"Blood Be Upon Your Head"

Here's an event invitation that looks promising, but note that the registration cost increases after Monday, Feb. 1.

"Blood Be Upon Your Head"
Tarleton and Buford at the Waxhaws
February 27, 2010
Lancaster, South Carolina

Andrew Jackson State Park, Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution, the American Revolution Association, the Friends of Andrew Jackson State Park, and the Friends of the Medford Library invite you to attend a one-day program: "Blood Be Upon Your Head" - Tarleton and Buford at the Waxhaws" on February 27, 2010. The conference will be held at the University of South Carolina-Lancaster with an afternoon tour of Buford's battleground. Examine the research and the myths surrounding this clash between units of British cavalry and American infantry to understand why scholars have been debating about this battle for 230 years.

Presenters include Todd Braisted of The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies, Dr. Jim Piecuch of Kennesaw State University as well as David McKissack and Scott Miskimon who are both well-versed in the history of the Virginia Continental Line. Lee McGee will present on the tactics and training of Revolutionary War era cavalry and Bill Anderson will map the daily movements of the troops involved. Archaeologist Scott Butler will explain his research on the archeology of the battleground.

The registration fees are $50 per person and $85 per couple until February 1, 2010. After February 1st, the rates increase to $65 per person and $120 per couple. Conference registration opens at 8:30 am and the program will begin at 9:00 am in the Bradley Building on the USC-Lancaster campus. Lunch is included. For more information and registration, contact Andrew Jackson State Park (803) 285-3344 or andrewjackson@scprt.com

We History Types Call This The Romantic Period

That is, the period of history in which "romanticism" took over, which is basically a classical revival in nearly all works of art stretching from literature to fashion to painting to architecture. (And by classical, we mean classical, as in, it was trendy to revisit the imagined lifestyles of the Greeks and Romans.) Newspaper columns were not immune, as evinced by the heading of this clipping from 1861*, where Lady Liberty is perched with a cupid-cherub in a natural, out-doorsey scene:


*Why is there handwriting that says 1863? It was filed with a group of legal papers in 1863, and thus dated to its filing date.

I promised a review of the Railroad Lecture Series, so here it is: Last week's lecture on the history of the railroads to the Civil War by former SCDAH director Rodger Stroup was an enjoyable experience that I found to be, at an hour's length, not long enough. For those who fear speeches, I can assure you it was not a bit dull, and filled with Ye Olde Photos, sketches of various locomotives, Nifty Antique Maps, and even a little model of the Best Friend of Charleston on display. (Plus, if you looked carefully, I was there, taking notes while quietly bleeding from slicing my hand open right before the lecture began.)

Attendance was healthy with a good-humored, intelligent crowd offering feedback and interaction with our lecturer; Director Eric was perched in the back; refreshments were provided; and if I'm not mistaken, our much beloved Rodger was wearing a dapper red train tie.

Fun fact from Lecture #1: the construction of the original "Southbound Railroad" running from Charleston to Hamburg - built to capture the cotton trade heading down the Savannah River - cost about $950,000 in 1830s dollars to build. Playing with various currency inflation converters will get you an equivalent of approximately $28 million in today's value. And the original track began to require extensive repairs within a few years of construction. Oh, what we could do with that money around here!

See you at tonight's lecture - trains from the Civil War to 1900.

Path to the Stacks

Or, Wait, I Can Do What With My Degree?

Graduate school at a large research university exposes one to the peculiar variety of faculty temperaments found at an institution where the phrase “publish or perish” is bandied about over coffee. On the one hand, it brings in excellent faculty, trotting around waving their Ivy league doctorates, their prestigious awards, fellowships, committees, obligations, and, in a few cases, demanding entourages. There’s the group that loves to research their field, and resent having to teach at all. There’s the group who loves to teach, and is annoyed by the pressure to publish profusely or be replaced. And largely, there’s a group trying frantically to balance it all and have a real life, too, you know, one with a mortgage and kids and a lawn to mow and maybe the time to see a movie once in a while.

In the perfect world, grad students are expertly trained in their field of study and properly prepared for a career path, whatever the path may be in their chosen field. Choosing a career path is dependent on student motivation, and also on advisor willingness to make the student aware of options they may be overlooking. And this particular balance has been the subject of freak-outs by those in the archival profession for decades. Research and presentations on the subject of archival awareness and training date back at least 40 years in the trade journals, such as the Journal of American Archivists. Who are these students? How many are there? Are there enough to support and expand the field as people retire? Are they getting the right education to be ready for employment without too much investment on the part of their employers? Do they even know that the archival profession exists and is a viable option? How do we recruit more? Etc.

If (sigh) only (alas) those were the problems nowadays. Budget cuts have closed archival training programs at major universities (and for that matter, at least one also suspended its history teaching & certification program, creating a history-major crisis among students and setting the stage for an entirely new set of problems in the future [No history teachers!]). Archives themselves have been the subject of enormous cuts across the country. Some close, some dissolve, some are “restructured” into nonexistence or folded into sister institutions or libraries that are also facing red tape. Now the opposite problems face the archival profession – too many cuts, not enough money, a too-tight job market, no hope, general despair, and the concerning problem of what will happen to these priceless documents if all the archives are gone.

Trains, Planes, and - no, just Trains

Just a reminder - if you're going to the 2010 Railroad Lecture Series beginning Wednesday, January 20th, registration starts at 4:45 pm at the Archives. See you there!

Where's MY Quill Pen?

I ran across this today among our online petitions. Now, this is only a couple of pages from a Nov. 1860 petition from the parish of 'St. John's Berkeley' about reestablishing an old road, but the cool thing is the scribe is, it appears, a leftie, which you don't see much of back in the day. Can you tell who's right- or left-handed?

I Love Me A Good Railroad

Trains are fun. They're cool. They're old, they're new, they're antiques and modern at the same time. You've got light-rails, you've got coal-burning monstrosities in museums. My father likes trains because as a child, he would sit on a fence by the tracks and watch them go by. I like them because they're an economical way of transporting goods. And yes, riding in an open car on a coal-powered train is truly a filthy experience: soot everywhere. Once you have that experience, you understand why people wore travelling clothes.

The SC Archive and History Foundation is holding a lecture series here at the archives on trains, and it promises to be fascinating. Plus, I've heard you get a reproduction 1827 map (ok, it's actually here on a table behind me). Looks pretty spiffy, train routes and all. Yes, spiffy.

You can see the schedule and topics - orphan trains, anyone? - and register for the Railroad Lecture Series at the Foundation site!