationally recognized experts in the history of the Civil War will be lecturing. (We're talking William C. Davis, Dr. James Robertson, Jr.and Col. Kevin Weddle, Ph.D.; Beaufort's own Dr. Larry Rowland and Dr. Stephen Wise; and Mike Coker, author of The Battle of Port Royal). Re-enactors will be on site doing their Civil War campsite activities. Watch performances by Clarence Felder and Chris Weatherhead using diaries, letters, and music from the era. Participate in the opening reception of a temporary museum exhibit on how the local area experienced the maelstrom. Find details at http://www.coastaldiscovery.org/civilwar.html. Fee.

Other historical organizations are involved as well with separately ticketed or free events. Be sure to read down the entire webpage for a vast array of Civil War related activities and events going on that weekend.

And, of course, in case you're of a mind to do some research on the Civil War, check out these lists of online resources, materials available through the Library system, or in the BDC Research Room:

Battle of Port Royal, 1861

Mitchelville

Life and Legacy of Robert Smalls

Missionary Teachers to the Freedmen

Selective Materials on the United States Colored Troops

Penn Center, a sister cultural heritage agency, has posted a short pdf on a sesquicentennial themed tour of their facilities and holdings online.

Grace's Bottom Line: There are plenty of opportunities - at all price points -- for you and yours to learn how the Civil War and Reconstruction history of this place and its people is different than the Civil War and Reconstruction history of any other place in this country. Embrace the uniqueness!

Links to Digital Collections You May Wish to View

From Serving South Carolina with MORE (South Carolina State Library’s newsletter), Winter 2011 issue, p. 7:

Public libraries, universities, historical organizations, and museums from around South Carolina have made available many unique historical collections for the public to view. And the Beaufort County Library is among that number!

Opening History: U.S. History Resources from Libraries, Museums, and Archives website maintains a list of digital collections in South Carolina by organization. Opening History is a project of the IMLS Digital Collections and Content (DCC) registry. Sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the DCC’s purpose is to bring together digital collections funded by IMLS National Library grants.

The State Library also maintains a list of digital collections in South Carolina at our South Carolina Library Network wiki.

Heads up: We’ll be adding another digital collection real soon….

Don't forget: The Beaufort District Collection Research Room will be closed Thurs., Nov. 24th and Fri., Nov. 25th for the Thanksgiving holidays. You can visit us on the web through our "Virtual BDC" offerings accessible through the Library's homepage at http:www.beaufortcountylibrary.org. Choose the "Local History" tab to gain access.

Sea Island Hurricane of 1893: A Guide to Resources

Yesterday, 35 people attended our BDC@ The Branches program for the Bluffton Branch History Book Club session on The Great Sea Island Storm by Bill and Fran Marscher. We even had some folks sitting in the hall. Bratton DeLoach and I were delighted to have such a crowd! I showed images of some of our BDC holdings relating to the Hurricane of 1893 that devastated this area - and now everyone who came knows that I don't think much of our former governor, Benjamin Tillman. (What a mean and hateful man he was. And, yes, that is a moral judgment - which I will stand by!)

I've compiled a guide to resources about the storm that I used to prepare the review and program. Halle Eisenman, who's still doing double-duty as Reference Manager at Hilton Head Branch and webmistress, posted the guide post haste in one component of the "Virtual BDC," viz., "Local History Treasures Brought to You by the Beaufort District Collection" within the librarian-chosen "Recommended Reading" page. (There are 6 components of the "Virtual BDC" in all).

Q: How do you find the "Virtual BDC?"
A: Start at our Library's homepage, that is, at www.beaufortcountylibrary.org.

Option 1: Choose the "Local History" tab. It's the third one in the blue row of column headings.

5 of the 6 components of the Virtual BDC are accessible through the "Local History" tab. Here you'll find direct links to the BDC homepage, Local Obituary Index, Connections, the Donner Digital Collection of phosphate industry and early 20th century farming, and the index to the 50+ Local History & Nature pages. But there's more...

Option 2: See the "Quick Links" section in the left column under the tan Library Catalog box? Recommended Reading is among the choices. Click Recommended Reading.

About 1/2 way down, you'll see a section labeled: "Local History Treasures Brought to You by the Beaufort District Collection." There are 35 (as of today) lists of materials about people, places, and topics important to Beaufort District's history within these guides. The one on the "Sea Island Hurricane of 1893" posted just this morning has a red "New!" beside it.

Taken together, the "Virtual BDC" got approximately 50,000 hits last FY year. Please help me make that 60,000 for this FY by taking a few minutes to explore the offerings.

Given that there is a big push for "Participatory Librarianship" these days, I'd love to get your comments on how to improve and enhance our current offerings within the "Virtual BDC." Contact me at gracec@bcgov.net or make a comment to this post.

Library Website is currently down

Our Systems person says that unfortunately the hardware for our Library website has failed. Actions are being taken to mitigate the situation as quickly as possible. We will restore the library website as soon as we can.

Preparing a Civil War Lesson Plan? Try these ...

For all you history teachers out there:

The Civil War Trust can help you teach about the Civil War with its free online curriculum materials. There are sections for Elementary, Middle, and High School students as well as a "Gifted & Talented" section focusing on significant people such as Robert Smalls, Clara Barton and Susie King Taylor -- who had direct ties to Beaufort District and our own local history. There are Powerpoints, lesson plans, assessment tools, coloring books, maps, and crossword puzzles among the host of resources available. If you have to do a "Civil War" lesson plan - anytime between now and the end of the Sesquicentennial in 2015 - this "Civil War Curriculum" might be just the ticket.

We have compiled a number of guides to library resources on topics relating to the Civil War. We do our best to include links to reliable online resources along with library materials to make it easier for you to pick and choose what's right for your students. Perhaps as you prepare your lesson plans for the next five years, one or more of the BDC created lists will prove helpful to you.

For example, we have lists of library and internet materials on these people who were significant locally during the Civil War and Reconstruction period:

Robert Smalls
Clara Barton
Harriet Tubman
Charlotte Forten
Rachel Mather, and
Laura Towne.

Among the topics for which we already have compiled lists of library and internet resources on are:

The 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Port Royal, 1861 is almost upon us. (We'll be having special programs on November 7th in Bluffton and on St. Helena to commemorate the battle and its aftermath. Expect details soon.)

To learn what the Library has on the Missionary Teachers, click here.

Mitchelville, located on Hilton Head Island, was the First Freedman's Village.

Q: Did you know that 3 of the 4 African-American regiments of Union soldiers raised in South Carolina were raised here? We've created a "recommended reading" list for that topic, too.

Penn School, one of the first schools to teach the newly freed slaves how to read and write, began during the Civil War.

We add to the "Recommended Readings" lists from time to time, so the universe of the lists will grow. Check back about every 3 to 4 months just to make sure you haven't missed something new. And, of course, you can always contact us at gracec@bcgov.net or by calling 843-255-6446 if you can use our help compiling supplemental resources for your lessons.