Beaufort County Library, the public library system of Beaufort County, provides informational, educational and recreational resources to the community to help individuals adapt to a rapidly changing world while protecting the past by preserving our area's rich heritage. Home of the Beaufort District Collection, we interact with researchers from all over the world. After all, as author Larry Rowland, Ph.D. has written, "All American history begins in Beaufort."
Brookgreen Gardens, a National Historic Landmark founded in 1931, encompasses 9,127 acres. The Huntington Sculpture Garden opened in 1932 as America’s first public sculpture garden. Its garden spaces and the collection of sculpture displayed within them have continued to expand through the years. The collection now contains over 1,500 works spanning the entire period of American sculpture from the early 1800s to the present, and its placement in over 50 acres of garden and landscape settings creates an extraordinary combination of art and nature. Thousands of acres in Brookgreen’s Lowcountry History and Wildlife Preserve are rich with evidence of the great rice plantations of the 1800s and the Gullah culture of the enslaved Africans who sustained it, as well as with the native plants and animals of the Lowcountry.
The Cayce Historical Museum's mission is to tell the story of the first European settlement in the midlands of South Carolina, then known as the back country. This area was settled by Swiss-German immigrants who were given free land grants to come to America and settle in 1733 . . . 50 years before Columbia was founded. Our Native American artifacts date back more than 12,000 years.
Located in Chester, SC, the Chester County Historical Society was formed in the 1960s to preserve the significant historical artifacts of Chester County. The Historical Society’s museum includes collections such as Chester County genealogical materials, agriculture machinery from the 1800s, and extensive photos from Chester resident, Henry O. Nichols. The museum was formerly housed in a basement room of the courthouse until 1981 when it was moved to the permanent location in the county’s old jail house. The museum is a volunteer, non-profit organization.
Clemson University is South Carolina’s premiere land grant institution and one of the nation’s top public universities. The digital collections created by the Clemson Libraries to be made available through this portal include significant political, agricultural, and local and regional history holdings.
The College of Charleston, the center of a booming downtown Charleston, offers many digital collections that document the holdings in Addlestone Library's Special Collections. Topics covered in these collections include slavery, local history and organizations, art, photography, and literature.
The Diocese of Charleston Archives’ prime objectives are to serve the administrative needs of the diocese and to promote a wider understanding of the Roman Catholic Church by making some of the Archives holdings visible and accessible to the general public. Professional archivists and trained staff collect, preserve, and make available non-current diocesan records of permanent administrative, legal, fiscal, canonical, and historic value as well as records of other institutions, personal papers, and publications documenting the history of the Roman Catholic Church within diocesan boundaries.
Erskine is a private liberal arts institution located in Due West. The school is affiliated with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and includes an undergraduate College (founded in 1829) and Theological Seminary (founded in 1827). These digital collections document original materials housed in the McCain Library Department of Archives and Special Collections on the Erskine campus. The Erskine Archives preserves and provides access to unique materials focusing on the history of Erskine, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Abbeville County, S.C., and the surrounding area.
Library services in Florence date back to the early 1870s. With its headquarters in the City of Florence, five branch libraries in the county, and a bookmobile, the Florence County Library System continues to offer exceptional services into the 21st century. The E. N. Zeigler South Carolina Room houses the digital collection as well as books and other materials dating back to the 1700s.
Furman is a private liberal arts university founded in 1826 and located in Greenville. It has 2600 undergraduate students and is nationally acclaimed for its academic excellence and Engaged Learning program.
The Digicenter creates and enriches digital collections to be used for instruction and adds value to these collections by linking digital objects with related data, such as maps, timelines, and related information.
To assist the faculty, the Digicenter will create collections by converting analog materials, including slides, print photographs, audio, an text - provided the materials do not infringe copyright provisions - and will customize the material to fit the instructor's teaching needs.
The Digicenter creates and enriches digital collections to be used for instruction and adds value to these collections by linking digital objects with related data, such as maps, timelines, and related information.
To assist the faculty, the Digicenter will create collections by converting analog materials, including slides, print photographs, audio, an text - provided the materials do not infringe copyright provisions - and will customize the material to fit the instructor's teaching needs.
Founded in the late Eighteenth Century, the Georgetown County Library has seen over two hundred years of service to its community. Started by local rice planters and merchants, the library has moved into the Twenty-first Century by offering services to all of its residents, with four branches county-wide. In 2007, the library was awarded the National Medal for Museum and Library Services; one of only ten awarded in the country and the only library in South Carolina to receive the award.
The mission of the Carolina Art Association (the Gibbes Museum of Art) is to offer through collection, exhibition and interpretation a thorough knowledge of the visual culture of Charleston, the Lowcountry and the American South from the colonial era through today.
Founded in 1921, the Greenville County Library System operates eleven facilities, a bookmobile and a website that provide information, materials, and engaging programs
delivered with world-class technology and a customer-centric approach. The Library System offers free access to resources and experiences and continually strives to be the community’s destination of choice for exploring the world. The library’s collection of digitized materials is located in the Carolina First South Carolina Room of the Hughes Main Library. For more information, visit the Library’s website at www.greenvillelibrary.org.
One of the many ways Historic Charleston Foundation seeks to protect Charleston's architectural, historical and cultural integrity is through scholarly research and documentation. Not only does HCF maintain its own records in the Margaretta Childs Archive, staff members also can offer advice to those researching Charleston's architecture and history.
McKissick Museum is located at the heart of the historic Horseshoe on the Columbia campus of the University of South Carolina. It was established in 1976 by the University Board of Trustees to bring together under one roof the many object collections housed in various departments and colleges across campus. These collections date to 1801 and provide insight into the long and illustrious history of the University.
The Waring Historical Library is the special collections and rare book library for the Medical University of South Carolina. Named for Joseph I. Waring, Jr., the first director of the Historical Library, the library houses books, journals, manuscript items and museum artifacts dealing with the history of the health sciences.
Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, located in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. on Charleston Harbor, is home to the U.S.S. Yorktown, an aircraft carrier used in World War II. The museum also features several other warships and numerous combat airplanes used in conflicts from World War II through Desert Storm.
The Pendleton District Historical, Recreational and Tourism Commission was created by the South Carolina legislature in 1966 to preserve and promote history and tourism in Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties. The Pendleton District Commission Research Room and Special Collections contains both primary and secondary sources relating to the history of the tri-county area, historically known as the Pendleton District. The Pendleton District Commission also operates the Pendleton District Agricultural Museum and coordinates the South Carolina Century Farm Program.
Presbyterian College is a national liberal arts institution in Clinton, SC that offers a whole-person education to inquisitive students interested in lives that balance challenging academics, social involvement, and service. Small class sizes allow students to develop closer relationships with faculty and peers. Honor and ethics are a part of the PC culture, guiding students to become values-based leaders in their lives and careers.
The Richland County Public Library, with 11 locations throughout Richland County, offers numerous resources in a variety of formats to meet citizens' needs for reading, learning and information. RCPL's Walker Local History Room, located in the Main Library in Downtown Columbia, has historical and some current material focusing on Columbia, Richland County and the surrounding counties of the Midlands.
The South Carolina Department of Archives and History is an independent state agency whose mission is to preserve and promote the documentary and cultural heritage of the Palmetto State. The Department is the caretaker of the South Carolina Archives, a collection of more than 325 years of historical documents recording the rich and diverse history of the people and government of South Carolina. The agency’s mission extends to encompass historic preservation, history education, records management and records conservation.
In 1855 a group of South Carolina's most distinguished citizens came together to found the South Carolina Historical Society, to preserve South Carolina's rich historical legacy for future generations. Today the SCHS is the state's oldest and largest private repository of books, letters, journals, maps, drawings, and photographs about South Carolina history. Our mission is "to expand, preserve, and make accessible our invaluable collection, and to encourage interest and pride in the rich history of our state."
Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the South Carolina State Library is the primary administrator of federal and state support for the state’s libraries. The Library is a national model for innovation, collaboration, leadership and effectiveness. The Library’s mission is to optimize South Carolina’s investment in library and information services. In 1969, the State Library Board was redesignated as the South Carolina State Library and assumed responsibility for public library development, library service for state institutions, service for the blind and physically handicapped, and library service to state government agencies.
The South Carolina State Museum opened to the public in 1988 with the purpose of collecting, studying, and creating exhibitions focused on the state’s history, natural history, science and technology and art. The museum collection is estimated to have at least 175,000 objects of all types and it continues to grow. For more information and contacts check the web site: www.southcarolinastatemuseum.org.
The Charleston Archive, located on the second floor of the Main Library, is an archive of historic manuscripts, books and visual materials representing Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry. Much of the unique manuscript material housed in The Charleston Archive contains valuable genealogical information and is available on microfilm or photocopies in the South Carolina Room. Access to the original materials is by appointment only. For more information, call 843-805-6968, or visit the Charleston Archive blog site.
America's first museum, founded in 1773. Its mission is to preserve and interpret the cultural and natural history of Charleston and the Lowcountry. The varied items of the Archives certainly reflect the museum's long history of collecting and include books, photographs, maps, manuscripts, postcards, journals and newspapers. While there are some materials from the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries, the bulk of the collections are from the 19th century. Access to the original materials is by appointment only.
There are over three hundred collections in the Citadel's Archives which pertain to the history of the Military College of South Carolina or have military significance. The time span of the collections is from 1842 to the present. Holdings include personal papers, letters, diaries, reports, minutes, speeches, Citadel publications. Visual images include photographs, postcards, engravings, films and videotapes.
The University of South Carolina in Columbia is the state's flagship institution with over 27,000 students. The digital collections offered from USC's Thomas Cooper Library cover topics such as the Civil War, World Wars I and II, small-town South Carolina life, Civil Rights, the African-American Experience, and many others.
The University of South Carolina Aiken is a satellite campus of the University of South Carolina system, founded in 1961. These collections are found at the Gregg-Graniteville Library.
The University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) is a senior institution of the University of South Carolina system serving the southeast coast of South Carolina and Georgia. The university’s two campuses are located on the waterfront in historic Beaufort, S.C. and at the gateway to Hilton Head Island in Bluffton, S.C. The digital collections document original materials housed in the Hilton Head Gateway campus library.
The University of South Carolina Lancaster, founded in 1959, is a regional campus of the University of South Carolina. The institution is currently in the process of developing a Native American Studies Program with both public and curricular components. The Catawba Indian collection was created using slides and photographs from the Native American Studies Archive.
The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Library serves as the School of Medicine's information gateway to biomedical electronic journals, electronic textbooks, and databases. The digital collection includes selected titles from the rare medical books collection housed in the Charles S. Bryan History of Medicine Room.
The Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections preserves and makes accessible rare materials and special research collections supporting teaching and research across a wide range of disciplines. Holdings now total over 150,000 rare and special collections volumes and over 50 archival collections. The books of the South Carolina College are the foundation of the collection, augmented by gifts and purchases from endowed funds over the past 30 years. Major collecting areas include philosophy, natural history and science, history, and literature, with particular strength in Scottish Literature, Robert Burns in particular; John Milton; nineteenth century American Literature; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Ernest Hemingway; Joseph Heller; the history of the Civil War and the Great War; Giuseppe Garibaldi; Charles Darwin; and Historical Astronomy.
The core of the Map Library collection consists of approximately 250,000 maps, 130,000 aerial photographs and 4,000 atlases and books. The Library provides a wealth of geographic reference and primary source material.
MIRC began in 1980 with the gift of the Fox Movietone News Collection. Since then, archival holdings have increased to an estimated 6000 hours of material, including local television news and commercials, home movies, micro-cinematographic nature films, and fiction and documentary films from the People's Republic of China.
Located within the USC Music Library, the special collections include rare books and music scores, archival collections, art, musical instruments, and audiovisual materials dating from the early 19th Century to the present. The Music Library serves as the repository for the departmental records of the School of Music's Bands Department and for the papers of several former professors. Other highlights include autographed first editions of Massenet operas, archival material of composers Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Henry Cowell, and extensive collections of 19th and 20th Century sheet music.
Our collections include records of South Carolina’s leaders in Congress and the General Assembly, the state’s political parties, and other individuals and organizations playing substantive roles in politics and government.
Published Materials (formerly Books Division) collects and preserves publications written by or about the people, places, and culture of the Palmetto State. Holdings include books, maps, pamphlets, S.C. newspapers, sheet music, USC dissertations and theses, journals, magazines and other periodicals, and vertical files of newspaper clippings and other ephemera.
The USC’s South Caroliniana Library’s Visual Materials Division documents the people, places, and culture of South Carolina through a collection of 19th- and 20th-century photographs, postcards, illustrated newspapers, engravings, and lithographs. Other holdings include original artwork, sculpture, posters, blueprints, and architectural drawings.
Holdings of The Manuscripts Division include letters, diaries, and other unpublished papers of families and individuals; genealogical collections; broadsides; plantation account books; non-USC dissertations dealing with S.C. history; and information collected by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), regarding folklore, local history, etc. The Manuscripts Division also holds records of churches, clubs, and other organizations, as well as business records of country stores, textile mills, and other concerns.
The University Archives acquires, preserves, and makes accessible those University records that have permanent historical value. These include the records of major administrative offices, such as the Board of Trustees, the President and the Provost. Other collections held by USC Archives include nineteenth century student records and various University publications, such as commencement programs, annual reports, academic bulletins, the Garnet and Black yearbooks and The Gamecock newspaper. The Archives also collects photographs relating to all aspects of life at USC, as well as architectural plans, drawings and maps of campus buildings and grounds. The bulk of the material is from the 20th century. Archives materials cannot be checked out, but most items can be reproduced.
