Celebrating Archives Month

Did you know that October is National Archives Month? South Carolina Archives have lots of great events and exhibits planned and we hope you'll join us in celebrating the wonderful treasures we preserve! The theme this year, Documents Can Change a Nation, focuses on the importance of the records archives have. We don't just have paper, we have records that resonate and mark significant state and national historical events! We encourage you to visit our 2010 Archives Month website for all the latest event and exhibit happenings in South Carolina. http://scarchivesmonth.palmettohistory.org

Dinner on Wheels

Remember that train lecture series presented at the Archives in January and February? It concluded with a real dinner on a real dining car (although the food was catered, because the actual dining car has problems with lead in the kitchen). Behold, some photos from the event - and the sharp-looking fellow in the hat is lecturer Rodger Stroup:

Go see Richard tell 'em how it's done.

Are you interested in archives, library and information science, or just wondering how we keep track of it all here? You might be interested in this upcoming talk given by our own Richard Harris on the USC campus March 22!

Dr. Jennifer Marshall's SLIS 750: Information and Records Management and the Archival Students Guild will be hosting a guest speaker!

Who: Richard Harris, Manager of Records Services at the South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History

Topic: Administering/managing a records management program for state agencies and local governments, including SCDAH’s electronic records management activities.

When: Monday, March 22 at 5:00 pm

Where: Room 112 in Davis College

Everyone is welcome! Come join us!

Light refreshments will be provided!

Sorry, We Left the TP on the Tracks in Gainsville

Queen Victoria saw her first train in 1836. What does that have to do with South Carolina's history? That's an excellent question for some grad student who needs a thesis topic.

Tomorrow's lecture at the archives starts at 5:30pm. Topics include the development of railroad stations (hey, we couldn't ride nonstop like cattle forever, and someone's got to take care of the train), logging and phosphate railroads (mmm, phosphates, so tasty...), and the Piedmont and Northern railroads.

Come one, come all, get munchies beforehand, and if you missed last week's discussion on when exactly real toilets became standard equipment on trains (the 1970s; prior to that date, think outhouse dropping onto the tracks), you missed a seriously ripe reality check.

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.

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!

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!