American Bike Month By Caleb Miller

In the month of May, Americans celebrate Bike Month and bike-riding is encouraged. This vehicle is an alternate form of transportation. The first bicycle made its debut in 1817. During the 1870s the first bike to actually be called a bicycle, the high-bicycle, was used. The safety bicycle, the start of our modern bicycles, was successfully created in 1885. Ever since that invention, the bicycle has been used widely. In Portland, Oregon, more people bike to work than just about any other city in the US. Today is bike-to-work day, would you ever consider biking instead of driving? The League of American Bicyclists is the official sponsor of the event. Go out and enjoy this basic two-wheeled vehicle. It is good for exercise and is fun to ride. You can work out your legs, lungs, and heart to a huge degree. There are bike trails all throughout the state. Some trails are hard-core, such as the Swamp Fox Passage of Palmetto Trail in Charleston or others are for leisure enjoyment.

Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

May is Preservation Month

Many good causes have a day, a week, or even a month, to raise awareness and celebrate accomplishments. Those who love old buildings, neighborhoods, and downtowns, and work to save the places that matter to them have Preservation Month in May. What a fitting time, with new growth and life all around us during spring, to celebrate the new life and rejuvenation that historic preservation projects can bring to communities. (May is also Mental Health Month....maybe you sometimes need to be a little crazy to try and save historic places.) Preservation is about the past, but first and foremost it is about the present and future, providing folks today with creative and unique places to live, work, worship, and relax, and giving future generations those same opportunities.

The theme for Preservation Month this year is Celebrating America’s Treasures. Here in South Carolina, the State Historic Preservation Office created a poster that features some of South Carolina’s very own treasures that have been recognized as National Historic Landmarks. The poster can be viewed online at http://shpo.sc.gov/. (For more information about NHLs see http://www.nps.gov/history/nhl/.)

So during this most beautiful of months, remember Preservation Month. Take a moment to look around your community to see its historic treasures…both the diamonds in the rough that may need some repairs, and those that are sparkling and well-cared for. Thank those owners and leaders who are dedicated to the good stewardship of these treasures. We are all the richer for their presence…the buildings and the people who care for them.

Civil War Era Currency Auction

The South Carolina Department of Archives and History is auctioning, in sealed bid format, 317 lots of obsolete currency during the month of May. The Archives had 40 boxes worth of currency (now down to about 36 boxes) dating from the 1820's through the 1860's, all of which was issued by The Bank of the State of South Carlina; the bundles were sealed in 1880 when people redeemed the notes for state bonds, and we have recently started opening the bundles and selling many of the notes at public auction. This auction includes fractionals and whole-dollar notes of every denomination, as well as plate sets, similar note sets, and even uncut sheets, on the back of which are whole railroad bond notes. One $1 note is signed by Confederate General and SC Governor Wade Hampton, and some notes were previously unknown to the numismatic community. All of the proceeds will go to preservation efforts (storage and equipment, non-acidic document folders, etc.); it's a great gift for the agency to have during a budget crisis.

You can check out all the auction details on our website http://www.palmettohistory.org/currencyauction/index.html which includes a PDF file of the entire catalog with color images of every lot being sold. Anyone planning to be in the Columbia area on May 3 and/or May 26 should stop by the SCDAH to actually see the notes live (more details in the catalog), but most bidders will likely use the catalog as their only guide.


Happy Bidding!!!


Written by Craig Glass, SCDAH volunteer and currency auction project team member

Fort Sumter Remembered by Caleb Miller

On April 12th, the battle of Fort Sumter started. This 34-hour battle was the first battle of the Civil War. This fort was a valuable asset, due to its location in the Charleston Harbor. A group of Union soldiers, led by Major Robert Anderson, were stationed at the fort. Confederate forces fired on the fort from all around the harbor, with Union troops returning the fire as best as they could. Surprisingly, there were no fatalities during this huge bombardment. After the long fight, Anderson finally surrendered the fort. The North was enraged at the attack and the country went into all out war. Thus, the attack was not only the first battle but also a catalyst for creating a war. There had been tensions mounting before this but the Fort Sumter attack sent everyone into battle mode. Fort Sumter serves as a monument to the valor of soldiers on both sides of the Civil War and remains a major tourist attraction today.

Editor's Note: April 12, 2011 is the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War and the nation is engaged in commemoration events until 2015. I encourage you all to visit exhibits, tours, and lectures to soak up history! Come visit the Archives and see documents leading up to the war including the Ordinance of Secession and research South Carolina's role in the war.

St. Patrick's Day By Caleb Miller

Every year on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in many countries throughout the world This holiday honors Saint Patrick, the most recognized of Ireland's patron saints. Saint Patrick worked as a bishop in Ireland and was a key figure in bringing Christianity to the island country. The holiday started as a Catholic holiday in the 17th century and was taken around the world by Irish immigrants. Nowadays both Irish and non-Irish celebrate it. Traditionally, people wear green during the event. Those who do not wear it are teasingly pinched for not doing so. Our state of South Carolina has its own notable way of making its name in the holiday. The fountain in the area known as Five Points is dyed green. This year the parade will be held on the 19th in Columbia since it is the closest Saturday to the actual holiday. Happy Saint Patrick's Day all ye people out there! Hope to see ye at the parade!

South Carolina’s New Deal Murals

By: Anjuli Grantham, Graduate Assistant

African American laborers deftly pick cotton in a river of soft white, a cloudy blue sky above and peach trees in the rolling hills in the distance. A robust woman holds up her right hand, encouraging the workers, accordion player, and grandmother and child to her right, as she claws at a thief, a prisoner, and a crooked politician with her left hand. Camels carry bags of cotton along a winding road, and donkeys lead carriages laden with white bags. These are descriptions of only some of the extant New Deal era murals within South Carolina. These murals depicted the nobility of ordinary laborers and the state’s predominately agricultural economy that was a point of pride in the early 20th century.

A quick survey revealed that at least 12 murals or reliefs of the 16 commissioned in South Carolina still grace the walls of post offices, private offices and residences. Recently, the Greer Post Office, now the home of the Greer Heritage Museum, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This Colonial Revival post office was completed in 1935. Artist Winfield Walkely created the mural “Cotton and Peach Growing” in 1941, under a commission with the Section of Fine Arts of the Department of Treasury. This mural, the first described above and pictured here, depicts what was envisioned then as an idyllic scene of rural, Southern life. The Greer Post Office joins other National Register-listed properties that contain New Deal murals. These are the U.S. Courthouse in Aiken, Bamberg Post Office with “Cotton the World Over” by Dorothea Mierisch (see below), and Clemson University’s Hardin Hall with “Meeting of the Original Directors of Clemson College” by John Carroll.

While today the murals are prized pieces of South Carolina’s social, artistic and architectural history, the creation of the murals was not always welcomed by citizens in the 1930s and 1940s. For example, Stefan Hirsch’s “Justice as Protector and Avenger” in the Charles E. Simmons, Jr. Federal Court House in Aiken was the cause of public outrage. The bold use of shape and color echoed stylistic elements of the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. The strong angles and contrasting colors led presiding Judge Frank K. Myers to derisively call it “contemporary art.” But it wasn’t just the modern appearance that made citizens upset, it was the figure of Justice herself. Some believed that she was bi-racial, which was not considered to be in keeping with the “Southern conception of art.” Even though the artist denied that the figure was bi-racial, this un-vanilla representation of Justice in Jim Crow South Carolina was enough for the judge to hang curtains over the mural. Since then, the mural has remained obscured, since it is viewed as being a courtroom distraction.

Happy President's Day

Happy President's Day! Did you know that the SC Department of Archives and History is a great resource for Presidential history? Not only do the collections have items relating to elections and government, there are more than 20 Presidential signatures. Here is a great example of these wonderful collection items: Return of the Presidential Electors Casting Their Vote for George Washington, 1789.