Local History Programs in December 2024

We're not quite done with local history programs in calendar year 2024. We have two more installments of the "Historically Speaking" series before we break for the year end holidays. Both will be held on North of the Broad River. 

Dr. Ben Parton will present his upcoming book Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March" on Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 11 AM at Beaufort Branch Library. 

Somewhere Towards Freedom tells the story of Sherman's March to the Sea through the African American lens. Dr. Bennett Parten will connect Sherman's March with the seeds of Reconstruction and highlight Beaufort Districts' essential role as the Union logistics hub enabling communication and resupply, then as the launch point for Sherman's continued march through South Carolina.

In Somewhere Toward Freedom, historian Bennett Parten brilliantly reframes this seminal episode in Civil War history. He not only helps us understand how Sherman’s March impacted the war, and what it meant to the enslaved, but also reveals how it laid the foundation for the fledging efforts of Reconstruction. 
 
Sherman’s March has remained controversial to this day. But as Parten reveals, it played a significant role in ending the Civil War, due in no small part to the efforts of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who became a part of it. In Somewhere Toward Freedom, this critical moment in American history has finally been given the attention it deserves.

Speaker Bio: 

Dr. Bennett Parten is an assistant professor of history at Georgia Southern University whose area of expertise is the Civil War period. He is a native of Royston, Georgia, and completed his PhD in history at Yale University. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Zocalo Public Square, and The Civil War Monitor, among others. He currently lives in Savannah, Georgia. 

The following week we continue with Civil War / Reconstruction Era related local history programming. 

Many people are familiar with the heroic story of Robert Smalls and his daring escape from slavery on the Planter. However, on board the ship that night were more than a dozen enslaved people who risked their lives at the chance for liberty in the Charleston Harbor. Their stories have long been lost in the shadow of Robert Smalls. On board the Planter that night were future soldiers, liberators, entrepreneurs, and politicians. Their experiences reflect the challenges and successes of formerly enslaved people navigating postwar Reconstruction. This presentation by Park Ranger Chris Barr from
Reconstruction Era National Historical Park will draw on newspaper and pension records to share the experiences of these little-known freedom-seekers. 

Speaker Bio: 

Chris Barr is the Chief of Interpretation at Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. His career with the National Park Service has included work at Andersonville National Historic Site, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. He has been here in Beaufort County since 2019.

The "Historically Speaking" series is brought to you by the Beaufort District Collection and the Beaufort County Historical Society. First come; first seated until Fire Marshall limit met. Doors will open at 10:30 AM. 

Note: If you can't make the premiere, you can meet us at Bluffton Branch on January 23, 2025 for the reprise of "Beyond Robert Smalls." Please note: We had to cancel the Pearl Harbor local history program. 

As a heads up: The Library will be closed Nov. 28 & 29th for Thanksgiving; Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and New Year's Day, 2025. 

"Historically Speaking" 6.1: Le Moyne with Larry Koolkin

The BDC and Beaufort County Historical Society's joint "Historically Speaking" series returns for a sixth season. It kicks off with a discussion on Thursday, September 5, 2024 about an important artist who depicted Native Americans in the 16th century. 

Jacques Le Moyne (de Morgues) was the first European artist to journey to what is now the continental United States.  He was tasked, by French King Charles IX, with the purpose of recording its wonders in pencil and paint.  Le Moyne’s images, which survive today through a spectacular series of 42 engravings, provide a rare glimpse of Native American life at the pivotal time of first contact with Europeans.

In 1564, Le Moyne and 300 other Protestants landed off the coast of La Florida near today’s Jacksonville.  They hoped to establish the first permanent European settlement in what would become the United States.  A year later the attempt, known as Fort Caroline, was ended violently by the Spanish from St. Augustine, led by Pedro Menendez.  Luckily Le Moyne was one of the few colonists to escape alive, returning back across the Atlantic to create dozens of illustrations of the local flora and fauna that he saw firsthand.  Although the originals have not survived, their engravings by Flemish master engraver Theodor de Bry have. 

Le Moyne is still recognized today (under the name James Morgan) as an early and influential London botanical painter.

Speaker Bio: 

“I’m definitely a glass-half-full kind of person” says Larry Koolkin…

Larry and his late wife Lainie had lived in the New England for decades.  But in 2012 they found Beaufort by chance, and decided to retire here from Vermont. 

His first career, of 35 years, focused on applied information technology, finance, and international business - including senior positions at Norwich University, MIT’s Project Athena, Bermuda’s Ernst & Young International and Ross Capital Markets, and Prague based Springboard Technology Ventures.  As a technology entrepreneur, he helped to successfully launch and manage half dozen high tech and museum services businesses.  

In 2005, after a successful entrepreneurial technology career, volunteering led to a staff position at Boston's Museum of Science.  Being invited to join their Exhibits Department was all it took to start a new career, which would include a Special Projects role at Vermont’s Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.

Moving to Beaufort renewed Larry’s latent interest in history, especially that of the 16^th century and the early period of European discovery and colonization in the New World.  And what better place than Beaufort for such an interest!

Since arriving, Larry has been a member of the Beaufort County Historic Preservation Review Board, Chair of the Santa Elena History Center’s Exhibits Committee, a member of the Beaufort History Museum’s Board and Chair of both BHM’s Exhibits and Collections Committees,  a member of Fort Freemont’s Advisory Board, and a Board member of the Archaeology Research Trust – who supports the activities of USC’s South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA). 

Larry has earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Applied Computer Science, and a graduate degree in Museum Studies.