SCDAH Electronic Records Archive Launched

I am a little tardy in sharing this with you but the SCERA brings in a new era of access to state government records. It may take a little time to understand the ins-and-outs of the database but it is sure to help researchers uncover the past and citizens to hold government accountable.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 22, 2016

State Historical Agency Announces the Creation of the South Carolina Electronic Records Archive

Columbia, SC - The South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAH), a state agency established in 1905 with the mission of preserving and promoting South Carolina history, is proud to announce the creation of the South Carolina Electronic Records Archive (SCERA). The new electronic records archive currently houses 450 GB of records that are now available to the public through an easily searchable website, e-archives.sc.gov.

Go to e-archives.sc.gov

The unveiling of SCERA marks a dramatic step forward in the agency’s efforts to make its vast historic collections available to the public in a manner that is most convenient for its users. The creation of SCERA was made possible by the agency’s partnership with Preservica, a digital preservation software solution used by archives worldwide. “Every record in our collection is worthy of the universal accessibility we’ve been able to apply using the new digital preservation system,” says Bryan Collars, Electronic Records and Imaging Supervisor at SCDAH. “When the holdings of an archive are as historically important as ours, we take real pride in knowing that the world now has access to it.” Collars states that the project is ongoing, and SCDAH will continue to add electronic records to the archive as quickly as possible. “By introducing a digital preservation system, we can encourage more state and local government agencies to transfer electronic records, which will in turn help grow SCDAH’s collections while reducing storage costs for other agencies.”

Dr. W. Eric Emerson, SCDAH Director and State Historic Preservation Officer, noted that “the creation of the South Carolina Electronic Records Archive places SCDAH at the forefront of state archives nationwide, and we are working diligently to preserve and make available to the public the ever-growing number of electronic records that will be of historic value.”

Among the records you'll find is this composite photograph of the Members attending the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Convention. There were 6 Black Men in attendance, five of whom represented Beaufort County during the convention: Robert Smalls; Thomas E. Miller; William J. Whipper; James Wigg; and Isaiah Reed. 


I was a little disappointed not to see Beaufort County listed in the Local Records page yet which may be due to the fact that you can gain access to some Beaufort County Council records through the Beaufort County government website http://www.bcgov.net/departments/Administrative/beaufort-county-council/minutes/index.php. 

Here is a list of the Beaufort County records we have on microfilm in our Research Room:

Council Minutes, 1888-2001

Council Resolutions and Proclamations, 1974-2000

Council Ordinances, 1970-2000

Register of Physicians & Surgeons, 1882-1992

Equity Decree Book, 1867-1876

Confederate Veterans Enrollment, 1919-1921

Voter Registration Book and List, 1957-1962

Calendar File Book (Common Pleas), 1974-1977

Bonds of Public Officials, 1984-2002

Register of County Offices, 1866-2002

Coroner’s Inquisition Books, 1888-1898, 1932-1951 

(Beaufort County offers a link to its financial information via the Tyler's Citizen Transparency database: http://openbooks.tylertech.com/_layouts/FormsBasedAutomatedLogin/loginOne.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fbeaufort%2f_layouts%2fAuthenticate.aspx%3fSource%3d%252Fbeaufort%252FTransWebPages%252FHome%252Easpx&Source=%2Fbeaufort%2FTransWebPages%2FHome%2Easpx)
 

 As one of the oldest state archives in the United States, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History is the repository for documents covering South Carolina’s 346-year history. It houses records from as early as 1671, representing the overwhelming majority of state and local government agencies. The agency is located at 8301 Parklane Road in Columbia, and its Research Room is open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.

For more information about SCERA, please contact Grace Salter, Agency Advancement Coordinator, at 803-896-0339 or at gsalter@scdah.sc.gov.

If you have any questions about government records (or any of our collections) housed here in the Beaufort District Collection, please contact us: 843-255-6468 or gracec@bcgov.net. 

Citizen - Archivists Shine Light on Government!

Latest update: 23 October 2024 - gmc

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote open government and freedom of information. This non-partisan, non-profit initiative is celebrated in mid-March each year to coincide with the birthday of the "Father of the United States Constitution," James Madison, that is, March 16, a.k.a. National Freedom of Information Day.  This national initiative is sponsored by the American Society of News Editors and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The goal of Sunshine Week is to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger. Sunshine Week presents an ideal forum to discuss accountability and transparency in government and learn more about the community in which we live - topics that are never out-of-date.

Good government is in everybody's interest. Here in the BDC we have some materials produced by the League of Women Voters about state and local government from the 1970s as well as Harriet Keyserling's memoir about her terms in the SC Legislature. A good portion of the Nancy Ciehanski archival collection concerns her involvement with the Hilton Head Chapter, League of Women Voters, her political offices and appointments, and community activities during the 1980s. We have an extensive collection of DVDs filmed by the County Channel of Beaufort County government meetings 2008 - 2012. And of course, we provide back files of many local newspapers on microfilm where you can learn about government at all levels: city, county, state, national and international. 

 

How can you participate in Sunshine Week? You could come check out our holdings mentioned in the previous paragraph. You could attend a government meeting. You could investigate current candidates running for office. Or you can even help the National Archives transcribe documents to celebrate open government. 

The National Archives is looking for Citizen-Archivists to transcribe records this week. As it says, "every transcription helps 'unlock' the information and helps open government records." All you need is the will to help and an internet connection.  Simply go to the National Archives website and accept a mission to transcribe a document based on a historical era. Its goal? That citizen-archivists transcribe a total of 2,000 pages of National Archives documents between March 13 - March 19. Transcriptions created by citizen archivists will enhance searches in the National Archives catalog and will be added to DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.

Are you ready to accept the challenge? Ready. Set. Transcribe!
See our schedule below for the historical eras of our Sunshine Week transcription missions.

• Sunday, March 13 – Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s) and Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
• Monday March 14 – Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877) 
• Tuesday, March 15 – The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900) 
• Wednesday, March 16 – The Emergence of Modern American (1890-1930)  
• Thursday, March 17 – The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)  
• Friday, March 18 – Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)  
• Saturday, March 19 – Contemporary United States (1968-Present) 

New to transcription? Learn how it works.

Questions or comments? Email us at catalog@nara.gov.

Emancipation Nation Update

The streaming Emancipation Nation: Celebrating Freedom on Constitution Day webcast had 7,000 individuals participate in person or via modern technology.  There were 124 watch parties  (including one here in the BDC) held in 32 states and 3 countries. Missed the presentation but still interested in this important topic?  A YouTube video of the discussion is now available at emancipation.neh.gov/live. 

We're Hosting an Emancipation Nation Watch Party Sept. 17th

We're trying something a little different than our usual programming fare next week.  

Visit the BDC to participate in live-feed, national Preliminary Emancipation Day event on Sept. 17th from 1:00 - 2:30 pm. 

As the Civil War began to unfold, the Union had a serious question to answer:  What to do about the enslaved people left behind - in Beaufort District and other places of the occupied South? 

President Abraham Lincoln had quite a problem. Gen. David D. Hunter, an ardent abolitionist and Commander of the Department of the South based on Hilton Head Island, took it upon himself to order that "the persons in these three States (viz., South Carolina, Georgia and Florida)...heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared free" in an order dated 9 May 1862. Lincoln rescinded Hunter's order with a Presidential Proclamation issued ten days later on 19 May 1862.  

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

For transcript of both texts (Hunter's order and Lincoln's Proclamation) click here.


Lincoln spent much of 1862 preparing for the most important decision of his presidency: emancipation. The drama surrounding Lincoln's decision will be the focus when several of the nation's leading Civil War historians gather in Washington, D.C. for a program that will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. 


Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and with generous support from HISTORY, the event will take place before a live student audience at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and will also be live-streamed for online viewers, on Sept. 17th - Constitution Day - from 1-2:30 p.m. EST. 

We'll project the live stream in the 2nd floor lobby at 311 Scott Street just outside the BDC Research Room door for you to join us at 1:00 pm, Mon., Sept. 17th.  No registration is necessary.  The event is free. 


PS:  Hunter also had his generals round up able-bodied male former slaves, aged 18 to 45,  for involuntary service in the Union Army when volunteers did not step up in sufficient numbers.  He had hoped sign up 2000 Black soldiers to help fill his need for new troops.  This too was rescinded shortly after its declaration as the topic of black men with guns proved quite unnerving to Union troops and Northern states at the time.  But when President Lincoln issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation after the Battle of Antietam, he encourages African-Americans to join the Union’s armed forces.  Black soldiers saw service in every branch of the military following the formal establishment of the Bureau of Colored Troops on May 22, 1863.  They made up nearly 10% of the Union army by the time the war was over.  Nearly 200,000 African-Americans would honorably serve in the forces of the United States during the Civil War.

September 17th is (US) Constitution Day

Today we honor the United States Constitution and the vigorous debate about what it says, what the Founders meant, and what it means for Americans 224 years after the document was signed at the Convention in 1787. (The Bill of Rights, ratification, and implementation all came later.)

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute:
In honor of Constitution Day, and with the permission of the author, the Gilder Lehrman Institute is pleased to send you “One Document, Under Siege” by Richard Stengel.

We hope you enjoy this thought-provoking article and share it with teachers, students, and friends.

Richard Stengel is Editor-in-Chief of Time Magazine and former President of the National Constitution Center. He welcomes your comments and questions, which can be sent to him at richard_stengel@time.com.

Read last year's Connections entry about Constitution Day.

"Hinky" Date on Lincoln Document Suspicious; Historian Confesses

Temptation can be hard to resist - even when one is a recognized researcher.

Thomas Lowry, a long-time Lincoln researcher from Woodbridge, VA, confessed on January 12, 2011, to altering an Abraham Lincoln Presidential pardon that is part of the permanent records of the U.S. National Archives. He admitted that he changed the date on Civil War soldier Patrick Murphy’s pardon, written in Lincoln’s hand, from April 14, 1864, to April 14, 1865, the day John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. If the date were real, this would be one of the final acts of Lincoln as President. Lowry sneaked a fountain pen into the Research Room, altered the date, and thence used his "discovery" to enhance his reputation as a Lincoln scholar.

The alteration was in direct violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2071. The statute of limitations has expired so criminal prosecution cannot be taken against Lowry. The National Archives, however, has permanently banned him from all of its facilitiehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs and research rooms.

Read the National Archives press release about the Lowry alteration here.

Lowry has since recanted his admission of guilt.

There may be more to this tale yet. It also points to the reason behind the Special Collections security standards we do our best to follow in the BDC Research Room.

New National Archives Website is now live!

Adapted from a NARA Press Release:

Washington, DC… The National Archives and Records Administration launched a redesigned Archives.gov web site on December 13, 2010, as part of its flagship Open Government Initiative.

"It's essential for the National Archives to have a user-friendly online presence,” said Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, (the first Archivist to blog, tweet, and launch a Facebook page). “We hope to reach new audiences while still engaging our long-time users, researchers and visitors. This redesign – part of the National Archives flagship Open Government Initiative – reflects the ongoing effort to engage the public and make records of the National Archives easier to find and use."

The new Archives.gov web site features:

* A brand new home page voted by the public in July 2010;
* A new interactive “Our Locations” map of NARA’s facilities nationwide;
* Historical documents and streamlined access to military service records (81 percent of Archives.gov visitors are looking for this information);
* Single topically organized sections focused on the needs of both casual browsers and professional researchers; and
* Easy links to National Archives’ social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and both the Archivist's AOTUS blog and other National Archives blogs.

Visit http://www.archives.gov/open/redesign/ for the explanation and examples of the key changes.

Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect, January 1, 1863

Folks throughout the lowcountry attend watch services to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation 148 years ago today. (The digital image of page 1 of the original Emancipation Proclamation illustrating this entry is from the National Archives).

The 2010 Connections New Year's Day entry gives some background on the Emancipation Proclamation. You can read about the historical significance of Camp Saxton Site in relation to the Emancipation Proclamation here. (A few photographs are included with the National Register nomination form).

Living History, an electronic newsletter from the History Channel, has a "This Day in History" feature which includes an article on the "Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect" for January 1st.

For those who want to dig deeper, the Archivist at Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Mary-Jo Kline, recommends these books and articles about President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation:

Foner, Eric. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. (Available through our Bluffton and St. Helena Branch Libraries)

Blair, William A., and Karen Fisher Younger, eds. Lincoln’s Proclamation: Emancipation Reconsidered. Chapel Hill: Univ. of N.C. Press, 2009. Edition of lectures by respected Civil War scholars, focusing on Lincoln’s views on slavery and his Emancipation Proclamation. (Available in the BDC only)

Gates, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and by Donald Yacovone, eds. Lincoln on Race & Slavery. Princeton: Princeton University Press, c2009. Collection of documents, definitive texts, rich historical notes. (Available through SC LENDS)

McPherson, James M. Abraham Lincoln. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Good short biography of Lincoln by one of the nation’s most eminent Civil War scholars. (Available through our Bluffton Branch Library)

In addition to the links found in the Connections entry about the document last year," I recommend Allen Guelzo’s “Emancipation Proclamation” article in History Now and Kline's additional resources page.

You can search the SC LENDS catalog here for the titles that most interest you from her suggestions.

More about the SC Ordinance of Secession Convention and Document

Connections got a comment from Don who supplied a link to information in UNC's "Documenting the American South" website about the proceedings of the Secession Convention in South Carolina. He wrote:



You might be interested to see and read portions of the http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/southcar/south.html">journal of the secession convention for South Carolina. The full version is around 800 pages long and contains the state's 1861 constitution and the Confederate Constitution as well. The very first item in this journal is the Ordinance of Secession itself, and then there are various supporting ordinances that follow. See this link that will connect you to UNC's "Documenting the American South" website. This page does not appear to contain the entire journal (no declarations, addresses, etc.), but it certainly contains the major ordinances along with the two constitutions.

Thank you, Don, for supplying supplemental information to the "Ordinance of Secession" entry.

Ordinance of Secession

Latest update: 23 July 2020 - gmc

South Carolina was the first state to formally secede from the United States, spurred on by several native fire-eating Beaufortonians.

The 150th Anniversary of the signing of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession today officially kicks off the Sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War.

We have a facsimile of the Ordinance of Secession in the BDC Research Room.

The real SC Ordinance of Secession is safely stored away in the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

The text of the Ordinance of Secession is found in the "Teaching American History in South Carolina: a state-wide approach to teaching professional development" web page about the historic document.

So, what does this have to do with the local history of Beaufort District? Here are several facts to consider:

1) The first "true copy" of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession to fall into Union hands was actually captured in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Port Royal -- here in Beaufort.

2) A significant portion of the Signers of the document were from our area. Signers of the Ordinance of Secession representing the parishes in Beaufort District were: Robert Woodward Barnwell; Langdon Cheves; Richard James Davant; John Edward Frampton; William Ferguson Hutson; Joseph Daniel Pope; George Rhodes; and Ephraim Mikell Seabrook.

3) And didn't the "Father of Secession," native Beaufortonian Robert Barnwell Smith (he legally changed his surname to "Rhett" in his early adulthood) raise and keep up a ruckus for years to bring about the break with the Federal government?

Read the related Ordinance of Secession entry from October 15, 2010.